Oakland's Carina Ho, SCI community's rising star

Carina Ho. Photo courtesy of Julia Wang

Five years removed from a very tragic vehicular accident that left her paralyzed, took her mother’s life and caused a traumatic brain injury to her step-father, Oakland’s Carina Ho dazzles us with “we sleep no more”, a haunting 7-minute long power chair ballet film choreographed and directed by Carina in collaboration with filmmaker William Tyner, dancers Jay Kern, Bonnie Lewkowicz, Judith Smith, Nils Jorgensen, and Cynthia Noonan, and cellist Isabelle Nichols.

Carina had been studying ballet since childhood. She’d branched out into contemporary, West African and belly dancing, all physically demanding forms. Now, a full-time manual wheelchair user, she found her calling at AXIS Dance Company that pairs able-bodied dancers and dancers with physical disabilities together in performances of contemporary works. She joined AXIS as an apprentice in 2016 and became a full-fledged company member a year later.

NorCal SCI’s co-founder, Franklin, first met Carina at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center where she underwent her spinal fusion surgery and rehab for a couple of months. The loss of her mother weighed heavily on the then 27-year-old aspiring artist but she has risen to incredible heights pursuing her passion for the arts and we can say one thing about Carina: there is an even brighter future ahead for the SCI community’s rising star.