連翹奏/RenGyoSoh
Presents
UNFIX NYC 2021
creating an awareness of ecology through arts
at
UNFIX festival
Presents
UNFIX NYC 2021
creating an awareness of ecology through arts
at
UNFIX festival
with
Artists
Nurya Chana, Vanessa Skantze, Jacopo Tealdi,
Alana Rosa, Jacob Elkin & Robert Morton, Brandon Perdomo
Erika Hassan, Rachelle Dart, Vandellous (Frankie Mulinix), Roxane Revon, Saki Kawamura
Katherine Adamenko, (AKA Ladypants Production), Vertical Player Repertory (Judith Barnes), SANE
Zoe Katsilerou, Irena Romendik, Sonia Libre, Yuri Ogasawara,
Miles Butler & Annie McCoy, Night Multimedia Art, collectiveMVMT, Ren Gyo Soh
Nurya Chana, Vanessa Skantze, Jacopo Tealdi,
Alana Rosa, Jacob Elkin & Robert Morton, Brandon Perdomo
Erika Hassan, Rachelle Dart, Vandellous (Frankie Mulinix), Roxane Revon, Saki Kawamura
Katherine Adamenko, (AKA Ladypants Production), Vertical Player Repertory (Judith Barnes), SANE
Zoe Katsilerou, Irena Romendik, Sonia Libre, Yuri Ogasawara,
Miles Butler & Annie McCoy, Night Multimedia Art, collectiveMVMT, Ren Gyo Soh
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Technical Supervisor
Robin Dill |
Instagram Account
Zak Ma |
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Assistant Director/Graphic Designer/Assistant Producer
Saki Kawamura |
Live Streaming
Krzy Sien |
Producing Artistic Director
Yokko
Yokko
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GRATIDUTE TO UNFIX festival team
Director: Paul Michael Henry
Producer: Eilidh McLaughlin Programme Assistant: Ane Lopez Technical Director: Adam York Gregory Graphic Designer: Lucy Watkins Videographers: Jamie Wardrop and Brian Hartley PR and Marketing: Storytelling PR Director UNFIX Bologna: Yuri Dini Directors UNFIX Tokyo: Yuri Nagaoka and Seisaku |
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WHAT IS UNFIX NYC?
About: UNFIX NYC is a collaboration between UNFIX festival and Ren Gyo Soh. It has been held since 2016 in NYC. It is a festival of life performance, Dance, film, Installation, Workshop and debate that wants to unravel the knots in how we're living.
UNFIX NYC aims to raise ecological awareness through arts. What is 'ecology'? Ecology is the relations between all living beings on this planet, and its study. How we can live without destroying, harming, and hurting each other. The world is not a 'fix'ed place. The world is continuously changing; evolving; we are changing. Annually UNFIX NYC curates several artists in different genres and share each other's work to inspire, discuss, and think- what ART can DO.
NOTES FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
This is the 5th Season of UNFIX NYC: creating an awareness of ecology through arts. We are so grateful to be curated by the main festival UNFIX, and also honored to facilitate 20 works by 30 artists from 11 different countries through online this year. We are collaborating with not only UNFIX festival, but also UNFIX Bologna and UNFIX Tokyo, and blessed to have this opportunity in this time of our life. We hope this festival can be a seed of positive transformation for all beings, beginning of global collaborations.
- Yokko, the producing artistic director of UNFIX NYC
UNFIX NYC PROGRAM
Friday June 11, 3-4:30pm (NYC) Film & Conversation
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Sunflower
by Alana Rosa 
Sunflower fields are a tribute to life in a chaotic world. A poetic metaphor where body dance celebrates life even picturing death. Faced with this pandemic world, someway we should keep it up, growing beauty, poetry and dance wherever we are. A tribute of love, welcoming the humanity, the planet, the life.
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Give me your pain & sorrow
by Jacob Elkin & Robert Morton 
Give me your pain and sorrow was composed using digital feedback as a representation of the emotional trauma resulting from a year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Frustration at the inept response of government and the individual suffering which resulted are focal points of this work.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Alana Rosa is actress, performance artist, butoh dance, writer
Erika Fujyama is a Japanese-Brazilian marketer-turned-filmmaker, I dared to build my second career in NYC at the age of 50. As a guerilla-styled filmmaker I incorporate gadgets to DSLR cameras photographing, directing and editing fashion, art, music videos and short docs. In between gigs, I run marathons. Last year I was awarded as the best street photographer for Focus Brasil Award.
Jacob Elkin is a musician, composer and educator based in NYC. Through the integration of space, noise and microtonality, his compositions seek an abstract expression of contemporary concerns. His compositions have been heard around the world including recent performances in Moscow, London and Bucharest. Mr. Elkin is on faculty as brass instructor at the United Nations International School.
Robert Morton is happy to work with Jacob Elkin on Give Me Your Pain and Sorrow and is excited about sharing his video in Unfix 2021.
Bob collaborates with many artists to create contextual settings with photography, video, and interactive projections for live performances. New York City productions include: Voyage de Ouf, Dziewczyna, Satie’s Birthday Party, Folie Pure, Age of Pain(e), Coq tôt, Anna Strong’s Laundry, Voices of Justice and Consanguinity…, Un Lieu de Vie, 4 Wars, 1776 A Fresh Start, Johari Mayfield’s Recovery, and A/K/A Benjamin (Franklin’s Women) performed at venues including: University Settlement, The Consulate General of Poland in New York, Here Arts Center, Fraunces Tavern Museum, The Old Stone House, Clemente Soto Velez, Theater for a New City, the 92nd St. Y, Gallery MC, and Manhattan School of Music.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bob collaborated with Concrete Timbre artists to create two online video series: Co-videos and Pieces of 8. Currently, he is working with Paris-based playwright Sylvaine Hinglais and composer Ann Warren to create a series of poetry videos. His photographs have been published in several books, publications, and internet sites.
A transplant from California, Bob moved to New York in 2007 after teaching elementary school for 33 years. He likes to bend a guitar string every now and then, and is a big fan of Jimmy Thackery and Jerry Garcia. In 2019 he performed with Tilted Axes, music for mobile electric guitars.
Alana Rosa is actress, performance artist, butoh dance, writer
Erika Fujyama is a Japanese-Brazilian marketer-turned-filmmaker, I dared to build my second career in NYC at the age of 50. As a guerilla-styled filmmaker I incorporate gadgets to DSLR cameras photographing, directing and editing fashion, art, music videos and short docs. In between gigs, I run marathons. Last year I was awarded as the best street photographer for Focus Brasil Award.
Jacob Elkin is a musician, composer and educator based in NYC. Through the integration of space, noise and microtonality, his compositions seek an abstract expression of contemporary concerns. His compositions have been heard around the world including recent performances in Moscow, London and Bucharest. Mr. Elkin is on faculty as brass instructor at the United Nations International School.
Robert Morton is happy to work with Jacob Elkin on Give Me Your Pain and Sorrow and is excited about sharing his video in Unfix 2021.
Bob collaborates with many artists to create contextual settings with photography, video, and interactive projections for live performances. New York City productions include: Voyage de Ouf, Dziewczyna, Satie’s Birthday Party, Folie Pure, Age of Pain(e), Coq tôt, Anna Strong’s Laundry, Voices of Justice and Consanguinity…, Un Lieu de Vie, 4 Wars, 1776 A Fresh Start, Johari Mayfield’s Recovery, and A/K/A Benjamin (Franklin’s Women) performed at venues including: University Settlement, The Consulate General of Poland in New York, Here Arts Center, Fraunces Tavern Museum, The Old Stone House, Clemente Soto Velez, Theater for a New City, the 92nd St. Y, Gallery MC, and Manhattan School of Music.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bob collaborated with Concrete Timbre artists to create two online video series: Co-videos and Pieces of 8. Currently, he is working with Paris-based playwright Sylvaine Hinglais and composer Ann Warren to create a series of poetry videos. His photographs have been published in several books, publications, and internet sites.
A transplant from California, Bob moved to New York in 2007 after teaching elementary school for 33 years. He likes to bend a guitar string every now and then, and is a big fan of Jimmy Thackery and Jerry Garcia. In 2019 he performed with Tilted Axes, music for mobile electric guitars.
Conversation Theme: Unfix
Moderator: Paul Michael Henry
Artists: Alana Rosa, Jacob Elkin & Robert Morton, Night Multimedia Arts (Jacob Elkin, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Kathy Creutzburg, Aya Hirota)
Moderator: Paul Michael Henry
Artists: Alana Rosa, Jacob Elkin & Robert Morton, Night Multimedia Arts (Jacob Elkin, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Kathy Creutzburg, Aya Hirota)
Saturday June 12, 1:30-2:30pm (NYC) Performance & Conversation
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THE GIVING TREE
by Saki Kawamura 
The Giving Tree inspired by Shel Silverstein is a devised and visual art piece directed by Saki Kawamura. She and her team spent three months exploring a children's book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and made a piece to give the audience to think about many kinds of relationships in our lives.
You may be like the Boy. You may be like the Tree. Or, you might be like both the Boy and the Tree. It is completely up to you about what you see and how you feel about this story. You don’t even have to describe it with words. That’s why a story exists. A story is a mirror that reflects your soul. By Haruki Murakami (Japanese Translator of The Giving Tree) Performer:
Eliza Vann, Edward Pritchard, Cynthia Yiru Hu, Madison Smith Adviser: Andreas Manolikakis Tech Support: Chase Kniffen |
EL VERGEL
by SANE 
El Vergel is the evolving path walked by tow characters, dressed up in organic costumes and masks, they seek awareness on belonging to an ecosystem that communicates, exchanges information, collaborates and maintains balance through a subtle language that does not relay on words; observation, interaction and integration. Art is their means of transport, through their movement these two characters aim at manifesting and offer to the ecosystem the beauty that lives within.
