Meet Sofia Saenz, Grigori Arakelyan, Sophia Moritz & Jacob Robleto | Founders of ChoCoLA (Choreographer Collection Los Angeles)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sofia Saenz, Grigori Arakelyan, Sophia Moritz & Jacob Robleto and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sofia Saenz, Grigori Arakelyan, Sophia Moritz & Jacob Robleto, what do you want people to remember about you?
Since this is just the beginning of our journey we have many many dreams and visions of where we want to take our new organization, ChoCoLA (Choreographer Collection Los Angeles), and what we want our legacy to be. We want ChoCoLA to be remembered and known as an encouraging community of choreographers who uplift one another and who provide a space for them to flourish in their artistic journey. That we are a passionate group of creative thinkers and provide opportunities for continuous learning and growth. Whether you are an established choreographer or just emerging, you feel like you have a supportive space and community to continue to create and share your work with the world.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
All four of us founders of ChoCoLA have all had very different careers and ties to the dance world, each bringing a different persepctive to our new organization. What we all have in common is our extreme passion for the artform as well as wanting to foster and environment where choreographers get the recognition and respect they deserve. ChoCoLA to develop a performance collective that encourages choreographers to take a leap into their artistic process with a creative and engaging community to support their journey. The idea for ChoCoLA was formed in a small dance studio in Pasadena after we left a rehearsal, wanting to workshop our choreography and receive feedback from fellow choreographers. Ultimately, our idea was to have an end goal of showcasing the piece to an open and supportive audience. After looking around and asking fellow choreographers, we discovered that there are not many opportunities for choreographers to workshop their material, receive feedback and network within the Los Angeles dance community. It was then that ChoCoLA began to find its structure and vision. We are now a community of choreographers who encourage dancers and choreographers to share their artistry with the world and uplift their creative process. Through different platforms, choreographers, both up and coming or established, have the chance to showcase their work to a live audience, gain exposure, network, and workshop their materials all through ChoCoLA. Another reason we founded ChoCoLA is that we recognize that sharing your work with the world or even a small live audience can be a thrilling but sometimes nerve wracking experience. A big aspect of building this community is to cultivate a space where one can feel comfortable and supported, and we are here to help them take a leap towards the inspiring artist they want to be. After a very exciting launch last Spring, we are now coming up on our inaugural showcase ChoCoLA 2023 with fiscal sponsorship from ArtistsPlus Productions. Taking place at LA Dance Project on October 7th, we are thrilled to be launching this annual showcase with 10 amazing choreographers each presenting an original work.

We are just at the beginning of ChoCoLA’s journey and cannot wait to watch it grow with each dancer and choreographer who joins our community.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Everyone at ChoCoLA will all say if you are visiting LA to experience the arts! We recommend spending a day walking around the arts corridor on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. You can spend the morning at The Music Center, which offers free tours of its iconic buildings and then mosey down toward the Broad and MOCA for an afternoon of visual art. Plus it is always a good idea to stop at Grand Central Market for lunch!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would like to give a HUGE shoutout and thank you to Diane DeFranco Browne, Emma Andres, ArtistsPlus Productions and Pasadena Civic Ballet who have all been so amazing in helping to get ChoCoLA from a dream to reality. Diane has really been an encouraging and inspiring mentor to us as we molded our vision as an organization and taken our first steps into producing our showcase. We definitely could not have done it without her!
Emma Andres has been with us from the start brainstorming, creating and workshopping ideas. We are incredibly thankful to her for guiding us and inspiring us through this process. She is also one of our choreographers for ChoCoLA 2023 and it has been a thrilling journey watching her create.
We would like to express our immense gratitude to Artists Plus Productions and Pasadena Civic Ballet for their supportive role in our journey and providing us with the recourses and guidance that has shaped our organization into what it is today.

Website: https://www.chocolosangeles.org

Instagram: @cho.co.la_

Image Credits
Joseph Keller & Melissa O’Gara