Affex Dance
About
Affex Dance
Get to know us:
Introducing Affex Dance! ⁉️🧚♂️💪✨
We are a dance company based in your mind 🧠
No but seriously.
Affex got its name from a theory of Communication called the “Affection Exchange Theory”. This theory details how individuals form (and break) connections. The circular nature of the theory inspired the transcendent relationship between dancer and company.
Anyone can be a part of Affex dance. From anywhere.
We are mostly based in SoCal and have had one performance at the Ventura County Festival of Dance — but expect to see more soon.
Founded by two graduates of Communication Arts (@amanda.plllease and @kyra.karatsu) at UC Santa Barbara, our goal is to spark conversations about our dances.
About
Amanda Lizárraga
Director and Founder:
Amanda Lizárraga began her dance career at a parks and recreation center in Burbank, CA, where she studied the styles of Tap, Jazz, Ballet, and Neo-classical Folklorico for over 10 years. She began to teach classes at the center that raised her, all the while further exploring her dance roots. This exploration with artists like Sho Tyme and Sandra Dixon inspired her to pursue dance as more than recreational.
She went on to double - major in Communication and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2022-2024, and participated in the annual Fall Dance Concert, Spring Dance Concert, and Kinetic Lab. She was featured as the soloist in two original works titled “what it take to care” and “Indecision” by BFA majors Megha Ramachandran and Corinne Dummel, respectively. She premiered her first choreographic work “raíces en la cocina” in June 2024 and has continued creating since. Amanda defines herself not as a dancer, but as a mover and creator.
When she is not creating movement, you can usually catch her at a locally owned coffee shop spending all her money on cute drinks, or on the trail with all of her pups. Amanda is also a (slow) runner, so don’t ask her about the LA marathon unless you’re ready for a yap fest.