Performer:
Sebastian O'Hea Suarez & Agnese Sonicin |
FLOATING GARDENS
by Roxane Revon (AKA RooN) 
RooN works mainly on “wanders” by creating atmospheres and environments that get the audience to move slowly away from a fixed point or place. She is interested in slow temporality, moving away from the logic of storytelling where the audience focus is not framed. The visible growth of plants (leaves and roots) integrated to her sculptures and installations balances the rigid frames to form an unfinished, ever developing piece.
*Roxane's work is ON DEMAND. You can click the buttons below.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Saki Kawamura (Director/Creator of The Giving Tree) is a NY-based director and interdisciplinary artist, originally from Japan. Her passion for theatre has led her to move to NYC in 2019. She currently pursues her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School. BA in Sociology and Media Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo. She puts her value on the process of collaboration. She loves to hear the stories of her collaborators and put them into the works, which she believes is the important chemistry to make a unique art.
Eliza Vann (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a NYC-based actor entering her final year at the Actors Studio Drama School. She is originally from Trumansburg, New York. Most recently she originated the role of Elizabeth in the new play Quartet, and performed Off-Off Broadway as Guildenstern in Hamlet. She’d like to thank Saki for her incredible artistry and vision to bring Shel Silverstein’s story to the stage! She’d also like to thank Ed, Madison, and Cynthia, as well as Yokko for the support and opportunity to partake in Unfix-NYC.
Edward Pritchard (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a British born actor and creator, currently based in New York, pursuing his MFA at the Actors Studio Drama School. In 2020, he made his feature film debut as the protagonist in the sci-fi Escape 2120, which received international distribution. He has had various lead roles in independent film, including an award winning Monty Python style spoof set in a Game of Thrones World. On stage, he has specialised in comedic leads in plays by Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare as well as Rocky Horror in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Madison Smith (Performer in The Giving Tree) is currently a 3rd year MFA Acting student at The Actors Studio Drama School in NYC. Some previous roles include: Sally Bowles (Cabaret), Alysha (American Idiot), and Olympia (Big Love). She feels incredibly grateful to be making art in these crazy times. She wants to thank everyone involved in making this event happen, including all the outstanding performers. She hopes you enjoy the show and keep supporting artists!
Cynthia (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a New York based bilingual actor, director, dancer originally from Shenzhen, China. She holds a bachelor's in theatre from Stony Brook University and is now pursuing her master’s degree at Actors Studio Drama School. She aims to speak truth with her art.
Sebastian O’Hea Suarez (SANE) was born in Mexico city in 1992, in 2011 I began a circus degree at UMA University in Puebla. I have trained myself on clowning with teachers such as Jef Johnson, Virginia Imaz and Jango Edwards, among others. I have trained myself on dancing with teachers such as Francesca Cinalli, Yoshiko Yokko, and Doraina Crema. On 2013 I began a degree on Physical Theatre at ATF Philip Radice in Turin. On 2017 “Il Malato Immaginario” premiered, I played the main role under the direction of John Kellam. The same year premiered Uroboro, a co-created show with Simona Ceccobelli. I have studied and performed in Mexico, Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy.
Agnese Soncin (SANE) was born in Bra, Italy, in 1996. I studied foreign language at college and later on attended to the University of Literatures and Cultures of the Modern World in Turin. I began theater at an amateur level at the age of 13, assisting at workshops and internships in my city. I volunteered offering art therapy at Alba’s prisons and in the drug addiction center Coperativa Alice. In 2016 I began my professional theatre training at the Atelier Teatro Fisico Philip Radice. I attended clown internships (Avner Eisenberg), Danza Butoh (Yokko), Commedia dell’Arte (Eugenio Allegri), Superdrama (Jon Kellam). I participated as lead actress on the crea4on of the show Diavolaede, directed by Jon Kellam and Ginevra Scaglia. I alended Carlo Boso’s Commedia Dell’Arte school AIDAS in Paris.
Roxane Revon (aka RooN) is a visual artist working on transparency and nature mental images. After studying philosophy in Paris, she worked as an award winning director/designer and drama teacher in New York City while continuing her education (Yale Drama School and Stanford Ignite certifications). During that time she developed her visual work while visiting gardens in Charleston, Sinatra, and Oaxaca among others. She now wants to use her skills to create “Garden memorials” reusing the plexiglass panes that have become so present in our lives during the pandemic.
Saki Kawamura (Director/Creator of The Giving Tree) is a NY-based director and interdisciplinary artist, originally from Japan. Her passion for theatre has led her to move to NYC in 2019. She currently pursues her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School. BA in Sociology and Media Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo. She puts her value on the process of collaboration. She loves to hear the stories of her collaborators and put them into the works, which she believes is the important chemistry to make a unique art.
Eliza Vann (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a NYC-based actor entering her final year at the Actors Studio Drama School. She is originally from Trumansburg, New York. Most recently she originated the role of Elizabeth in the new play Quartet, and performed Off-Off Broadway as Guildenstern in Hamlet. She’d like to thank Saki for her incredible artistry and vision to bring Shel Silverstein’s story to the stage! She’d also like to thank Ed, Madison, and Cynthia, as well as Yokko for the support and opportunity to partake in Unfix-NYC.
Edward Pritchard (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a British born actor and creator, currently based in New York, pursuing his MFA at the Actors Studio Drama School. In 2020, he made his feature film debut as the protagonist in the sci-fi Escape 2120, which received international distribution. He has had various lead roles in independent film, including an award winning Monty Python style spoof set in a Game of Thrones World. On stage, he has specialised in comedic leads in plays by Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare as well as Rocky Horror in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Madison Smith (Performer in The Giving Tree) is currently a 3rd year MFA Acting student at The Actors Studio Drama School in NYC. Some previous roles include: Sally Bowles (Cabaret), Alysha (American Idiot), and Olympia (Big Love). She feels incredibly grateful to be making art in these crazy times. She wants to thank everyone involved in making this event happen, including all the outstanding performers. She hopes you enjoy the show and keep supporting artists!
Cynthia (Performer in The Giving Tree) is a New York based bilingual actor, director, dancer originally from Shenzhen, China. She holds a bachelor's in theatre from Stony Brook University and is now pursuing her master’s degree at Actors Studio Drama School. She aims to speak truth with her art.
Sebastian O’Hea Suarez (SANE) was born in Mexico city in 1992, in 2011 I began a circus degree at UMA University in Puebla. I have trained myself on clowning with teachers such as Jef Johnson, Virginia Imaz and Jango Edwards, among others. I have trained myself on dancing with teachers such as Francesca Cinalli, Yoshiko Yokko, and Doraina Crema. On 2013 I began a degree on Physical Theatre at ATF Philip Radice in Turin. On 2017 “Il Malato Immaginario” premiered, I played the main role under the direction of John Kellam. The same year premiered Uroboro, a co-created show with Simona Ceccobelli. I have studied and performed in Mexico, Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy.
Agnese Soncin (SANE) was born in Bra, Italy, in 1996. I studied foreign language at college and later on attended to the University of Literatures and Cultures of the Modern World in Turin. I began theater at an amateur level at the age of 13, assisting at workshops and internships in my city. I volunteered offering art therapy at Alba’s prisons and in the drug addiction center Coperativa Alice. In 2016 I began my professional theatre training at the Atelier Teatro Fisico Philip Radice. I attended clown internships (Avner Eisenberg), Danza Butoh (Yokko), Commedia dell’Arte (Eugenio Allegri), Superdrama (Jon Kellam). I participated as lead actress on the crea4on of the show Diavolaede, directed by Jon Kellam and Ginevra Scaglia. I alended Carlo Boso’s Commedia Dell’Arte school AIDAS in Paris.
Roxane Revon (aka RooN) is a visual artist working on transparency and nature mental images. After studying philosophy in Paris, she worked as an award winning director/designer and drama teacher in New York City while continuing her education (Yale Drama School and Stanford Ignite certifications). During that time she developed her visual work while visiting gardens in Charleston, Sinatra, and Oaxaca among others. She now wants to use her skills to create “Garden memorials” reusing the plexiglass panes that have become so present in our lives during the pandemic.
Conversation Theme: Nature in peril
Artists: Saki Kawamura, Sane, Roxane Revon (aka RooN), Yokko
Artists: Saki Kawamura, Sane, Roxane Revon (aka RooN), Yokko
Sunday June 13, 12-1pm (NYC) Film & Conversation
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SHEDDINGSOMETHINGSHEDDING
By Brandon Perdomo 
SHEDDINGSOMETHINGSHEDDING is space where practice meets testimony, as independent artists share their stories-of-becoming in a reimagining of a salon-style gathering in a digital space.
Exploring both creative process and the embodied experiences that informs their practices, this multicultural and intergenerational oral history-based project aims to encourage curiosity & wonder, and reclamation of narrative power to communities often both unheard and negotiated as other. |
THE SEEING HAND: FIRE
By Irena Romendik, Sonia Libre, Yuri Ogasawara 
It is part of the Elements series. corroboration of painting and dance and music presented in film format.
