Gavino directs her project-based company Ani/MalayaWorks, an all-Filipino/Asian-American dance collective which began as a mother/daughter company founded in 2014. Gavino started the company as a way to teach her daughter about her ancestral lineage, pride, and legacy which are often muted when living abroad. Realizing that many first-generation Asian Americans relate to this disconnection to homelands and ownership of cultural identity, Gavino expanded her vision to merge community stories from the global majority as a way to garner solidarity. She uses dance, film, and theater as a storytelling mode to explore memories, spiritual journeys, and community-based decolonial art activism, she produced La Migra, Let’s Run (2014), Mujeres (2015), Patawili (2019) and this new work, Tagong Yaman (2022). She is a recipient of the 2021 Leeway Transformation Award, 2020 and 2019 Leeway Art for Social Change, Career Transition for Dancers, 2022 and 2020 MAPfund Grant recipient, National Performance Network, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Independence Public Media Film Fund, Scribe Video Center Planning and Finishing Grant and more. She has been supported by Movement Research at Judson Church, Painted Bride, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Dance Place. KYL/D Artist-in-residence and more. Dance career highlights include dancing with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Latin Ballet of Virginia, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, and Ananya Dance Theater. Anito writes for a dance publication, thINKing Dance, an MFA in Dance graduate from Hollins University, and is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Muhlenberg College. More information can be found at www.anigavino.com.
Si Anito ay isang katutubo ng Panay, at isinilang sa Maynila at lumaki sa kanyang probinsya, Iloilo. Siya ay nagtungo at nakipagsapalaran sa Estados Unidos taong dalawang libo (2000). Nakalipas ang panahon at nagtungo sa taong dalawang libo at labing apat (2014) kung saan siya'y napanatili sa Estados Unidos at sumayaw sa mga kumpanya katulad ng Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Latin Ballet of Virgina, KYL/D at Ananya Dance Theatre. Siya ay lumilikha ng mga sayaw upang mailabas ang kanyang saloobin sa pamamagitan ng pagsasadula. Siya rin ay gumawa ng isang grupo binubuo ng Pilipino at Asyanong-Amerikanong mananayaw at ipinangalan itong, AniMalayaWorks. Sila ay nagtatanghal sa pamamagitan ng iba't ibang estilo na may malalim na kahulugan at kwento tungkol sa pamilya, kultura, komunidad, buhay imigrante at reklamasyon. Sila ay nagtatanghal sa iba't ibang lugar katulad ng entablado, kalsada o museo kasama ang kanyang anak na si Malaya Ulan. Ginawaran siya ng Leeway Transformation Award noon 2021, Leeway Social Change Grant 2019 at 2020, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Scribe Video Center Planning and Finishing Grant, Independent Public Media Fund, MAPfund 2020 at MAPfund 2022 para sa kanyang bagong proyektong, Sinawali at Primx. Siya ay sinuportahan ng Painted Bride, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Barnes Foundation at marami pa. Siya rin ay isang profesora sa Muhlenberg College at Manunulat sa ThINKing Dance.