Qadim is a word found in both Arabic and Hebrew meaning “ancient” as well as “that which will come.” The Qadim Ensemble, led by multi-instrumentalist Eliyahu Sills, has a repertoire that includes Arabic, Jewish, Turkish Sufi, Hebrew-Yemenite, Armenian, Greek, Ladino and Moroccan music.

Miriam Peretz is an internationally celebrated dance instructor and performer. Her work draws heavily on sacred dances from around the world, Central Asian dance, devotional Sufi whirling and ritual. Peretz has been a principal dancer with Inbal Ethnic Dance Theater (Tel Aviv), Wan Chao Chang Dance Company (Bay Area), and Aywah (Bay Area). Peretz was principal dancer, choreographer, and lead instructor with Ballet Afsaneh for over a decade.

Based in Oakland, CA, percussionist Robert "Bobby" Wallace has performed in the USA and internationally with Bonnie Raitt, Airto Moreira, Bobi Céspedes, David Rudder, John Santos and Margareth Menezes. His training includes study of traditional Ewe music at the University of Ghana in Legon, Ghana, and immersive drumming education in Rio de Janeiro, Olinda and Salvador, Brazil. Wallace is currently the Executive Director or Total Rhythm School of World Percussion, located in Alameda, CA, and leads international rhythm adventures to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Columbia.

A Bay Area native, Antoine Hunter is an award-winning internationally known African American Deaf choreographer, dancer, instructor, speaker and Deaf advocate who performs throughout the Bay Area and the world including Europe, Africa and South America. He is former president of Bay Area Black Deaf Advocates and Director-at-Large for Northern California Association of the Deaf. Hunter actively supports DeafHope, an organization whose mission is to end domestic and sexual violence in Deaf communities through empowerment and education. He teaches dance and ASL in both Hearing and Deaf communities, and is the founder/artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company. Since 2013, Hunter has been producing the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival, which was awarded an Isadora Duncan (Izzie) Award in 2018. His projects have been awarded funding by CA$H Theater Bay Area, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, California Arts Council and SF Arts Commission.

A San Francisco native and Deaf from birth, Zahna Simon is a professional dancer, chemist, avid health nutritionist, researcher, ASL performance consultant, Deaf advocate and Deaf interpreter. She is a former chemist by day at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and dancer by night at various Dance companies in San Diego including being featured in KPBS TV and Radio special "Deaf Dancer Performs in Trolley Dances. Simon is now the Assistant Director for both Urban Jazz Dance Company and the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival under Antoine Hunter, Founder and Director, and a full time office manager at a small Fiduciary Office in San Francisco.

Leah Mendelson is a native of Israel, a traveler and explorer of arts and the world. Her artistic vision is one of communication, both verbal and non-verbal, and it has brought her to visit many countries and explore cities all over the world. Mendelson has from an early age been an ambassador for the Deaf, speaking to the press as a young dancer in the Bat-Kol dance group for Deaf and hearing youth dancers, lecturing in schools and conferences to raise awareness for the Deaf community in Israel, where she grew up, and simply in her way, everyday, ready to communicate and connect. All the varied and rich experiences- majority in dance in high school, as an actress in the Be'er Sheva Theatre, as a student of circus arts at Sandciel, as an avid swing dancer in Tel Aviv, have connected her to people through joy and movement. A significant part of this life process has been in the water as a certified Waterdance and Watsu therapist. The Urban Jazz Dance Company is a new and welcoming home for Mendelson—professional dance, joy, communicating with the audience and getting an important message out there.

Linda Steele II formally trained at Marin Ballet before receiving her BFA from Alonzo King LINES Ballet/Dominican University of California. She is very honored to have met and worked with amazing artists such as Alonzo King, Drew Jacoby, Maurice Causey, Gregory Dawson, Maurya Kerr's tinypistol, Sidra Bell, Katie Faulkner, Amy Seiwert LEVYdance and recently with My-Linh Le's Mud Water Theater, Inside Out Contemporary Ballet, Antoine Hunter, Labayen Dance/SF and Anandha Ray, among others. She has choreographed and performed abroad in Europe with Corina Kinnear, MADE in France and others.