CREDITS:
Irena Romendik, Sonia Libre, Yuri Ogasawara |
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Brandon Perdomo is an interdisciplinary artist from the occupied territories of Lenapehoking, currently known as New York City – fascinated with self-reflection and alterity, which are the engines of his interventions. Interested in contemporary politics, ancestral negotiation, and the intricate manners in which the body is perceived in the public sphere, his social practice turns toward stories of radical self-ownership, and what it means to “become”.
Irena Romendik is a Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist. She moved to the US from Kiev, Ukraine where she studied Painting at Shevchenko School. She holds degrees from Pratt and Tisch School of the Arts. She holds degrees from Shevchenko Art School in Kiev, Pratt Institute, and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Irena participated in multiple shows, made costumes for dancers, and performed herself, but that has not been the focus of her artistic career. Irena values the process of artistic creation over production. Her multidimensional interests have produced projects that cross disciplines, and sometimes are difficult to categorize. To learn more about her work please visit www.aquarelle.us
Sonia Libre is Flamenco dancer “Bailaora”, Actress and choreographer of Musical Impro (www.musicalimpro.com). She also currently works in Sara Baras Dance Company, (www.sarabaras.com), and she have played as a flamenco dancer in the worldwide tour: New York, Miami, Washington, London, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Melbourne, Japan, Hong Kong, Poland, Switzerland, México, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Chorea, Turkey, Russia, France, Germany.She also is the composer, choreographer, director, producer and dancer of the piece “Ser.Rana” in the renowned choreographic Contest of Spanish Dance and Flamenco in Madrid, receiving the “Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana New York” award that gives the opportunity to choreograph the prestigious Carlota Santana Company and she was introduced in the dance community of New York. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIFmZK9h1ik) She has worked with Monty Python Director Terry Gilliam in the film “The man who kill Don Quixote”, she also was a dancer of the María Pagés company performing at the Festival de Jerez, Seville Biennial and worlwide tour. She has worked in the III National Days of scenic formation of Cuenca in the workshop “The Pleasure of Acting” with Raul Beatmac.She currently continues to teach dance and creation workshops in New York and is a choreographer for the CIA theater and musical Musical Impro, where she directs the movement in the play “Loser” and stars in the play “The Sound of My Madness”, released in New York and with an upcoming tour in Asia.
Yuri Ogasawara came to U.S. received MA in Art Administration from State University of NY. She dances classical ballet, oriental / middle eastern, and latin dances. Currently a member of Dancing Rubies under Andresa Beeman’s Dancing ensemble. She performed in various shows such as Buglisi Dance Table of Silence, Leimay Soak, Lotus Music and Dance – World Dance Passport, Raquy’s 20’s anniversary showcase, NYC Dance Parade.
Brandon Perdomo is an interdisciplinary artist from the occupied territories of Lenapehoking, currently known as New York City – fascinated with self-reflection and alterity, which are the engines of his interventions. Interested in contemporary politics, ancestral negotiation, and the intricate manners in which the body is perceived in the public sphere, his social practice turns toward stories of radical self-ownership, and what it means to “become”.
Irena Romendik is a Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist. She moved to the US from Kiev, Ukraine where she studied Painting at Shevchenko School. She holds degrees from Pratt and Tisch School of the Arts. She holds degrees from Shevchenko Art School in Kiev, Pratt Institute, and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Irena participated in multiple shows, made costumes for dancers, and performed herself, but that has not been the focus of her artistic career. Irena values the process of artistic creation over production. Her multidimensional interests have produced projects that cross disciplines, and sometimes are difficult to categorize. To learn more about her work please visit www.aquarelle.us
Sonia Libre is Flamenco dancer “Bailaora”, Actress and choreographer of Musical Impro (www.musicalimpro.com). She also currently works in Sara Baras Dance Company, (www.sarabaras.com), and she have played as a flamenco dancer in the worldwide tour: New York, Miami, Washington, London, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Melbourne, Japan, Hong Kong, Poland, Switzerland, México, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Chorea, Turkey, Russia, France, Germany.She also is the composer, choreographer, director, producer and dancer of the piece “Ser.Rana” in the renowned choreographic Contest of Spanish Dance and Flamenco in Madrid, receiving the “Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana New York” award that gives the opportunity to choreograph the prestigious Carlota Santana Company and she was introduced in the dance community of New York. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIFmZK9h1ik) She has worked with Monty Python Director Terry Gilliam in the film “The man who kill Don Quixote”, she also was a dancer of the María Pagés company performing at the Festival de Jerez, Seville Biennial and worlwide tour. She has worked in the III National Days of scenic formation of Cuenca in the workshop “The Pleasure of Acting” with Raul Beatmac.She currently continues to teach dance and creation workshops in New York and is a choreographer for the CIA theater and musical Musical Impro, where she directs the movement in the play “Loser” and stars in the play “The Sound of My Madness”, released in New York and with an upcoming tour in Asia.
Yuri Ogasawara came to U.S. received MA in Art Administration from State University of NY. She dances classical ballet, oriental / middle eastern, and latin dances. Currently a member of Dancing Rubies under Andresa Beeman’s Dancing ensemble. She performed in various shows such as Buglisi Dance Table of Silence, Leimay Soak, Lotus Music and Dance – World Dance Passport, Raquy’s 20’s anniversary showcase, NYC Dance Parade.
Conversation Theme: NYC Artists Now
Modulator: Katherine Adamenko
Artists: Brandon Perdomo, Yuri Ogasawara/Irena Romendik/Sonia Libre
Modulator: Katherine Adamenko
Artists: Brandon Perdomo, Yuri Ogasawara/Irena Romendik/Sonia Libre
Sunday June 13, 1:30-2:30pm (NYC) Film & Conversation
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SALT AND STONE
By Vandellous (Frankie Mulinix) 
Salt and Stone is an exploration of changing the way we experience our bodies in an ecosphere that has been both irrevocably changed by humans.
Simultaneously the ecosphere has the power to destroy us and, when we are reminded of this, our fear may drive us to do further harm. Through butoh and text, this piece explores “the morning after,” and a possible pathway to hope and transformation on the other side. Since moving to the South from Canada, I have become interested in developing work that is specific to the place where I live, that contests stereotypes about Southern culture and creativity. I live in an area named after the lithium found in the water. Lithium is associated with mental health and mood stability. It is stone and salt and it flows through the waters here. Dancing at Sweetwater, Lithia Springs and by Arabia Mountain, Lithonia (“city of stone”) I am invoking the history of these spaces (cotton mills and mines) and exploring the possibility of transformation Here. CREDIT:
Vandellous (Frankie Mulinix) Cinematography – Jase Wingate Operational Assistance – Benjamin Mulinix |
LET’S HOLD HANDS THE OLD WAY
By Zoe Katsilerou 
“let’s hold hands the old way” is a multilingual biographical screen-dance project created by Zoe Katsilerou (choreographer, film maker) and Eilon Morris (composer, sound designer). Provoked by the UK government’s poster on how to wash hands displayed everywhere throughout the pandemic and inspired by the creators’ yearning for physical contact, Katsilerou choreographed an intimate piece of four hands, which sits alongside biographical accounts of stories woven into Morris’ sounds.
CREDITS:
Zoe Katsilerou Composer/Musician/Sound designer: Eilon Morris |
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Frankie Mulinix / Vandellous (Salt and Stone) is a burlesque-, butoh-, and text-based performance artist, emcee, producer, dramaturge, choreographer, director, intimacy choreographer, and teacher. As Vibrance: Centre for Voice and Movement, she works with actors and nonactors to develop skills in presence, voice, movement, and performance. Her theatre company, Burning Bones Physical Theatre, launched its first two shows in 2020, a butoh-based production of One for the Road and Too Far for Comfort, an original devised work created for Zoom.
Frankie holds a BFA in Physical Theatre through Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, with a focus on writing, dramaturgy, directing, and multidisciplinary performance, and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy from the University of Queensland, specializing in LGBTIQ+ occupational justice, mental health, chronic pain, and neurology. Frankie is Certified Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, and holds an Associate Performer Diploma (ATCL) with Trinity College, London. She is trained in Reiki, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Organic Intelligence, Knight Thompson Speechwork, and TIE’s Intimacy Choreography practices. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association (VASTA). She is a 2021 Hambidge Cross-Pollination Art Lab Fellow.
Jase Wingate (Slat and Stone) is an actor and theatrical producer based out of Atlanta, GA and absolutely elated to be a part of “Too Far for Comfort”. Jase holds his BA in Theatre from the University of Georgia, where he studied physical theatre, Commedia Dell’Arte, and Shakespeare extensively. Jase was happy to be a part of the last Burning Bones Production “One for the Road” in the Old World prior to COVID. He is grateful to his representation, Atlanta Models and Talent, and to be a founding member of the Yard Dogs Ensemble.
Zoe Katsilerou (Lets hold hands the old way) is a performer, maker and lecturer with background in dance-theatre, devised theatre, polyphonic singing, music composition, voice coaching, somatic practices and improvisation. Originally from Greece, she is currently based in the UK and works as a freelance practitioner and a Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Leeds Beckett University. Zoe’s work and practice are interdisciplinary and sit between dance, music, theatre and improvisation. She is particularly interested in relationships between choreography and text and looks for the poetic qualities these can evoke. Using her performances as a way of reflecting on her observations of the socio-political every day, Zoe wishes to create conversations between herself, her work and its audiences. Zoe is associate artist with DUENDE and Sura Medura, member of Vonnegut Collective and SBC Theatre Company, and has co-founded improvisation collective ICEBERG. Zoe is member of The Work Room (Glasgow) and The Natural Voice Network (Sheffield). Zoe is member of the artistic committee of The Makings of The Actor.
