Photography (above) by: Marius Shanzer
Nextodus Casting:
Where mastery of craft meets artistic vision, and where high-caliber talent embodies intricate storytelling
Welcome to NEXTODUS CASTING, redefining the art of casting by bridging the worlds of dance and acting. Specializing in dancers who act and actors who dance, we connect filmmakers with talented practitioners who embody their roles. Our curated roster features skilled dancers from our vibrant community, ensuring authentic performances.
We are expanding our focus to include musicians and bartenders who are also skilled actors, bringing unique talents to the screen. If you need a specific discipline not currently represented, we are committed to finding the perfect fit for your project.
If you are seeking talent for your film or video project or live event, reach out and let’s see if we can work together.
At NEXTODUS CASTING, we are not just casting talent; we are cultivating a movement that celebrates the artistry and versatility of performers.
We are expanding our focus to include musicians and bartenders who are also skilled actors, bringing unique talents to the screen. If you need a specific discipline not currently represented, we are committed to finding the perfect fit for your project.
If you are seeking talent for your film or video project or live event, reach out and let’s see if we can work together.
At NEXTODUS CASTING, we are not just casting talent; we are cultivating a movement that celebrates the artistry and versatility of performers.
Our Talent and Collaborators
Jessica Ho
Jessica is a multi-disciplinary movement artist. Her eclectic movement experience include Contemporary dance, Ballet, Traditional Malay, Chinese, Indian dance, Salsa, and Adage (an acrobatic form of partnering with overhead lifts). She also shares her movement insights to the world through Pilates, Gyrotonic and fitness training.
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Daria Meyer
Daria is multi-media artist and performer: actress, dancer, physical theater performer, singer song-writer, poet and immersive experience creator.
“My grand agenda is to create a second Renaissance in the arts: to awaken classical traditions and blend them with modern media, so that ancient wisdom and traditions can find new voice in contemporary art, and the art is enriched with the depth and meaning. And let’s make it all god damn playful.” |
Yurie Ono
Yurie is a dancer/choreographer born and raised in Japan. She started dancing at the age of four with ballet and her style changed to street dance when she joined the SIVA dance team at Obihiro University. Over the years, she continuously learned different styles such as street jazz, hip-hop, waacking and house. After moving to NYC in 2018, she began deepening her knowledge of street styles and exploring contemporary dance as a new art form. She achieved top 5 in the Fabulous Waacking Battle in 2023 and got top 16 multiple times in different dance battles in NYC. She is an artistic director of Umami Playground Dance Company and she directs theater pieces with different dance styles, some miming and acting.
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Ashleigh Awusie
Ashleigh is a Ghanaian-Panamanian writer, actress, educator from Harlem with a BA in Journalism from SUNY New Paltz and an MA in Acting from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in the UK. Some credits include original Screenplays/Plays: award-winning, Cake, solo play “Anansi” and series, Perfectly Demented. Stage: Danai Gurira's "Eclipsed," Berta in "Berta, Berta," “Shakespeare in the Boroughs” (Public Theater), “Dreamprints: A Conversation With Harriet Tubman” (Syracuse Stage), "Kasimir & Karoline" (London's Gate Theatre) Film/TV/Stunts: stunts in Grip’s “Ain’t Ok” music video, Boaz Yakin’s, Once Again (for the first time), Ray Smiling’s, Play This At My Funeral, stunts for The Wandering Earth 2 (2023), Naz & Maalik (SXSW, Netflix), BrainPOP X, Rebels That Built America (upcoming miniseries) Songwriting: international jingles & voiceovers. Ashleigh is currently filming a horror project, and working on the documentary and photo book, “Dreaming Back To You,” about her travels to the Volta region of Ghana to retrace her ailing father’s steps and meet his family for the first time.
"Be great! Create on purpose." @ash.awusie |
Chihiro Kobayashi
Since 2012, she has been training and performing with Akim Funk Buddha’s Bonsai Lab,perfecting her original experimental Urban / Hip-Hop dance styles with multiple traditional dance forms: Classical ballet, African, Japanese and Balinese. As Akim’s associate director and Principal Dancer, she helped develop new pieces, and performed in his shows at Blue Note, BAMcafé, Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri, Dance Parade NYC, Okeechobee music festival and at the Kennedy Center. Training under Akim also led her to win championships in the Experimental category in dance battles in Waacktopia in 2012, and House Dance International in 2014 and 2015.
Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Chihiro “Cute-Beat” encountered Hip-Hop culture and started performing at clubs and venues mainly in Yokohama and Tokyo. In 2008 she established her own dance class/crew, “dance-AHO-lic.” In 2011, she relocated to New York, where she finished a yearlong program at Broadway Dance Center. She had Future (E.O.F.) as mentor. She performs with dance company Freestyle Expression, funk band Days Of Wild, and the Japanese-themed improv comedy game show Batsu! at venues such as B. B. King ’ s, NYC’s the Bitter End, and the Montauk Music Festival. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chihirocutebeat |
Asha Flasha
Asha Flasha is a Flex Dance originator born and raised in NYC who began his dance journey while drumming for his mother’s African Dance classes. He then branched off into dance, studying African dance, and dancehall, Hip-Hop, then eventually specializing in the style of Bruk up and FlexN. Asha has danced on TV channel 67 Bcat which streams every Friday of the week. He also had the opportunity to tour in Munich, Germany, n performed at Basil Art Festival, also performed with Elton John for his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road’’ Tour. Choreographs dance for juveniles that were in Rikers and other detention centers around the boroughs of New York City, also teaches Hip-Hop Afro dance and Flexing for youth at several NYC public schools. |
Keith Irving aka Abstrak
(Bio coming soon) |
Akim of NEXTODUS CASTING was the specialized casting agent for dancers on the film Once Again by Boaz Yakin (winner of the Audience Award at the Tallinn Film Fest).