HIGHLIGHT
I love Facebook's mission: to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Infinite Flow was born out of Facebook, and we have continuously grown our community and engagement much through the Facebook platform. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work directly with Facebook through a few initiatives: Community Voices from Facebook, Facebook Accessibility Design Summit, Oculus VR for Good, Facebook Community Leadership Program, and Facebook Reality Labs Diversity & Inclusion Summit. Very honored to meet my woman crush and one of my role models Sheryl Sandberg along the way too - Thank you Sheryl for all you represent for women leaders and trauma survivors. Thank you, Facebook for being part of my journey.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook
Founder Lean In & Option B - Shoutouts
Earlier this week I got to meet Marisa Hamamoto and Piotr Iwanicki, two dance partners – and dance heroes. Marisa...
Posted by Sheryl Sandberg on Thursday, May 17, 2018
Ever heard of a wheelchair dance group? It exists – and the story behind it is incredible. Marisa Hamamoto was in dance class in 2006 when she had a stroke and became paralyzed from the neck down. Miraculously, she started walking and eventually dancing again. She knew she was lucky – and decided it was her destiny to start a wheelchair dance group. Marisa reached out to her first dance partner Adelfo through Facebook Messenger after looking for paraplegic athletes in LA. They started Infinite Flow - A Wheelchair Dance Company together – the first professional wheelchair ballroom dance company in the US. Marisa says she loves dancing because it’s a universal language that all people understand, no matter what they look like or what their abilities. I couldn’t agree more.
Posted by Sheryl Sandberg on Saturday, January 6, 2018
Facebook Accessibility Summit
I had the honor to speak and perform at the Facebook HQ Accessibility Design Summit in front of 150 Facebook Designers & Engineers Thurs May 16, 2019 for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a day to get get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access and inclusion. I’m still processing everything I heard and learned, but here are a few takeaways:
Accessibility is a human right.
Good design enables, bad design disables.
Improving on accessibility leads to innovation and helps humanity as a whole = Universal design.
Accessibility leads to creating spaces of belonging and it’s an ongoing conversation. Accessibility is multidimensional: visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, new to tech, generational...
As founder of Infinite Flow - An Inclusive Dance Company I had touched on accessibility in many areas, but there was so much more to learn and improve upon. My talk centered around not underestimating the impact accessibility can lead to. Facebook has shaped my career and birthed Infinite Flow. Thank you to wheelchair dancesport world champion and my partner in crime Piotr Iwanicki for contributing with me. Thank you Facebook for continuing to be a cheerleader of my work. I’m committed to taking action and contributing to the conversation of accessibility and inclusion.
Facebook Community Leadership Program
The Facebook Community Leadership Program is a new initiative implemented October 2018, giving leaders around the world the support, tools, funding and the belief in themselves that they need to best lead their communities. I was selected as 1 of 115 leaders from 46 countries, out of over 6000 applicants worldwide. See the list of the other amazing leaders selected for this program HERE.
Community Voices from Facebook
The Community Voices from Facebook short documentary series celebrates how people are bringing the world closer together through the Facebook platform. One video is shown each week at the employee wide meeting led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and select few are posted online. COO Sheryl Sandberg shared our video segment on her Facebook Timeline and our segment has also been playing on loop at Facebook office reception centers globally. Thank you Facebook for scouting us among billions of stories.
Behind the scenes with the amazing storytellers of Only Today: Raymond Tsang, Zippy Etzel, Zac Arenas, and Joyce Tsang (not pictured)
Visiting Facebook HQ with our producer.
Oculus VR for Good
Creators Lab from Oculus VR for Good pairs rising filmmakers with nonprofits to use the power of VR to tell stories and help people around the world better understand each other. Through VR, Oculus aims to bring greater awareness to the challenges people face globally.
Infinite Flow was chosen as 1 of 10 worldwide social good causes to partner in the Creators Lab cohort #2. With VR filmmaker Jessica Kantor, we created “Together As One”. The VR film is available for free via the Oculus Video app on Rift, Oculus Go, and Gear VR.
"Together As One invites its audience to experience the journey of inclusion, featuring a diverse company of mixed abled dancers. Starting with the imagination of a young boy and girl who sit alone in a theatre watching a pair of dancers, the children’s imagination comes to life through animation and performance. The lights come up and two dancers meet. It’s awkward, and they struggle. Being a part of this world doesn’t exist without hard work and struggle. As the duo feels more comfortable, they begin attempting harder lifts. A company of dancers join them as the performance crescendos to a moment of explosive applause. We see dance brought to life through the community created on stage."
Infinite Flow's pro troupe
With filmmaker Jess Kantor
Entire cast
MoCap at Technicolor
Facebook Reality Labs Diversity & Inclusion Summit
Like most events during the 2020 pandemic, Facebook moved its in-person events and meetings to a virtual setting. Infinite Flow Dance was a nonprofit partner for Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab a couple of years ago. As the opening to the Facebook Reality Labs Diversity & Summit, I was interviewed by Brenden Gilbert, Data Center Production Operations Engineer at Facebook. Brenden, who is deaf, is experimenting with spatial captions, and together we discussed the impact of AR/VR on people with disabilities and beyond.