Eilon Morris (Lets hold hands the old way) is a percussionist, composer, performer, and instrument maker who works predominantly in live theatre and dance. He is a core member of OBRA Theatre Co, ICEBERG and project mάzoksi and is currently teaching at Leeds Conservatoire. In 2017 he published Rhythm in Acting and Performance: Embodied Approaches and Understandings (Bloomsbury) building on the work of his PhD completed in 2013 at the University of Huddersfield. Performance and composition credits include, And After We Sailed A Thousand Skies (Leeds Playhouse), The Wicker Husband (Watermill Theatre), IBIDEM (OBRA), Separated in Birth (Zoe Katsilerou), Day of the Living (Royal Shakespeare Company), Lord of the Flies (BBC Radio Drama), These Trees are Made of Blood (Arcola, Southwark Playhouse), Gaudete (OBRA Theatre Co, Lowery), Shattering Man (Duende), and Rhein (Royal Festival Hall).
Frankie Mulinix / Vandellous (Salt and Stone) is a burlesque-, butoh-, and text-based performance artist, emcee, producer, dramaturge, choreographer, director, intimacy choreographer, and teacher. As Vibrance: Centre for Voice and Movement, she works with actors and nonactors to develop skills in presence, voice, movement, and performance. Her theatre company, Burning Bones Physical Theatre, launched its first two shows in 2020, a butoh-based production of One for the Road and Too Far for Comfort, an original devised work created for Zoom.
Frankie holds a BFA in Physical Theatre through Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, with a focus on writing, dramaturgy, directing, and multidisciplinary performance, and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy from the University of Queensland, specializing in LGBTIQ+ occupational justice, mental health, chronic pain, and neurology. Frankie is Certified Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, and holds an Associate Performer Diploma (ATCL) with Trinity College, London. She is trained in Reiki, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Organic Intelligence, Knight Thompson Speechwork, and TIE’s Intimacy Choreography practices. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association (VASTA). She is a 2021 Hambidge Cross-Pollination Art Lab Fellow.
Jase Wingate (Slat and Stone) is an actor and theatrical producer based out of Atlanta, GA and absolutely elated to be a part of “Too Far for Comfort”. Jase holds his BA in Theatre from the University of Georgia, where he studied physical theatre, Commedia Dell’Arte, and Shakespeare extensively. Jase was happy to be a part of the last Burning Bones Production “One for the Road” in the Old World prior to COVID. He is grateful to his representation, Atlanta Models and Talent, and to be a founding member of the Yard Dogs Ensemble.
Zoe Katsilerou (Lets hold hands the old way) is a performer, maker and lecturer with background in dance-theatre, devised theatre, polyphonic singing, music composition, voice coaching, somatic practices and improvisation. Originally from Greece, she is currently based in the UK and works as a freelance practitioner and a Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Leeds Beckett University. Zoe’s work and practice are interdisciplinary and sit between dance, music, theatre and improvisation. She is particularly interested in relationships between choreography and text and looks for the poetic qualities these can evoke. Using her performances as a way of reflecting on her observations of the socio-political every day, Zoe wishes to create conversations between herself, her work and its audiences. Zoe is associate artist with DUENDE and Sura Medura, member of Vonnegut Collective and SBC Theatre Company, and has co-founded improvisation collective ICEBERG. Zoe is member of The Work Room (Glasgow) and The Natural Voice Network (Sheffield). Zoe is member of the artistic committee of The Makings of The Actor.
Eilon Morris (Lets hold hands the old way) is a percussionist, composer, performer, and instrument maker who works predominantly in live theatre and dance. He is a core member of OBRA Theatre Co, ICEBERG and project mάzoksi and is currently teaching at Leeds Conservatoire. In 2017 he published Rhythm in Acting and Performance: Embodied Approaches and Understandings (Bloomsbury) building on the work of his PhD completed in 2013 at the University of Huddersfield. Performance and composition credits include, And After We Sailed A Thousand Skies (Leeds Playhouse), The Wicker Husband (Watermill Theatre), IBIDEM (OBRA), Separated in Birth (Zoe Katsilerou), Day of the Living (Royal Shakespeare Company), Lord of the Flies (BBC Radio Drama), These Trees are Made of Blood (Arcola, Southwark Playhouse), Gaudete (OBRA Theatre Co, Lowery), Shattering Man (Duende), and Rhein (Royal Festival Hall).
Conversation Theme: Physical Arts
Modulator: Rachelle Dart
Artists: Vandellous & Zoe Katsilerou
Modulator: Rachelle Dart
Artists: Vandellous & Zoe Katsilerou
Sunday June 13, 3-4:30pm (NYC) Film & Conversation
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UNCOVERED TERRAIN
By Annie McCoy & Miles Butler 
Set in a world that requires protective gear, this piece is about the things in our daily lives that we’re told we need, but don’t realize disconnect us from nature and people. Once we fight through the things that strip away our humanity and connect with the elements, physical touch and those around us we can be reborn.
CREDITS:
Created by Annie McCoy & Miles Butler Music by Marlfaux |
THE MUTE CHILD
By Vertical Player Repertory (Judith Barnes) 
A song cycle of metamorphosis and return. A child searches for his voice in a drop of water. But the voice is captive far away, disguised as a cricket. A woman struts by the sea in blazing sunlight, her words swim around her like little fish, in bright swaths of lime green and lemon yellow. Chop down my shadow, begs the dry orange tree, the memory of oranges caught in its branches like stars in the nighttime sky of the turning world.
CREDITS:
Francis Poulenc: Trois Chansons de Federico Garcia Lorca 1. L’enfant muet 2. Adelina à la promenade 3. Chanson de L’oranger sec Judith Barnes, director & mezzo soprano Pablo Zinger, piano Irena Romendik, video artist Judith Barnes, Isidore Elias, Chitra Raghavan & Irena Romendik, video footage |
CHOKED
By Katherine Adamenko (AKA Ladypants Production) 
CHOKED is a performative statement about the iniquities of worldwide, pollution-related sickness and death magnified in the age of Covid in a world that that exploits cheap labor for goods.
The breath soundtrack is inspired by the self-discovery of deep open-mouth breathing while in a butoh workshop and a deeper exploration into eastern breathing techniques and meanings behind pranayama, kokyu, kundalini, ma, chi, ki, and more. The piece is also inspired by the choreographer’s own experience with asthma and unexpected and overwhelming emotional response while getting her first vaccination shot. |
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Miles Butler (Uncovered Terren) is an Actor, Physical Theatre Artist from D.C. He has been working with Annie since 2017. NYC Credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (EPIC), Caveman Play (Third Space), Shinka (RenGyoSoh), Loudmouth (Rebel Playhouse), Naked Hamlet (Torn Out Theater)Anthropomorphic (Puppetry Arts), Ariel in The Tempest (Stag and Lion). DC: Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wolf Trap, Ford’s Theater and Folger Theater. Former company member of Synetic Theater and the Flea Theatre. He is a teaching artist with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company.
Annie McCoy (Uncovered Terren) is an Actor, Physical Theatre performer and Butoh Dancer originally from Orlando. She has been working with Miles since 2017. She is a Principal performer with the Butoh company Ren Gyo Soh and has been seen in their productions of Shinka (Winner of IT awards), En, and En: 2021.
As well as productions with The UME Group and Piper theatre.
Marlfaux(Uncovered Terren) has been active since 2018. You can find their music on all major streaming services.
Judith Barns (The Mute Child) was born in London and raised in Rome and New York City, Judith Barnes is a singer, stage director, and producer, called “consistently innovative” by TimeOut NY. She is the founder and artistic director of Vertical Player Repertory (VPR), an indie opera company in Brooklyn, New York that “has developed a following for intense performances of unusual works” (The New York Times), known for staging opera in unexpected urban venues, such as the deck of an oil tanker at the Red Hook Marine Terminal and a 19th century factory courtyard on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. As an opera singer, Judith has been praised as “vocally and dramatically present in every moment” (Parterre), serving an eclectic assortment of roles from the 17th to the 21st centuries, and has worked closely with many contemporary composers. A visual artist as well, she has exhibited her sculpture yearly with Gowanus Open Studios. LEIMAY Fellow 2016-2018.
Pablo Zinger (The Mute Child) is a conductor, pianist, composer, arranger, writer, lecturer and narrator, specializing in tango, Spanish zarzuela, and Latin American music. He has worked with singers for over 45 years, coaching the Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German and English repertoire, and running an audio/video studio out of his home. He accompanied Plácido Domingo at Washington’s Constitution Hall, conducted for Paquito D’Rivera’s Carnegie Hall 50th Anniversary Concert and the Moscow première of Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires, narrated Piazzolla’s Pueblo Joven at Tokyo’s Opera City and accompanied legendary Spanish diva Sarita Montiel in NYC. He tours and records with the Valencia-based Zinger Septet. CDs include Tango Apasionado with Astor Piazzolla, Chamber Music from the South and The Clarinetist, with Paquito D’Rivera, Las Puertas de la Mañana (songs of Carlos Guastavino) and two albums of music by Carlos Suriñach with Bronx Arts Ensemble.
Irena Romendik (The Mute Child) arrived from Ukraine two decades ago and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She holds degrees from Shevchenko Art School in Kiev, Pratt Institute, and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Irena has participated in multiple shows, made costumes for dancers, and performed herself, but that has not been the focus of her artistic career. Irena values the process of artistic creation over production. Her multidimensional interests have produced projects that cross disciplines, and sometimes are difficult to categorize.
