PERFORMER BIOS

Obsidian Absurd is a sideshow performer, dancer, and performance artist with a deep appreciation for combining danger, beauty, and ritual. Known as Coney Island's Dangerous Dancing Mermaid, Obsidian is the senior inside-member of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, a member of Hot Fix Sideshow, and a member of Pnk Vlvt Wtch Trio. Obsidian has been producing grant-winning queer vaudeville shows since 2012 and co-produces a new monthly queer vaudeville show with Alaska LostBoy called Vaudeville on the Rocks. @Obsidian_Absurd

Amazing Amy offers advanced yoga feats of flexibility, despite injuries all over her body: torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders, a disintegrated spinal disc and 2 hip replacements! At 68, she presents special theme- and character-based acts that challenge ageism and gender role stereotypes. She is a testimony to the benefits of an organic vegetarian diet, daily exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Please invite her to SPREAD THE YOGA LOVE at your event: amyharlib@e-activism.com, @amyharlib, https://www.reverbnation.com/amazingamycontortionistuniqueyogadancer

John D'Aquino is owner and operator of JohnnySound, a recording studio and  post-production facility located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His documentary of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, edited from over twenty years of film footage, will be released later this year.

Ama Diver (Yazmin) is a  seasoned Fusion belly dancer and Butoh dancer. She has spent the last 8 years melding the stylizations of Oriental dance with the deep emotional root-work that the Butoh methodology offers.‘Venus Invites’ is a  provoked portal connecting deity with the flesh. Desire is cultivated, experienced, studied, celebrated, and suspiciously  perceived in this Butoh influenced piece. @Ama__Diver

Omer Gal of Cookie Tongue is an international artist and musician, currently living in New Orleans. He has shown his work extensively in New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Rome, Russia, Italy, Branzil, UK, and Finland. He graduated with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and received a BFA from Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv, Israel. @cookietonguemusic, @omergalart, omergal.com

Si Golraine director of Soulphabet, is a multidisciplinary artist born in Lugansk, based in New York City. Si works in mediums of visual art, music, photography, film, theater, movement, poetry. Choreographed by Anjoli Chadha - dancer, choreographer, dance movement therapist. With Jeans Gallo, fiber artist, dancer and Magical Earth Being; Ri Tornello - composer, vocalist, performance artist; Sadé Dinkins - storyteller,  space maker, community co-learner; Forest McGill - visionary, nomad, lover; Annette Mae - performer, storyteller, dj and creative opportunist.

Celeste Hastings "The Butoh Rockettes," founded by Celeste along with original members Chris Maresca and Patti Bradshaw, is a satirical yet existential butoh group birthed in the late 90's at club MOTHER. Since 2000, Celeste multi-functions as choreographer, costume and soundscape designer, fusing dance, theater and butoh. Joining Celeste this year are Christine Coleman, fabulous long-time member, and so happy Gabriele Schafer and Nick Fracaro will join too! Many thanks and love to all who make the magic of this charming Ritual Cabaret series happen.

Mistral Hay has been living and working out of New York City as a dancer, aerial artist, and yoga teacher for about a decade. She has had the pleasure of touring nationally and internationally with the world-renowned dance company Pilobolus, and performing in venues around NYC as a freelancing aerial circus artist. Mistral loves to meld movement and aerial skills together in her circus works. @alonglineofcars,  mistralhay.com

Jonathan Kopp is a transdisciplinary artist, technologist, performer, and producer whose work includes themes of futurism, world-building, and syncretism. His practice spans 25+ years—from the hothouse of the ’90s Kyoto Butoh scene to the laboratories of Parsons’ MFA program in Design+Technology—and beyond. He has performed his original Butoh work in numerous festivals and events in NYC and Japan. He is currently at work on Continuity/Singularity, a multi-year project in speculative mythography. @jonachthonic

Bob Lyness and Erika Hassan have been collaborating since 2016.  We are interested in the power of dance to transform the dancers as well as the shared energy between artist and audience. We endeavor to explore that fine line between doing essential, minimum movement versus pulling out all the stops to challenge ourselves.  We performed ‘She Prefers Fire’ at the Amsterdam butoh festival in 2021, with earlier collaborations in New York and Tokyo. @erikahassan, @bob_lyness

