Yoli Alma-Flor (they/them) is a shapeshifter and re-indigenzing cornstalk living in the bay area (Ohlone land), from the border (Cahuilla, Cocopah, Kumeyaay land), with mixed-roots in central mexico: Nahua, Spanish & Re-Membering. They are equally rooted by IndigiQueer and Curandere community.

Their life is an ever-changing patchwork of devotional practices at the intersections of artmaking/ creation, performance, flowers, redwoods, mountains, chihuahuas, queer things, indigenous reclamation, embodiment, play, and healing. 

Yoli has a BA in Studio Art from Pomona College, a permaculture certificate through Soulflower Farm, and is an organizer at the Healing Clinic Collective (equally a student to the HCC’s ceremonial organizing framework). They are invested in their embodied research with the Land that they share in their art and “Theatre of Life” embodiment methodology (see below for more info).

Yoli Alma-Flor is an indigiqueer performance/interdisciplinary artist who is a descendant of the pain, pleasure & dreams of the "ombligo de la luna" (aka the Anáhuac/ México) and intertribal bearded mamas and dykes. They weave together choreographies, cosmologies, and art-as-medicine at the intersections of queer intimacy and Indigenous futurism.

In their creative practice, they use play, performance, improvisation, personas, and deep listening to animate worlds and cosmologies that make space for queer-trans ways of being. They are a steward of the healing ensemble/ performance troupe "Theatre of Life"/"Teatro De La Vida" where the roads of ancestral arts and healing practices meet performance art and experimental theatre. Yoli also shares and creates through digital media, writing, installations, live sculptures, herbal medicine, friendship, and other emergent forms.

Yoli’s art and art workshops have been hosted by DIY spaces, dance parties, retreat spaces,  Frieze LA, MASS MoCa, The Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Chan Gallery, and Pomona College’s Art Department as a guest lecturer. They have also been awarded residencies and grants through The Ghostlight Residency, The Golden Dome School, BAAIT’s, and Ma’s House.

Yoli Alma-Flor is an Embodiment Facilitator and Steward of Theatre of Life Embodiment.

What are the lineages of this approach to embodiment?

My approach to embodiment is informed by a reverent/ ceremonial and indigiqueer futurist approach to performance art, avante-garde theatre, and creative practice. My approach is shaped by Curandere and Two-Spirit/IndigiQueer lineages along with the guidance of the Guardians of the Land and Cosmos of Turtle Island (specifically within the unceded territories of the Tongva, Chumash, Cahuilla, and Ohlone). My approach is also a rainbow web of reverence to the beautiful people and beings playing, loving, and exchanging in solidarity for embodied liberation across tradition, tribe, and territory.

Why is this approach to the body important to our individual and collective healing?

Play is central to the transformation that is needed on this Earth that is deeply connected to the wisdom of our benevolent ancestors and guides. Play is a capsule to release the old stories that are rooted in our and others oppression. Play is a vehicle to imagine and live into ways of beings that are guided by joy, love, collective care, authenticity, and a full body invitation for all of us to be present.

How did Yoli find themself on this path?

As a wounded misfit, Yoli has been deeply severed from their body, intuition, and the Land because of personal trauma and systemic/colonial oppression. They have been guided by first teacher (the Land) and other-than-human-kin to a life they are grateful to have now. Along this journey, these relatives have directed Yoli to performance art, punk spaces, magic, herbalism, mindfulness, and IndigiQueer sanctuaries (aka IndigiQueer people…relationships are sanctuaries) to reconnect to the essence and joy of “being here” and “being alive”.

What is Theatre of Life Embodiment?

Theatre of Life Embodiment is devoted to a reverent/ceremonial approach to play, expression, and creation to nurture a flowering (free) world through our embodiment and imaginations. It is an altar to the practices, ideologies, and relationships that have grounded and shown Yoli what it really means to “be here”/present and embrace a joyful life. At the heart of Theatre of Life is the belief that joy and play, like the flowers, is a state of being and gift that we can cultivate through the evolution of our consciousness and by committing to our unique life purpose through the guidance and power of the Land, Ancestors, and by remembering our ancestral ways of being.