Dr. Chitra Raghavan (The Mute Child) obtained her doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and did her postdoctoral training at Yale University. She conducts research on coercive control in intimate partner abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking contexts. She is an active researcher, practicing psychologist and deemed an expert by the courts. Her work has created case law in New York. A vivid actress and singer, she has performed with Vertical Player Repertory for 20 years in chorus and featured roles.
Isidore Elias (The Mute Child) is a playwright, librettist and songwriter whose work has been produced in the US, Canada and Europe. Honors: grants from the BMI Foundation, NYS Council on the Arts; commissions from the Royal Carre’ Theatre in Amsterdam and Cross-the-Pond Productions in London, Carbonell nomination for best new work, Outstanding Achievement Award: Great American Song Contest. He is currently working on the libretti of two new operas. Performs solo programs of his monologues and a vaudeville act, Bucky and His Friends, for which he writes book, music and lyrics. Long-term member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and an alumnus of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. Proud member, The Dramatists Guild.
Katherine Adamenko (Choked) is a multi-disciplinary performance artist, choreographer, butoh dancer, and writer. Her boundary-breaking and interactive performances have been presented in theatres, festivals, galleries, museums, conferences, and site-specific locations throughout the United States and Europe, and online internationally.
Miles Butler (Uncovered Terren) is an Actor, Physical Theatre Artist from D.C. He has been working with Annie since 2017. NYC Credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (EPIC), Caveman Play (Third Space), Shinka (RenGyoSoh), Loudmouth (Rebel Playhouse), Naked Hamlet (Torn Out Theater)Anthropomorphic (Puppetry Arts), Ariel in The Tempest (Stag and Lion). DC: Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wolf Trap, Ford’s Theater and Folger Theater. Former company member of Synetic Theater and the Flea Theatre. He is a teaching artist with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company.
Annie McCoy (Uncovered Terren) is an Actor, Physical Theatre performer and Butoh Dancer originally from Orlando. She has been working with Miles since 2017. She is a Principal performer with the Butoh company Ren Gyo Soh and has been seen in their productions of Shinka (Winner of IT awards), En, and En: 2021.
As well as productions with The UME Group and Piper theatre.
Marlfaux(Uncovered Terren) has been active since 2018. You can find their music on all major streaming services.
Judith Barns (The Mute Child) was born in London and raised in Rome and New York City, Judith Barnes is a singer, stage director, and producer, called “consistently innovative” by TimeOut NY. She is the founder and artistic director of Vertical Player Repertory (VPR), an indie opera company in Brooklyn, New York that “has developed a following for intense performances of unusual works” (The New York Times), known for staging opera in unexpected urban venues, such as the deck of an oil tanker at the Red Hook Marine Terminal and a 19th century factory courtyard on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. As an opera singer, Judith has been praised as “vocally and dramatically present in every moment” (Parterre), serving an eclectic assortment of roles from the 17th to the 21st centuries, and has worked closely with many contemporary composers. A visual artist as well, she has exhibited her sculpture yearly with Gowanus Open Studios. LEIMAY Fellow 2016-2018.
Pablo Zinger (The Mute Child) is a conductor, pianist, composer, arranger, writer, lecturer and narrator, specializing in tango, Spanish zarzuela, and Latin American music. He has worked with singers for over 45 years, coaching the Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German and English repertoire, and running an audio/video studio out of his home. He accompanied Plácido Domingo at Washington’s Constitution Hall, conducted for Paquito D’Rivera’s Carnegie Hall 50th Anniversary Concert and the Moscow première of Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires, narrated Piazzolla’s Pueblo Joven at Tokyo’s Opera City and accompanied legendary Spanish diva Sarita Montiel in NYC. He tours and records with the Valencia-based Zinger Septet. CDs include Tango Apasionado with Astor Piazzolla, Chamber Music from the South and The Clarinetist, with Paquito D’Rivera, Las Puertas de la Mañana (songs of Carlos Guastavino) and two albums of music by Carlos Suriñach with Bronx Arts Ensemble.
Irena Romendik (The Mute Child) arrived from Ukraine two decades ago and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She holds degrees from Shevchenko Art School in Kiev, Pratt Institute, and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Irena has participated in multiple shows, made costumes for dancers, and performed herself, but that has not been the focus of her artistic career. Irena values the process of artistic creation over production. Her multidimensional interests have produced projects that cross disciplines, and sometimes are difficult to categorize.
Dr. Chitra Raghavan (The Mute Child) obtained her doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and did her postdoctoral training at Yale University. She conducts research on coercive control in intimate partner abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking contexts. She is an active researcher, practicing psychologist and deemed an expert by the courts. Her work has created case law in New York. A vivid actress and singer, she has performed with Vertical Player Repertory for 20 years in chorus and featured roles.
Isidore Elias (The Mute Child) is a playwright, librettist and songwriter whose work has been produced in the US, Canada and Europe. Honors: grants from the BMI Foundation, NYS Council on the Arts; commissions from the Royal Carre’ Theatre in Amsterdam and Cross-the-Pond Productions in London, Carbonell nomination for best new work, Outstanding Achievement Award: Great American Song Contest. He is currently working on the libretti of two new operas. Performs solo programs of his monologues and a vaudeville act, Bucky and His Friends, for which he writes book, music and lyrics. Long-term member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and an alumnus of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. Proud member, The Dramatists Guild.
Katherine Adamenko (Choked) is a multi-disciplinary performance artist, choreographer, butoh dancer, and writer. Her boundary-breaking and interactive performances have been presented in theatres, festivals, galleries, museums, conferences, and site-specific locations throughout the United States and Europe, and online internationally.
Conversation Theme: Recovery
Moderator: Brandon Perdomo
Artists: Annie McCoy, Miles Butler, Judith Barnes, Katherine Adamenko
Moderator: Brandon Perdomo
Artists: Annie McCoy, Miles Butler, Judith Barnes, Katherine Adamenko
Monday June 14, 3-4:30pm (NYC) Film & Conversation
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BLOOMS TO DUST
By Erika Hassan 
A solo dance on film in nature.
CREDITS:
Performance: Erika Hassan Film and Sound design: David Plakke, Editing: Max Fulton Peluffo |
DISPERSE
By Rachelle Dart 
The Sonoran Desert is the most biodiverse desert both in plant and animal life on the planet. Currently this desert is enduring the highest temperatures and record drought. Disperse is an exploration of both the human destruction of the desert and hope for the restoration of human relationship to the land.
CREDITS:
Performer: Rachelle Dart, Hira Ismail Photographer: Dazil Rohlf |
THE UNRAVELING
By Vanessa Skantze 
A quartet of dancers encased in carapaces: the binds of the past, the anguish of ancestors and histories– they tear at these shuddering with relentless grief. Irrevocably stripped bare to fragments of dreams, memories and dances; they reveal these shadows of unborn works their bodies contain. Dances unravel from them for a moment before once again dissolving… a requiem. In their shared grief they become a troupe, a pod.
CREDITS:
Dancers: Alex, Ana, r.nihiline, Vanessa Skantze Music: Nital Etch Camera/Editing: Osteo Parliament Additional Camera: Richard Woods Costumes: Ana, enihiline, Ariel |
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Erika Hassan(Blooms To Dust): In 1992 I left university and moved to New York to pursue dance. I was training intensively in Ballet Modern and the Gyrotonic Method. I was a dance artist performing with several small contemporary companies in NY when, in 2001, I tagged along with a friend to 3 week Body Weather Farm intensive led by Min Tanaka in Japan. My whole vision of dance and myself as a dancer began to open. I stayed after the workshop to perform at PlanB and later continued my experiences and training in Butoh with teachers including Min Tanaka, Akira Kasai, Maureen Fleming,and Yokko.
David Plakke(Blooms To Dust): I’ve dedicated my life to the creation of images, both still and moving.After receiving my Master of Fine Arts in photography and film-making, I spent a decade in education, the last faculty position held with Sandy Skoglund at Rutgers University, Newark.
Being an educator – that is, sharing information – remains a part of my working fabric with the inclusion of clients as collaborators in the sessions’ creative process.
Rachelle Dart(Disperse) is a theatre maker, teaching artist and Sonoran Desert dweller. She holds a Bachelors of Arts Theatre with a Concentration in Acting from Arizona State University and is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Previous work include Performer/Filmmaker – En: 2021 (Ren Gyo Soh) Benvolio-Romeo and Juliet (Southwest Shakespeare Company). An Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, she is passionate about safe stage combat in education and performance. She loves exploring the many ways stories can be shared and experienced to bring us back to connection, compassion and inquiry!
Dazii Rohlf(Disperse) is based in Phoenix, Arizona and is an artist, educator and photographer! Her photography focuses around empowering women and non-binary folks, rejecting the notion that sexualty must exist for the male gaze. Her heart’s work is in education, she has a passion for working with children who are experiencing poverty and has served in Arizona and Uganda. She lives with her cat Princess and enjoys creating resin art and painting as her side hustle.
Vanessa Skantze(The Unraveling) is a Butoh artist who has performed and taught in the US and Europe for over 20 years. She became a student of Jinen Butoh founder Atsushi Takenouchi in 2003; having already co-created the sound/movement improvisation ensemble Death Posture in New Orleans. Currently based in Seattle, Vanessa is a co-founder of Teatro de la Psychomachia, a DIY space which has hosted national and international performing artists and musicians for more than a decade. Her work Writhing Treasure Feast which premiered in Seattle in late February 2020 features a recorded score created by ten musicians and is accompanied by a 72 page book of photography/text with 2 CDs. Vanessa was a featured artist in the NY Butoh Fest 2020 with her performance Red Flag on the Red Planet.
