- about -
Photo by Bill Cameron, 2019
MAGNOLIA YANG SAO YIA (she/her) is the daughter of HMoob refugees and a former undocumented immigrant. She was raised on lands first stewarded by Anishinaabe and Dakota peoples (Metro Detroit, MI, and Twin Cities, MN), and currently lives and works in Tovaangar (Los Angeles).
She is a dance scholar and artist, and yoga instructor. In 2026, she earned her Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). She has a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Asian American Studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Currently, she is a lecturer at Loyola Marymount University, and teaches yoga at One Down Dog and YogaSix.
SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
Magnolia is an interdisciplinary scholar who researches at the intersection of critical dance studies, Hmong American studies, and critical refugee studies. Her dissertation, Hmong Dance in the U.S. Diaspora: Towards Critical Hmong Self-Determination, is a feminist interdisciplinary study of late 20th- and 21st-century Hmong American dance practices that examines how global and historical structures of power impact Hmong American identity formation. It explores how Hmong Americans both internalize and contest colonial and imperial knowledge in their ongoing efforts towards self-determination.
DANCING & MAKING
Magnolia is a dance theater choreographer who works to activate dancers’ bodily histories and knowledges, including her own, on stage (the stage as an expansive term). Her work ranges from self-performed solo works and ensemble works and often centers the Hmong American woman subject as the site of feminist inquiry and critique. Her choreographic methodology is influenced by Dr. Ananya Chatterjea’s social justice methodology of dance theater making, and informed by her performance experience and cultural activist work as a dance company member of Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) for six seasons. Magnolia has presented her work at PiYoDa Flow, 20 FT BEAR STUDIOS, and FRANKIE in Los Angeles, Axis Lab in Chicago, and more widely in Minnesota such as the Walker Art Center, Cowles Center, Carleton College, TU Dance School, Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and Pillsbury House + Theater, to name a few. Although trained in many dance forms and techniques, Magnolia primarily moves in Yorchha™ (ADT’s contemporary dance technique), House dance, and modern dance techniques and aesthetics.
IG: magnoliaysy | Vimeo
