2017 PERFORMERS
~ Sha Sha Higby ~
“Exoskeletons,” they appear to be more intricate than lace, or more fragile than a thread of a spiders silk in sunlight, whimsical as the ornaments in music boxes and fancy clocks: Bolinas artist Sha Sha Higby sculptures are complex and layered, informed by her experiences in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and India. Yet more than mere visual delights, these sculptures are made to move with her living body as the driving force. Meticulously crafted over the course of years, her sculptural costumes use paper, wood, leaves, silk, lacquer, ceramics, and gold leaf to make creatures somewhere between the natural and the divine. In a Paper Wing, Higby combines visual art with puppetry, and dance to present and ephemeral but the experience timeless, Watch to see patience rewarded.” Irene Hsiao of Sf. Weekly
Sha Sha Higby received a BS in art from Skidmore College and spent five years in Indonesia under aFulbright Scholarship. She also studied for a year in Japan, and six months in India under an Indo-American Fellowship. She has received numerous awards and grants, including a NEA Fellowship in solo theater and grants from the Zellerbach Family Fund and from The Japan Foundation for collaborative artistic work.
She has performed internationally at the Festival Internazional delle Marionnnette; Divaldo Korzo in Slovakia; the Festival of Sydney in Australia; Singapore Festival of the Arts; Hong Kong Fringe Festival; Tokyo National College Of Art; the Tokyo Textile Institute: Puppet Theater Festival; and the Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. In addition; she has exhibited her work at the Portland Art Museum; Arizona State University; San Francisco Folk and Craft Art Museum in San Francisco; Honolulu Academy of Arts; University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Columbia College Inter-Arts Program in New York; San Francisco Asian Art Museum; The Glass Museum in Tacoma, Washington; and Baltimore College of Art.
~ Amy Sigil ~
Amy Sigil is an international instructor in dance and team building, director of UNMATA, owner of Hot Pot Studios and the creator of Improvisational Tribal Style (ITS). She has been studying dance for 18 years with training in Bellydance, American Tribal Style, Salimpour format, Polynesian, Volleyball, Basketball and Track.
I am truly honored to be part of Shadow Dance 2017. This stage is a place where I can be one of my most expressive selves. I am debuting a solo tonight. The first solo I've written in 8 years. I want to dedicate this piece to Ariellah for always giving a space to reach and to my two mentors in this project, Edwin Olvera and Emily Kent. A huge thanks to you both for giving a shit!
~ Monastic ~
MONASTIC is a ritualistic performance art from San Francisco's Darkwave artist Anthony Jones. Inspired by the sights and sounds of various spiritual traditions, MONASTIC is an experience that features ethereal vocals, thematic costumes, and sacramental interactions. Though the project was placed to rest in 2014, MONASTIC will be resurrected for a special performance at this year's ShadowDance.
~ Unmata ~
UNMATA is a fusion dance company from Sacramento, California. A collection of urban tumbleweeds they find their style to include East to West, and North to South. With influences of bellydance, polynesian, improvisation and theatre, UNMATA is full of surprises and no performance is ever quite like the other. Created specifically for Shadow Dance, with Ariellah as our inspiration, we are excited to debut this new piece for you! Tonight's piece is choreographed by Amy Sigil, Shelly DeCant, Kari VanderZwaag, Claire Bear and Heather Leona. Huge gratitude to Pilobolus for mentoring us spiritually from afar.
~ Ariellah & Deshret Dance Company ~
Ariellah is an international fusion dancer, performer and instructor with much passion in her heart for life, for music, for love…
She has an extensive dance background that includes strict classical ballet training for 12 years with the Royal Academy of Dance from London. She has studied and performed belly dance since 2001, commencing her training with Janine Ryle of Danse Mahgreb and as a founding member of The Indigo with Rachel Brice. In 2009, Ariellah began training in classical Indian Odissi dance, studying in India at the Shakti School of Dance and currently continues her studies of this dance form yearly with Colleena Shakti. Ariellah's style infuses many genres of dance, all with a modern dark flavour that is uniquely her own. Her dance manifests what is deep in her heart and expresses her own experience and perceptions of this wondrous and tragic thing called life. Deshret Dance Company was founded in early 2007 by Ariellah, the company’s artistic director and main choreographer. Deshret’s current collaborating dancers are: Danielle, Amina, Laura, Allison, Scarlett, Alexxe and Jennifer. Each of the dancers contribute their individuality and strength to the dance company. DDC applies pressure to the boundaries of Middle Eastern dance and attempts to bring a more theatrical, artistic side to this ancient, highly skilled, art form. Deshret keeps its roots grounded in the traditional technique and movements of Middle Eastern and Tribal Fusion dance and then morphs them into something new and different. Wandering between darkness and light…
www.ariellah.com
www.deshretdance.com
~ Idhun ~
Idhun is a Dark Fusion dancer based in Spain, who converts/ perverts the traditional Tribal Fusion Bellydance patterns in a most profound move, from deep inside our guts, hidden in the dark of our unconsciousness.