Erika Hassan(Blooms To Dust): In 1992 I left university and moved to New York to pursue dance. I was training intensively in Ballet Modern and the Gyrotonic Method. I was a dance artist performing with several small contemporary companies in NY when, in 2001, I tagged along with a friend to 3 week Body Weather Farm intensive led by Min Tanaka in Japan. My whole vision of dance and myself as a dancer began to open. I stayed after the workshop to perform at PlanB and later continued my experiences and training in Butoh with teachers including Min Tanaka, Akira Kasai, Maureen Fleming,and Yokko.
David Plakke(Blooms To Dust): I’ve dedicated my life to the creation of images, both still and moving.After receiving my Master of Fine Arts in photography and film-making, I spent a decade in education, the last faculty position held with Sandy Skoglund at Rutgers University, Newark.
Being an educator – that is, sharing information – remains a part of my working fabric with the inclusion of clients as collaborators in the sessions’ creative process.
Rachelle Dart(Disperse) is a theatre maker, teaching artist and Sonoran Desert dweller. She holds a Bachelors of Arts Theatre with a Concentration in Acting from Arizona State University and is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Previous work include Performer/Filmmaker – En: 2021 (Ren Gyo Soh) Benvolio-Romeo and Juliet (Southwest Shakespeare Company). An Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, she is passionate about safe stage combat in education and performance. She loves exploring the many ways stories can be shared and experienced to bring us back to connection, compassion and inquiry!
Dazii Rohlf(Disperse) is based in Phoenix, Arizona and is an artist, educator and photographer! Her photography focuses around empowering women and non-binary folks, rejecting the notion that sexualty must exist for the male gaze. Her heart’s work is in education, she has a passion for working with children who are experiencing poverty and has served in Arizona and Uganda. She lives with her cat Princess and enjoys creating resin art and painting as her side hustle.
Vanessa Skantze(The Unraveling) is a Butoh artist who has performed and taught in the US and Europe for over 20 years. She became a student of Jinen Butoh founder Atsushi Takenouchi in 2003; having already co-created the sound/movement improvisation ensemble Death Posture in New Orleans. Currently based in Seattle, Vanessa is a co-founder of Teatro de la Psychomachia, a DIY space which has hosted national and international performing artists and musicians for more than a decade. Her work Writhing Treasure Feast which premiered in Seattle in late February 2020 features a recorded score created by ten musicians and is accompanied by a 72 page book of photography/text with 2 CDs. Vanessa was a featured artist in the NY Butoh Fest 2020 with her performance Red Flag on the Red Planet.
Conversation Theme: Healing Art
Moderator: Brandon Perdomo
Artists: Erika Hassan, Rachelle Dart, Vanessa Skantze
Moderator: Brandon Perdomo
Artists: Erika Hassan, Rachelle Dart, Vanessa Skantze
Saturday June 19, 12-1pm (NYC) OUTSIDE LIVE PERFORMANCE
BALLAD OF CYCLIC CHANGE
by Night Multimedia Art
(Jacob Elkin, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Kathy Creutzburg, Aya Hirota)
by Night Multimedia Art
(Jacob Elkin, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Kathy Creutzburg, Aya Hirota)
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Ballad of Cyclic Change is inspired by the biogeochemical cycles and how they mirror cycles in human lives. We build acoustic kinetic sculptures from up-cycled everyday materials and create musical compositions using the sculptures as instruments. When the work is on display, the public is invited to play the sculptures to create their own compositions. By connecting human stories of transition to nature’s cycles we encourage people to feel connected to their planet, which we hope will inspire sustainable practices and help fight environmental racism .
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ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Kathy Creutzburg is a public artist who uses the landscape to inspire her sculptures, mosaics, and paintings. Most recently, she collaborated on Whispers in the Grove, an interactive sculpture partially funded by LMCC 2019. In 2017, she completed two major projects for public spaces: a permanently installed steel sculpture in Raleigh, NC and a mural and mosaic project in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Her public sculptures, mosaics, and murals for PS 61M were permanently installed on site and restored by the NYC. School Construction Authority in 2014. She has exhibited sculptures in the “Figment Summer Long Sculpture Garden” for three consecutive years, sat on the jury for Figment’s “Pavilion of Dreams” international architecture competition, and created a piece for Figment’s 2018 Dream Bigger project. Creutzburg has had her work shown in a solo exhibit at Michael Mut Gallery and in the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York City, as well as numerous group shows at Station Independent Gallery and Chashama Gala. She works as a teaching artist for Studio in a School, where she has been engaging youth, parents, teachers, administrators for twenty years.
Mirabai Kwan Yin’s creative interests lie in collaborative multimedia art that incorporates textile and upcycled materials. In 2019 she was an LMCC grantee along with Kathy Creutzburg for “Whispers in the Grove” a multimedia sculpture including upcycling, sculpture, light, poetry and music. For seven consecutive years Mirabai has led a team to envision and build large, multimedia, collaborative, interactive, public art pieces as part of Figment Art Festival. Several of those pieces went on to be displayed in Sam and Sadie Koenig Community Garden in the East Village and at Chashama’s sculpture garden at their artist residency, ChaNorth, near Rhinebeck, NY. Mirabai has also collaborated with Kathy Creutzburg to create and display a sculpture for Chashama’s annual gala in 2017, now displayed at ChaNorth’s sculpture garden. She is also a fashion designer and has designed for brands including Phelan, VPL and Vena Cava, including a dress that was part of MOMA’s “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” exhibition in 2017.
Jacob Elkin is a musician, composer and educator based in NYC. Through the integration of space, noise and microtonality, his compositions seek an abstract expression of contemporary concerns. His compositions have been heard around the world including recent performances in Moscow, London and Bucharest. Mr. Elkin is on faculty as brass instructor at the United Nations International School.
Aya Hirota was born in Kagawa, Japan. She currently works as nail artist at Yukie Natori New York Salon and Spa where her work has been featured in Vogue and New York Fashion Week. She has worked with many brand designers including Kith, AFFFAIR, Greg Plisseni, Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Blancore, Tia Adeola, Laquan Smith and Sergid Hudson. She has also designed for Little Ondine x Chuppa Chups nails. Ms. Hirota graduated from Kobe Women’s University and also studied art at P.I. Art Center in Manhattan.
Kathy Creutzburg is a public artist who uses the landscape to inspire her sculptures, mosaics, and paintings. Most recently, she collaborated on Whispers in the Grove, an interactive sculpture partially funded by LMCC 2019. In 2017, she completed two major projects for public spaces: a permanently installed steel sculpture in Raleigh, NC and a mural and mosaic project in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Her public sculptures, mosaics, and murals for PS 61M were permanently installed on site and restored by the NYC. School Construction Authority in 2014. She has exhibited sculptures in the “Figment Summer Long Sculpture Garden” for three consecutive years, sat on the jury for Figment’s “Pavilion of Dreams” international architecture competition, and created a piece for Figment’s 2018 Dream Bigger project. Creutzburg has had her work shown in a solo exhibit at Michael Mut Gallery and in the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York City, as well as numerous group shows at Station Independent Gallery and Chashama Gala. She works as a teaching artist for Studio in a School, where she has been engaging youth, parents, teachers, administrators for twenty years.
Mirabai Kwan Yin’s creative interests lie in collaborative multimedia art that incorporates textile and upcycled materials. In 2019 she was an LMCC grantee along with Kathy Creutzburg for “Whispers in the Grove” a multimedia sculpture including upcycling, sculpture, light, poetry and music. For seven consecutive years Mirabai has led a team to envision and build large, multimedia, collaborative, interactive, public art pieces as part of Figment Art Festival. Several of those pieces went on to be displayed in Sam and Sadie Koenig Community Garden in the East Village and at Chashama’s sculpture garden at their artist residency, ChaNorth, near Rhinebeck, NY. Mirabai has also collaborated with Kathy Creutzburg to create and display a sculpture for Chashama’s annual gala in 2017, now displayed at ChaNorth’s sculpture garden. She is also a fashion designer and has designed for brands including Phelan, VPL and Vena Cava, including a dress that was part of MOMA’s “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” exhibition in 2017.
Jacob Elkin is a musician, composer and educator based in NYC. Through the integration of space, noise and microtonality, his compositions seek an abstract expression of contemporary concerns. His compositions have been heard around the world including recent performances in Moscow, London and Bucharest. Mr. Elkin is on faculty as brass instructor at the United Nations International School.
Aya Hirota was born in Kagawa, Japan. She currently works as nail artist at Yukie Natori New York Salon and Spa where her work has been featured in Vogue and New York Fashion Week. She has worked with many brand designers including Kith, AFFFAIR, Greg Plisseni, Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Blancore, Tia Adeola, Laquan Smith and Sergid Hudson. She has also designed for Little Ondine x Chuppa Chups nails. Ms. Hirota graduated from Kobe Women’s University and also studied art at P.I. Art Center in Manhattan.
Sunday June 19, 4-5pm (NYC) / 10-11pm (Italy) Performance & conversation
HUMAN HANDS
by Jacopo Tealdi
by Jacopo Tealdi
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It is the story of the Human as Demiurge and his decision to create the universe, through his magical gestures that write the creation in the air: lines of light with a magical effect and in suspension, which then materialize becoming the image projected on the background. Her body “comes to life by itself” when her hands, animated and alive, create havoc with the powers of creation itself!
