ENSEMBLE BIOS

Anjoli Chadha/Elaichi (cardomom) (“Elaichi and Alana’s Tea Party”) is a Dancer and Dance Movement Therapist. She was born in Brooklyn and raised in India. She got her start as a dancer in New Delhi, India with a music band Emperor Minge- a six piece psychedelic cabaret band. She’s trained in Indian and Brazilian martial arts -Kalaripayattu and Capoeira respectively. She has been dancing in New York since 2011. She’s danced in works of Z Griss, Charlotte Hendrickson and Urban Circus NYC to name a few and has choreographed pieces for the Ritual Cabaret annual performances since 2018. 

AC Chan ("ananda") At the age of 7, AC began studying classical ballet and has since, dedicated herself to exploring various energetic and healing movement art forms. Her current practice integrates butoh, ballet, yoga, contemporary and West African dance, drawing most deeply from the lineage of Daoist healing arts and her studies in Tibetan Medicine. She believes all energies and expressions are sacred and at the root of her dance practice and art making is a (comm)union with Source, The Creative, life itself.  

Kate Dale/Design/Moxie Battles (“The Black Freighter”) works as the Properties Shop Supervisor for the Juilliard School, where her work has been seen in over 700 productions. Previous Scenic and Costume designs for Coney Island USA include Bloody Brains in a Jukebox*, The Education of Al Capone as if Told by Jimmy Durante, Killing Republicans- A Rock Opera, Dirty work at the Wax Works and The Ride Inspector’s Nightmare. Kate is a long time participant in the Mermaid Parade and is deeply devoted to the mission and culture of Coney Island USA.

Katharine Doughty/Katharsi ("the apple, the mirror and the egg") studied visual art, dance and somatics at Hampshire College, eventually leading to training with Anna and Daria Halprin. Dancing @ mile zero since 2003, she is a free range gleaner, multimodal artist, expressive arts therapist and somatic educator on the open air asylum known as Key West. She can sometimes be found outside Hemingway’s House offering free navigation, sidewalk therapy and original art work. 

Rachel Finan/Madame McDew ("Cut Piece" Yoko Ono Homage) has been an actor, director and producer of theater arts since she was 14. After graduating high school she attended NYU where she studied theater and life. When she moved back to Michigan she started several theater companies including X Performance Group, the 15 year long touring show Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, and Bangarang Circus. Rachel thrives in the performance world and has had extensive training and performance in everything from circus sideshow to butoh. Over the past two years she’s ventured into stand up and continues to peruse anything that scares her. 

Nick Fracaro/Sick Nick co-founded the precursor to ICL, Thieves Theater (thievestheatre.org), for which he directed the world premiere of R.W. Fassbinder's Trash, the City and Death in New York, among many other projects. He holds an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from The University of Illinois at Chicago. He is co-artistic director of ICL, together with Gabriele Schafer, whom he met in a 1980 production of The Balcony, in which they played Roger and Chantal. @nickfracaro 

Jeans Gallo/Mary Magdalene is a multidisciplinary artist working mostly with fiber and movement. They have an academic background in ethnographic research and public health. While their spiritual and artistic practices are often centered in somatic experiences, there is another half based in qualitative research methods. The physical and the mental are not the only worlds they straddle: the mundane and the erotic, the masculine and the feminine, and on and on.

Luna Feliz Giovenella/Helen Melina is a recent graduate of LIU Post’s BFA Musical Theatre program with a passion for devised an immersive works. She’s also known among her friends to be a gifted tarot reader as well as the go-to astrology friend for analyzing your date’s birth chart before you proceed any further. She laments the fact that her four cats in San Antonio cannot attend her performance, but would nonetheless like to thank her mom and Jordan for their unwavering support. Keep tabs on her @lunafelizgio & @lunafeliztarot on Instagram or visit her website at lunafelizgio.com

Si Golraine/Production/Design ("Cut Piece" an Homage to Yoko Ono) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Lugansk currently based in NYC. Si has had a wide range of formal and informal artistic education including 11 years of classical music education in Ukraine and visual art and theater education in Texas. Si has been working in a variety of mediums of art such as music, visual art, and theater. Currently, Si’s premiere focus is painting with electricity on titanium. 

Charlotte Hendrickson/Alana (“Elaichi and Alana’s Tea Party”) is a Brooklyn based choreographer, dancer, yoga instructor, and healer. Her work has been shown at Dixon Place, Judson Memorial Church, Theater for The New City, and The House of Yes. She received her B.A. in dance from Bard College. Charlotte has been featured in works by Aileen Passloff, Catherine Gallant, Toby Armour, Sondra Loring, Noemie LaFrance, Susan Osberg, Anjoli Chadha, and EmmaGrace Skove-Epes.

Julie Hunkert/BitterSweet ("Metamorphosis") is a Brooklyn based choreographer, dancer, yoga instructor, and healer. Her work has been shown at Dixon Place, Judson Memorial Church, Theater for The New City, and The House of Yes. She received her B.A. in dance from Bard College. Charlotte has been featured in works by Aileen Passloff, Catherine Gallant, Toby Armour, Sondra Loring, Noemie LaFrance, Susan Osberg, Anjoli Chadha, and EmmaGrace Skove-Epes.

