The Big Apple, well known for tourist attractions like Central Park, Times Square, and the Empire State Building is also a mecca for artistic talent. You don’t need to visit the MET or the Guggenheim to immerse yourself, peruse some of New York’s neighbourhoods and you just may have an unexpected encounter with the creative influence of Xenoduo.
“It’s a creative collective we established in 2017,” says Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre a choreographer, director, educator, and performer from Caracas, Venezuela. “We create installations and performance projects exploring diasporic imagination, future folklore, and the nuanced art of cross-cultural and transatlantic homemaking”.
Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre and Xinan Ran in their performance platform – A Mobile Home
His partner in Xenoduo is Xinan Ran, a visual artist and designer from Inner Mongolia, China. If you wandered into Sunset Park or Union Square last year you may have come across one of their works – A Mobile Home. Resembling an emergency shelter tent that served as both a sculpture and an immersive performance stage, the piece draws attention to the complex U.S. immigration process, offering a literal and metaphorical entry point into the current migrant crisis.
“The project addressed the emotional and bureaucratic weight of the immigration processes,” says Ran. “Bureaucratic language has a great impact on how we tell ourselves our own stories of arrival and departure. We wanted to challenge that and bolster the agency we have as humans to tell our stories in our own terms.”
The pair come from different hemispheres on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean, a geographic chasm too vast to bridge with blind luck. To connect these artistic savants, it would take a shared passion and determination, along with an invitation to the shores of Pedder Bay and the traditional territory of the SC’IȺNEW̱ Nation.
Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre (PC38 – 2013) is the Opera Directing Fellow at the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at the Juilliard School and holds a bachelor’s degree in dance and Theatre from Middlebury College and a Master’s in Choreography and Performance from Smith College.
“Pearson wasn’t just the place where we met,” says Le Maitre. “It was the beginning of our understanding that art, dialogue, and community can be powerful tools for change.”
“Being immersed in such a diverse, intentional environment at a formative age shaped how we see the world and how we collaborate,” adds Ran. “It taught us to hold space for complexity, to question systems, and to center empathy and responsibility in everything we do.”
The pair indulged in the standard Pearson experiences, the long conversations stretching into the early morning, the joy of making things together—performances, exhibitions, shared meals, and spontaneous rituals. In a UWC environment with a heavy academic focus it was the experiential component that resonated most deeply for both Ran and Le Maitre.
“The theater program was transformative for me,” says Le Maitre. I vividly remember a stage show by my classmates Laughlin McKinnon and Derek Mitchell (one of the funniest comedians out there and a total star) that got the audience to stand up and scream ‘I am tired of this, and I can’t stand it anymore’. It felt powerful to scream at the top of my lungs that I was tired of injustice and for it to be in a performative setting made something click for me. We created universes in that Max Bell Theatre, and I will always carry those traces with me.”
Xinan Ran (PC38 – 2013) holds a bachelor’s degree from Pratt Institute and a Master’s from Hunter College and has been working with various arts councils and foundations throughout the New York area.
“The art studio became a space of discovery,” says Ran. “I spent countless hours there, experimenting freely with materials and learning to paint, all while looking out at the stunning view of Pedder Bay.”
It was a springboard into a world they now walk together. Last year Le Maitre was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. Ran’s work has been described as “Highbrow and Brilliant” by New York Magazine and the duo were featured in the New York based culture publication Impulse Magazine (impulse magazine Xenoduo). Their list of achievements and collaborations is extensive, yet their work remains rooted in humility and empathy.
“The values we encountered at Pearson—peace, sustainability, intercultural understanding—continue to inform our work,” says Ran. “Pearson showed us the interconnectivity of the world in the flesh. Newspaper headlines were no longer just words on a page—they became the stories of our roommates, our friends, our teachers, and their families.”
“Pearson was a place where big questions were taken seriously, where curiosity met care, and where difference was not just acknowledged but deeply valued,” adds Le Maitre.
They both carry vivid memories of the marine science program and specifically the influence of teacher Laura Verhegge and her deep devotion to the ocean. Ran’s recent show at Essex Flowers included hand-painted maps of the Arctic on silk—works that recall the maps they studied at Pearson.
“I’d even venture that our shared sense of wonder traces back to those field trips around Vancouver Island,” says Ran. “The night swims in bioluminescent waters are just one of the experiences that left an imprint far deeper than we understood at the time.”