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
JACOPO TEALDI (Human Hands) was born in 1986, I am an actor, mime, author, director and researcher. After my classical studies, I graduated from Philip Radice’s Atelier Teatro Fisico, in 2012. My research in physical theatre and figure theatre touches many different cultures, from the masks of the commedia dell’arte, to finger tutting, from Indian and Tibetan mudra and yantra, to vogue dancing, to the secret sequences of ninja, to sign language. My hands become faces and characters that tell comic and poetic stories and, through the “hands-up” comedy, dance theater and playback theater, I reach and involve – with deep reflection – every age group with shows that are literally handmade.
BRIAN RHINEHART (Director Ma On The Edge Episode 5) is a freelance actor and director, and a full-time lecturer at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Working primarily in devised theatre and collaborative playmaking, Rhinehart has given numerous seminars and workshops on acting, comedyimprovisation and devising in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and the productions he has directed have been seen in seven countries and all over the U.S. He is a TEDx and Fulbright teaching scholar, and for the past ten years has worked as an actor with the company Forum for Arts and Culture, in Heersum, Germany. Brian assistant-directed the first national Broadway tour of The Wedding Singer, was named “Best Director” of the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival for the play Einstein’s Dreams, was a member of the 2006 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab,and a Resident Artist of the Kraine Theater from 2002 to 2005. The plays/performances he has written or co-written have been seen in the New York International Fringe Festival and a variety of Off-Off Broadway venues. Brian is an internationally published scholar on the subject of contemporary German theatre, and is co-author of a book on comedy acting, titled Comedy Acting for Theatre: The Art and Craft of Performing in Comedies, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen.
JACOPO TEALDI (Human Hands) was born in 1986, I am an actor, mime, author, director and researcher. After my classical studies, I graduated from Philip Radice’s Atelier Teatro Fisico, in 2012. My research in physical theatre and figure theatre touches many different cultures, from the masks of the commedia dell’arte, to finger tutting, from Indian and Tibetan mudra and yantra, to vogue dancing, to the secret sequences of ninja, to sign language. My hands become faces and characters that tell comic and poetic stories and, through the “hands-up” comedy, dance theater and playback theater, I reach and involve – with deep reflection – every age group with shows that are literally handmade.
BRIAN RHINEHART (Director Ma On The Edge Episode 5) is a freelance actor and director, and a full-time lecturer at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Working primarily in devised theatre and collaborative playmaking, Rhinehart has given numerous seminars and workshops on acting, comedyimprovisation and devising in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and the productions he has directed have been seen in seven countries and all over the U.S. He is a TEDx and Fulbright teaching scholar, and for the past ten years has worked as an actor with the company Forum for Arts and Culture, in Heersum, Germany. Brian assistant-directed the first national Broadway tour of The Wedding Singer, was named “Best Director” of the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival for the play Einstein’s Dreams, was a member of the 2006 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab,and a Resident Artist of the Kraine Theater from 2002 to 2005. The plays/performances he has written or co-written have been seen in the New York International Fringe Festival and a variety of Off-Off Broadway venues. Brian is an internationally published scholar on the subject of contemporary German theatre, and is co-author of a book on comedy acting, titled Comedy Acting for Theatre: The Art and Craft of Performing in Comedies, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen.
Conversation Theme: Hands in Space
Artists: Brian Rhinehart & Jacopo Tealidi,
Artists: Brian Rhinehart & Jacopo Tealidi,
Sunday June 20, 12-1pm (NYC) Performance & Conversation
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MVMTMVMT.0.1
by collectiveMVMT (Brandon Perdomo & Lauren Sky) 
This live time delay acts as an intervention in time, perhaps intention, and serves us a momentary reprieve from the linear expectation of push/pull resistance and its imposition. The dancer moves, is moved, and condemns himself as a figment of the past. In a reimagining of memory, perhaps anchors of monument and shadow, this collaboration translates as a self-improvisation, a duality of here/there, now/then– a real schizm of nowness. The mover faces the past, the bounds of decision and strength in its action, and is met with immediate images of the past. The soundscape rifts through the synthetic memories of what is and what has been, complimenting and acting often in conversation within the fabric of the movement created.
CREDITS: Performance: collectiveMVMT (Brandon Perdomo / Lauren Sky) |
ASPIRATIONS
by Nurya Chana 
Aspiration coincides breath, search, journey, and aim. The movement of aspiration reaches up and down in a vertical effort as well as expansion and contraction. This piece is a revealed practice and effort to learn from the biological patterns of aspiration, their cycles and methods towards self betterment. The sculptural works present with the dancer are non-species-specific dancers also in suspension, working in an almost imperceptible timeframe of movement and process. The relationship between the human and the sculptures expands this practice into a posthumanist and interspecies navigation towards increased sensitivity and understanding.
CREDITS: Performance: Nurya Chana |
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Brandon Perdomo(mvmtmvmt.0.1) is an interdisciplinary artist from New York, fascinated with self-reflection and alterity, which are the engines of his performances and images. Interested in contemporary politics and minorities, as well as in the intricate manners in which
the body is perceived in the public sphere, he channels his aspirations towards social activism, which seem to have reemerged into his more recent creative work – since behind his impressively coherent and visually stunning work lies a healthy dose of thought and research, as well as the ambition to tackle some serious philosophical questions about human existence and, as he says, ”I share my world with others, and I need worlds to be shared with me.”
Perdomo has elaborated his devotional research, performance performance and integration “in- service-of” and “alongside” communities from his extensive residency and research at Socrates Sculpture Park (LIC Queens, NY) to the SculptureCenter (LIC Queens, NY), Mandragoras Arts Space (Astoria Queens, NY), Teatro Munganga (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Snug Harbor Cultural Center (Staten Island, NY), DFBRL8R (Chicago), Synthesis New and Experimental Series (Seattle, WA), The Watermill Winter Gala with LEIMAY – 2018 (NYC, NY), earthBODYment (Lasqueti Island BC, Canada) among others. Perdomo has been the proud recipient of the DCA Art Fund Grant honored by the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (2017, 2018, and 2019).
Lauren Sky(mvmtmvmt.0.1) is a composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with a special interest in electronic/experimental music and movement practices. She has over 20 years of experience performing as a musician, nationally & internationally, and has a passion for working with movement artists, dancers, and Butoh performers.
Nurya Chana (Aspiration): (b.1988, Bronx, NY) paints, sculpts, and performs to grapple with discontinuities between self and other, the inner and outer self, physicality and feeling. Her practice aims to expose the non-mental voices of the body, reconciling life sciences with the complexity and potency of being alive.
Brandon Perdomo(mvmtmvmt.0.1) is an interdisciplinary artist from New York, fascinated with self-reflection and alterity, which are the engines of his performances and images. Interested in contemporary politics and minorities, as well as in the intricate manners in which
the body is perceived in the public sphere, he channels his aspirations towards social activism, which seem to have reemerged into his more recent creative work – since behind his impressively coherent and visually stunning work lies a healthy dose of thought and research, as well as the ambition to tackle some serious philosophical questions about human existence and, as he says, ”I share my world with others, and I need worlds to be shared with me.”
Perdomo has elaborated his devotional research, performance performance and integration “in- service-of” and “alongside” communities from his extensive residency and research at Socrates Sculpture Park (LIC Queens, NY) to the SculptureCenter (LIC Queens, NY), Mandragoras Arts Space (Astoria Queens, NY), Teatro Munganga (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Snug Harbor Cultural Center (Staten Island, NY), DFBRL8R (Chicago), Synthesis New and Experimental Series (Seattle, WA), The Watermill Winter Gala with LEIMAY – 2018 (NYC, NY), earthBODYment (Lasqueti Island BC, Canada) among others. Perdomo has been the proud recipient of the DCA Art Fund Grant honored by the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (2017, 2018, and 2019).
Lauren Sky(mvmtmvmt.0.1) is a composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with a special interest in electronic/experimental music and movement practices. She has over 20 years of experience performing as a musician, nationally & internationally, and has a passion for working with movement artists, dancers, and Butoh performers.
Nurya Chana (Aspiration): (b.1988, Bronx, NY) paints, sculpts, and performs to grapple with discontinuities between self and other, the inner and outer self, physicality and feeling. Her practice aims to expose the non-mental voices of the body, reconciling life sciences with the complexity and potency of being alive.
Conversation Theme: Live Performance
Moderator: Michael Henry
Artists: Nurya Channa, Brandon Perdomo & Lauren Sky
Moderator: Michael Henry
Artists: Nurya Channa, Brandon Perdomo & Lauren Sky
VIRTUAL EXHIBITION (June 11-27)
Floating Gardens
by RooN
(Roxane Revon)
by RooN
(Roxane Revon)
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Click the image below to go RooN at UNFIX festival!
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RooN works mainly on “wanders” by creating atmospheres and environments that get the audience to move slowly away from a fixed point or place. She is interested in slow temporality, moving away from the logic of storytelling where the audience focus is not framed. The visible growth of plants (leaves and roots) integrated to her sculptures and installations balances the rigid frames to form an unfinished, ever developing piece.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Roxane Revon (aka RooN) is a visual artist working on transparency and nature mental images. After studying philosophy in Paris, she worked as an award winning director/designer and drama teacher in New York City while continuing her education (Yale Drama School and Stanford Ignite certifications). During that time she developed her visual work while visiting gardens in Charleston, Sinatra, and Oaxaca among others. She now wants to use her skills to create “Garden memorials” reusing the plexiglass panes that have become so present in our lives during the pandemic.