Iren Kamyshev/Irka, ("Madam Irka") known as Art.irkA, is a feminist artist with a Ukrainian-Russian-Israeli-Jewish background. Her multicultural roots infuse her work with boundless creativity. Rejecting victimhood, she transforms life’s challenges into empowering art, exploring raw emotions and forging connections. Trained in Israel’s prestigious dance program, she holds a B.A. from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. As a teacher and producer, Art.IrkA’s mission is to push boundaries and collaborate with diverse talents. She communicates through movement, merging music, theater, film, poetry, and fashion to redefine artistic expression in order to build community and bring together people of diverse cultures.

Alex Law/Qupid ("SWIPE") is a dance artist combining live music, choreography, and improvisation. As the Marketing & Communications Director at Kinetech Arts, she creates a collaborative space for artists, scientists, and technologists. Her recent work researches the interaction between sound and body in narrative-driven performance. Currently based in Brooklyn, she directs an arts collective, showcasing local multi-disciplinary acts. In San Francisco, she has been recognized as an ODC Pilot artist, an Emerging Arts Professional Fellow, and a multi-time SAFEhouse resident artist.

Liz Leighton/The Shadow is a writer and performer based out of New York City with a specialized interest in horror and immersive performance mediums. Previous credits include Haunted Soiree: NYC, Horseman’s Hollow, and various film credits. Publication of short fiction includes, Dark Dead Things, Descent into Madness and Horror, Sleaze, Trash. Her Instagram can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/ladyintheradiator123/

Bob Lyness and Erika Hassan (“The Revolution is Here”) have been collaborating since 2016.  We are interested in the power of dance to transform the dancers as well as the energy of the space, as artist and audience share the experience. And to explore that fine line between doing essential, minimum movement, and pulling out the stops to challenge and sometimes scare ourselves.  And always, the challenge of not doing too much, but giving ‘enough’.  Our last performance together was ‘Wings of the Falling’ at last year's Coney Island Ritual Cabaret festival, with earlier collaborations in Amsterdam, New York, and Tokyo.

Alix Martin/Design is an artist/engineer/tinkerer who fabricates props and scenery and has been problem-solving professionally in and out of theaters for half a century. The tinkering began with disassembling her family's power lawn mower at age four. Alix is privileged to be resuming her ongoing collaborative adventures with the staff at Coney Island USA and making new alliances with the artists in this production of The Balcony.

Aída Miró ("Inner Visions") 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

Emma Pesin/Franie A. Grossman/poster design is a Brooklyn based designer and fine artist. They received their BFA at SUNY Purchase 22’ and was the recipient of the Interdisciplinary Senior Award. Group exhibitions include the Dolly Maass, Greenpoint, Established, and Chelsea Galleries. Pesin performed their own funeral LIVE! at The Sable Project in Vermont, drew shadows at the Figment Festival in snug harbor, was a professional mourner for Anne Katrin Spiess “Death by Plastic“ and creator of the internet publication Clown Soup Mag-Zine. www.emmaep.com @emmaep.png

Yauheniya Ramanovich (Yara)/Pupu ("A Game") is a performer, dancer, actor of puppet theater, founder of the art space "DOM46", manager of events, and teacher of contemporary dance, theater, and capoeira. Yara graduated from the Academy of Arts in Minsk as an actor of puppet theater and worked at a major Puppet Theater in Grodno for six yefore becoming an independent artist. Yara has performed and taught in various cities across Europe (Paris, Berlin, Kiev, Amsterdam, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Prague, Vilnius, Minsk) and America (NYC, Miami, Boston)

Gabriele Schafer co-founded the precursor to ICL, Thieves Theatre (thievestheatre.org). She holds an MFA in acting from the Yale (David Geffen) School of Drama. She has acted in Hamburg, Germany’s Thalia Theater, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Yale Repertory Theater, the Public Theater… She is co-artistic director of ICL, together with Nick Fracaro, whom she met in a 1980 production of The Balcony at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in which they played Roger and Chantal. @gabrieleschafer

Alessia Secli/Circe is an Italian performer and choreographer based in New York City. After finishing her training in Milan (Italy) Alessia moved to New York City in order to pursue her dream to work professionally in the performing arts. Alessia starred in the role of Clarisse in the  LATAA-winning 5 Paths to Uptown stories. Alessia was also recently playing the role of Maggie in Working-A musical and associate choreographer in the musical Xanadu at The Heights players. Other theatre credits include: Pippin (Fastrada), Hair (ensemble), Evelyn Evelyn (Evelyn), Someone in the Crowd (Mia), The Taming of Kate (Baptista), A Chorus Line, Uninvited Water, and Yes!

Zoë Tirado/Mary Magdalene of Staten Island, NY, delves into identity, sexuality, and the grotesque. Her work, blending classical portraiture with obscure themes, challenges conventions. Exhibiting in group exhibitions like Staten Island Art’s Artspace and 98 Orchard St, she explores the boundaries of tradition and obscenity. Zoë's solo shows include Buff Chixxx and Ghoulfriends, while she co-produces Queer Van Kult, an experimental art collective. With a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MA in Museology from CUNY, she is the Education Director at Alice Austen House Museum. zoetirado.com IG: zoe_tirado.

Wharton Tract (aka Paul Pirozzi) is an actor, singer songwriter, engineer, producer, currently working with Cozy MoBetta (Universal Studios, management). Hear Paul’s music in Naveen A. Chathapuram’s “The Last Victim” and in the “The Vanishing of Sydney Hall.” Paul is a member of playwright Dennis Moritz’s theater company (Philadelphia and NYC), which in 2023 produced six one-acts at Torn Page and three plays in Philly, with Paul and Effi Kammer anchoring “Blues in a Buick.” Through art promote peace, love and understanding.