founder + creative Director • CONGRESSperformer • SHEN WEIcurator • DESERTRADEeducator • THE JOFFREY BALLET SCHOOLEastern and Western movement traditions, philosophical observation and the proletariat experience define Zak’s presence of being, technique, and language. Spirituality and the natural world motivate his understanding, where mortal repetition and shifting layers equate performance with a living series of cascading epiphanies.
Zak’s choreographic work has been presented from The Juilliard School in NYC to Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. He is the official recipient of the New Century Dance Project 2022 Choreography Award Grand Prize Honor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his film “In Beauty It Is Unfinished” is an official selection of The Athens International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and recently won the Knight Foundation award at the Miami Film Festival. The New York Times calls him “a star” & Wall Street Journal “eye-catching & effortless”.
Zak is a native New Mexican of Mestizo Mexican, Apache, German descent. Straddling identities and belonging, cross cultural exchange and integration are at the seat of his mission. His leadership in performance, mentorship, curation, education, and collaboration is scored by inter-demographic dialogue, and building spaces/platforms for disparate voices to meet in conversation. Zak has spent his adulthood recovering and redefining his inheritance of horsemanship and land responsibility, most recently as caretaker, horse handler and groundsman for the New Mexico Horse Rescue at Walkin N Circles Ranch. Here he studied beneath Registered Vet Technician Ashley Snider and Lead Trainer Colton Smyth and was called to hybridize horsemanship and creative discipline. His mission is to live life as an offering to the home, land, animals and peoples who have come before him, are among him and will follow after him.
On stage, Zak has performed and toured globally as company member and soloist in Shen Wei Dance Arts, Italy’s Spellbound Contemporary Ballet led by Mauro Astolfi, Yin Yue Dance Company and Backhausdance on iconic stages from BAM, Art Basel Miami and Hong Kong to The Guggenheim, Asia Society in NY and Hong Kong, Arcosanti’s FORM Festival, and LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in collaboration with the LA Philharmonic. He has created an evening length, experiential sound bath “Liminal” with Jonsi and Alex Somers of Sigur Ros, and has danced the works of Jean-Guilliame Weiss, Ryan Heffington with associate Ryan Spencer, Mandy Moore with associates Jillian Meyers & Megan Lawson, Michael Rooney, Nina McNeely, Jennifer Backhaus, Denna Thomsen, JA, Lisa Eaton and Josie Walsh. He received formative training from Rafael Bonachela at Sydney Dance Company, Danielle Agami, Lucas Crandall, has participated in Gaga research with Ohad Naharin in Tel Aviv, Israel and holds a BFA from Chapman University.
Commercially, Zak can be seen in Ryan Heffington’s Emmy award-winning choreographic work for HBO series Euphoria directed by Sam Levinson starring Zendaya, the feature film Babylon, directed by Damien Chazelle starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, The Weeknd’s highly polarizing HBO series The Idol starring Lily-Rose Depp and is the featured artist in Lexus’ L5 campaign. He has worked with directors Damien Chazelle, Sam Levinson, Jon Watts, Edgar Wright, Jonus Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Floria Sigismondi, Amy Seimetz, Sebastian Strasser, Ryan Heffington, Nina McNeely, Dugan O’Neal, Kitty McNamee, Greko Sklavounos, Eliot Lee Hazel, WIFE, Lita Albuquerque and GMUNK.
Other collaborations include: The Weeknd, Sigur Ros, Britney Spears, Ry X, Lawrence Rothman, Years & Years, Peaches, MIKA, Ecko, Audrey Nula, Nova Wav, Fitz and the Tantrums, Japanese Breakfast, Lawrence Rothman, The Pierces, Sam Sparro, Vogue Italia, FLAUNT and OUT magazine, Lexus, Toyota, Ford, Squarespace, Amazon Prime, Sleep Number, Tedx, The Getty, Milk and FIDM in multiple genres and platforms from film/television, music videos, live stage performances, commercial campaigns and print editorials.