Roxane Revon (aka RooN) is a visual artist working on transparency and nature mental images. After studying philosophy in Paris, she worked as an award winning director/designer and drama teacher in New York City while continuing her education (Yale Drama School and Stanford Ignite certifications). During that time she developed her visual work while visiting gardens in Charleston, Sinatra, and Oaxaca among others. She now wants to use her skills to create “Garden memorials” reusing the plexiglass panes that have become so present in our lives during the pandemic.
SIGHT SPECIFIC (Multiple days)
MA ON THE EDGE (5 episodes)
Sight Specific Butoh Dances in NYC
by Ren Gyo Soh
Sight Specific Butoh Dances in NYC
by Ren Gyo Soh
Ep 1 Available from Tues. 6/15
Ep 2 Available from Thurs. 6/17 Ep 3 Available Mon. 6/21 Ep 4 Available Thurs. 6/24 Ep 5 Available Sat. 6/26 |
“Ma” is a Japanese word and concept which exists between time and space. It exists between this past year and now, between people, and between people and space. Ren Gyo Soh company members explore “Ma” through sight specific dances in selected neighborhoods of New York City. We dance with the energy of the land, the energy of people, and the energy of nature, which reflects on our lives in New York City NOW 2021
CREDITS:
Performers Saki Kawamura, Miles Butler, Yokko, Annie McCoy, Zak Ma Concept, Artistic Direction & Editing: Yoshiko Sienkiewicz Intro Music: Paul Michael Henry Direction (ep 5): Brian Rhinehart Videographer (ep3 & 5): Krzy Sien Videographer (ep2):Charlie Himel Videographer (ep2):Bonnie Puk Videographer (ep2):Ki-hong Jang Music (ep2): Marlfaux |
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Saki Kawamura (Performer: episode 1 & 5) is a NY-based Japanese director and interdisciplinary artist, her passion for theatre led her to move to NYC in 2019 to study. She currently pursues her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School, and she possesses a BA in Sociology and Media Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo. She puts great value on the process of collaboration, and loves to hear the stories of her collaborators and put them into her work. She believes that this emphasis on collaboration is what makes her work unique and singular.
Miles Butler(Performer: episode 2 & 5) is an Actor, Physical Theatre Artist from D.C. He has been working with Annie since 2017. NYC Credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (EPIC), Caveman Play (Third Space), Shinka (RenGyoSoh), Loudmouth (Rebel Playhouse), Naked Hamlet (Torn Out Theater)Anthropomorphic (Puppetry Arts), Ariel in The Tempest (Stag and Lion). DC: Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wolf Trap, Ford’s Theater and Folger Theater. Former company member of Synetic Theater and the Flea Theatre. He is a teaching artist with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company.
Annie McCoy(Performer: episode 4&5) is an Actor, Physical Theatre performer and Butoh Dancer originally from Orlando. She has been working with Miles since 2017. She is a Principal performer with the Butoh company Ren Gyo Soh and has been seen in their productions of Shinka (Winner of IT awards), En, and En: 2021.
As well as productions with The UME Group and Piper theatre.
Zak Ma(Performer: episode 4&5) is a New York based Vietnamese American actor and physical theatre artist. He has collaborated in original experimental works such as The Park, Forces, and SHINKA, where he first dove into butoh with Ren Gyo Soh. Recently, Zak made his debut performance as a Ren Gyo Soh company member in EN:2021, and is thrilled to explore Ma on the Edge. Zak believes in the healing power of art and aims to explore the human psyche and spirituality in his artistic endeavors. zak-ma.com
Yokko (performer for Episode 3&5, Concept, Artistic Direction & Editing) is an award-winning Japanese artist, whose work has been presented across the USA and Europe. She has acted in, devised, and choreographed a variety of local and international shows and films. Most recently, her Butoh work has been seen in several music videos, including I Don’t Know Where We Went Wrong (HOKO, 2020) and Ready To Let Go (Cage The Elephant, 2019). She is the artistic director of the Butoh Theatre Group, Ren Gyo Soh.
Paul Michael Henry (Music) is a Butoh Artist, Music Composer based in Glasgow, Scotland. "I make performances. My starting points are dance, music, writing and ritual; my artistic approach grows out of punk rock and Butoh."
Brian Rhinehart (Director of Episode 5) is a freelance actor and director, and a full-time lecturer at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Working primarily in devised theatre and collaborative playmaking, Brian has given numerous seminars and workshops on acting, comedy-improvisation and devising in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and the productions he has directed have been seen in seven countries and all over the U.S. He is a TEDx and Fulbright teaching scholar, and for the past ten years has worked as an actor with the company Forum for Arts and Culture, in Heersum, Germany. Brian assistant-directed the first national Broadway tour of The Wedding Singer, was named “Best Director” of the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival for the play Einstein’s Dreams, was a member of the 2006 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. The plays/performances he has written or co-written have been seen in the New York International Fringe Festival and a variety of Off-Off Broadway venues. Brian is an internationally published scholar on the subject of contemporary German theatre, and is co-author of a book on comedy acting, titled Comedy Acting for Theatre: The Art and Craft of Performing in Comedies, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen.
Krzy Sien (Videographer of Episode 3 & 5) is a New York based freelance photographer from Poland. He occasionally does videography and cinematography. He has been working with Ren Gyo Soh since 2018.
Ren Gyo Soh (Creator of Ma On The Edge) is a multi-award winning New York-based Butoh theatre group. It was founded by a Japanese artist, Yokko in 2014. It produces her work with collaborators, such as writers, directors, choreographers, dancers, actors, lighting designers, costume designers, composers, musicians, and painters by using Butoh, Acting, Movement, Yoga, and Voice. It offers workshops throughout a year.
Saki Kawamura (Performer: episode 1 & 5) is a NY-based Japanese director and interdisciplinary artist, her passion for theatre led her to move to NYC in 2019 to study. She currently pursues her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School, and she possesses a BA in Sociology and Media Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo. She puts great value on the process of collaboration, and loves to hear the stories of her collaborators and put them into her work. She believes that this emphasis on collaboration is what makes her work unique and singular.
Miles Butler(Performer: episode 2 & 5) is an Actor, Physical Theatre Artist from D.C. He has been working with Annie since 2017. NYC Credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (EPIC), Caveman Play (Third Space), Shinka (RenGyoSoh), Loudmouth (Rebel Playhouse), Naked Hamlet (Torn Out Theater)Anthropomorphic (Puppetry Arts), Ariel in The Tempest (Stag and Lion). DC: Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wolf Trap, Ford’s Theater and Folger Theater. Former company member of Synetic Theater and the Flea Theatre. He is a teaching artist with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company.
Annie McCoy(Performer: episode 4&5) is an Actor, Physical Theatre performer and Butoh Dancer originally from Orlando. She has been working with Miles since 2017. She is a Principal performer with the Butoh company Ren Gyo Soh and has been seen in their productions of Shinka (Winner of IT awards), En, and En: 2021.
As well as productions with The UME Group and Piper theatre.
Zak Ma(Performer: episode 4&5) is a New York based Vietnamese American actor and physical theatre artist. He has collaborated in original experimental works such as The Park, Forces, and SHINKA, where he first dove into butoh with Ren Gyo Soh. Recently, Zak made his debut performance as a Ren Gyo Soh company member in EN:2021, and is thrilled to explore Ma on the Edge. Zak believes in the healing power of art and aims to explore the human psyche and spirituality in his artistic endeavors. zak-ma.com
Yokko (performer for Episode 3&5, Concept, Artistic Direction & Editing) is an award-winning Japanese artist, whose work has been presented across the USA and Europe. She has acted in, devised, and choreographed a variety of local and international shows and films. Most recently, her Butoh work has been seen in several music videos, including I Don’t Know Where We Went Wrong (HOKO, 2020) and Ready To Let Go (Cage The Elephant, 2019). She is the artistic director of the Butoh Theatre Group, Ren Gyo Soh.
Paul Michael Henry (Music) is a Butoh Artist, Music Composer based in Glasgow, Scotland. "I make performances. My starting points are dance, music, writing and ritual; my artistic approach grows out of punk rock and Butoh."
Brian Rhinehart (Director of Episode 5) is a freelance actor and director, and a full-time lecturer at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Working primarily in devised theatre and collaborative playmaking, Brian has given numerous seminars and workshops on acting, comedy-improvisation and devising in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and the productions he has directed have been seen in seven countries and all over the U.S. He is a TEDx and Fulbright teaching scholar, and for the past ten years has worked as an actor with the company Forum for Arts and Culture, in Heersum, Germany. Brian assistant-directed the first national Broadway tour of The Wedding Singer, was named “Best Director” of the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival for the play Einstein’s Dreams, was a member of the 2006 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. The plays/performances he has written or co-written have been seen in the New York International Fringe Festival and a variety of Off-Off Broadway venues. Brian is an internationally published scholar on the subject of contemporary German theatre, and is co-author of a book on comedy acting, titled Comedy Acting for Theatre: The Art and Craft of Performing in Comedies, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen.
Krzy Sien (Videographer of Episode 3 & 5) is a New York based freelance photographer from Poland. He occasionally does videography and cinematography. He has been working with Ren Gyo Soh since 2018.
Ren Gyo Soh (Creator of Ma On The Edge) is a multi-award winning New York-based Butoh theatre group. It was founded by a Japanese artist, Yokko in 2014. It produces her work with collaborators, such as writers, directors, choreographers, dancers, actors, lighting designers, costume designers, composers, musicians, and painters by using Butoh, Acting, Movement, Yoga, and Voice. It offers workshops throughout a year.