Aída Miró is a multidisciplinary artist, painter and muralist from Ibiza (Spain) based between NYC and Ibiza. After graduating in Fine Arts in Valencia (Spain) she moved to Barcelona to do Circus. She has been doing butoh since 2007 learning from different teachers in different countries. She is PhD in Art Education by the University Autonoma of Madrid with her thesis in butoh dance as art therapy. @aidamiro aidamiro.com
Ken Arii is a Brooklyn based Soma pipe (voice processing instrument) player born in Osaka, Japan. Plays for new wave-esque rock band Street Missile, spooky electro pop duo The Invisible College, Noise duo Coput and solo under the name of Juice. Busks in NYC subway stations and performs in venues all around NYC. @ariijuice_missile

PNK VLVT WTCH (with Viper Cazimi, Pink Velvet Witch, Clawdette Smm Smm, Spicy Delight and Honey Boy) is an interdisciplinary collaborative performance art entity that transcends binaries and categorization. Their work is emotional, archetypal, and grounded in Surrealism & Witchcraft. Original music is the spine and soul, around which the body of dance and sensual movement is formed. They seek self liberation through embodying radical queer empowerment in its fullest expression. @pnkvlvtwtch, @succuboiprinx, @prettybrownclown666, @spicydelight, @honeyxb0y

Jacquelyn Marie Shannon is a ritual artist and PhD student in Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center, CUNY whose work explores magic, witchcraft, and ritual; death, haunting; presence, enchantment, and the supernatural. She investigates how performance conjures and transforms, and artistic processes that engage marginal registers of performance beyond bounded notions of body, space and time, that cultivate and operate as and through liminal and altered states, alternative temporalities, synesthesia, hypnosis, visions and dreams. @ghostinglass, jacquelynmarieshannon.com  

SisterDada
Nomi Tichman has appeared with Peculiar Works Project, and in In Ithaca When Physics Saved My Life, Modern Living and Orlando at La MaMa, and Jeff Weiss’ Come Clean at PS122. Catherine Porter is a founder of PWP and has performed in 100+ site-specific PWP productions and with La MaMa, Concrete Temple Theatre, Flux Theatre Ensemble, TOSOS, Theatre Askew, The Forge, Aisling Arts, and Off Broadway with En Garde Arts in Mac Wellman’s Crowbar. @catpeculiar, peculiarworks.org

Sprankles (Julie Becker) makes work that is often dreamlike, physically dynamic, and focuses on masks: literally and/or figuratively. She draws upon physical theatre, butoh, voice, and embodied relational practices- creating solo and with ensembles. She has trained with artists working within (or heavily influenced by) Polish laboratory theatre, and has performed in NYC, Boston, LA, London, and Poland. She also directs, writes, designs, teaches workshops, makes audio drama and weird comedy, and performs at kids' parties. @juliebecker88, juliebeckerartist.com

Sunt suidae (Evan Troost) uolucres; non quae Phineia mensis; Guttura fraudabant: sed genus inde trahunt; Grande caput: stantes oculi: rostra apta rapinae; Canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest. Nocte uolant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes; Et uitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. Carpere dicuntur lacentia uiscera rostris; Et plenum poto sanguime guttur habent. Est illis strigibus nomen: sed nominus huius. Causa; quod horrenda stridere nocte solent. suidae.weebly.com

Wharton Tract was born and raised in Philadelphia. Musically he has worked with blues musicians Sonny Rhodes, Junior Wells and Carey Bell; in theater with Jason Miller, Jules Tasca, Theatre Double and other Philly theaters. In 2002, Wharton joined Gabriele and Nick in International Culture Lab's production of Say Uncle at the Los Angeles and Wellington, New Zealand, fringe festivals.

Alter Kacker Rocker Amos (Amos Wengler) is the troubadour and bard of Coney Island. The songster has for the last many decades provided the soundtrack for Coney Island. Amos can be seen every year at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the big stage strumming his guitar and crooning out his love for Coney Island. He's also a presence at almost all of Coney Island's events, especially those that are meant to save his beloved land. Being a long-time Coney Island Polar Bear, he has a couple tunes for that. Amos's catchy diddy for Mermaid Parade every year is a can't miss.