She discovered Bellydance in 2002, while she was studying her Drama Degree in Spain. Among so many various skills, during these four years of classes she was taught that all movement can hide lots of meanings. Those who go on stage have the commitment of connecting with the audience taking people to different worlds. As she practices Drama and Bellydance, both art forms grow together in a natural way, as she was applying to bellydance technique exercises from different disciplines as Lecoq, Laban or Grotowski, as well as training in ballet, jazz, contemporary, fighting scenes and acrobatics.
In 2007 she approaches bellydance through ESTODA® and infuses it with Ballet and Flamenco in the María José Ñíguez company, while continuing her studies of Tribal Fusion with Nuria Gallego, creator of the DDT® format, where Idhun is a collaborative teacher. From those days until now, she’s been studying with the main icons of Tribal Fusion and sharing stage with them. She has been a guest teacher at festivals in her country and in Germany, U.K, Hungary or Italy.
Nowadays she keeps working on her own style at her regular classes and workshops and studying different ways of movement through contemporary dance, butoh and myofascial stretching.
Certified teacher in Pilates and Low Pressure Fitness, she also works with women of all ages in their postural rehabilitation.
As an actress she keeps exploring the expressive part of the dance.
As a Pilates and Yoga lover she applies her anatomical studies to explore the unlimited options to cultivate technique, while traveling deep into the body for dancing always from inside.
The main trait in her dance is Connection, dance from the guts and find the true meaning in each movement.
Idhun on FB
Idhun on YouTube
~ Ego Umbra ~
Ego Umbra is a fusion dance troupe that explores the shadow self. They meld together the dark and the light, and metal music with fluid dance. They specialize in theatrical pieces that explore the abstract, create beauty in the unexpected, and find peace in the bittersweet.
Based out of Oakland, CA, Raven Ebner is director, choreographer, costumer, and makeup artist.
DeathVine/Ego Umbra
~ DJ Melting Girl ~
Music should make you feel joy, passion or sorrow. With every song she spins DJ Meting Girl looks for the emotion in the song, the power in the lyrics and the way that perfect beat can make you dance every time you hear it. She has been a part of the San Francisco goth/industrial club scene for over 20 years. She is a resident DJ at Death Guild, the longest running weekly gothic/industrial club in the United States. In addition to her residency at Death Guild she is also the co-founder of Dark Shadows which brings San Francisco a dark place to gather and celebrate the gothic/industrial culture through music, dance, decor and aesthetic. Dark Shadows is a monthly club night which focuses one room on Gothic music and one room on Industrial music. Everything DJ Melting Girl does is a reflection of the dark and spooky lifestyle she has loved since she was a child.
~ Kandroma ~
Kandroma is a visceral exploration of theatre, ritual and darkness. This however is not darkness as a blind or malign principal; but rather darkness as the unknown, darkness as the mysterious, darkness as shunyata. The muse who dances through darkness does so only to seduce us beyond it.
Iris returns to Shadowdance and is joined on stage, once again, with the story-shaping half of Kandroma, Art Annata. Together they are renegade paramours who deconstruct mythology and magick.
Photo Credit: Becca Levy
~ Vector Vervain ~
Vector Vervain is an MC, sideshow performer, cabaret producer and costumer based out of Portland, Oregon. With a flair for the dramatic and fearlessness in the face of pain, he is honored to bring his newest and darkest act to Shadowdance... A piece which is as captivating as it is frightening.
~ Shadow Circus Creature Theatre ~
Combining folklore, mythology, Lovecraftian monsters and pop-culture parody, Shadow Circus Creature Theatre has been one of San Francisco’s most popular and outrageous puppetry troupes since its formation in 2000. Using life-sized latex and foam creatures Shadow Circus creates a world that is utterly fantastic, and yet hilariously similar to our own. The troupe was created by puppet-maker and ventriloquist Dave Haaz-Baroque, working with a variety of other puppeteers, actors, variety performers and musicians. Their short puppet film "Dude, Where's My Shard" was awarded an honorable mention from the Jim Henson company. Currently they are working on a family show called 'Wednesday's Wonderium', starring Wednesday Mourning from the Science Channel's 'Oddities: San Francisco." To learn more about Dave Haaz-Baroque and the Shadow Circus Creature Theatre, please visit their Patreon at:
~ Edenia ~
The original West Coast Fusion Bellydancer/Popper, Edenia is known far and wide for her completely unique style. Though Popping was Edenia’s first love, which she began mastering in Junior High, in 2006 she was entranced by her first Rachel Brice video and immediately became addicted to Fusion Bellydance as well.
She promptly began studying Tribal Fusion Bellydance with Zahreen, to whom she is eternally grateful. Edenia is nothing less than a creature of hard work and dedication and continues to learn and evolve in Bellydance as well as in Popping. She continues to study with many teachers, near and far, and prides herself in pushing to new physical limits daily.Traveling all over the world, she teaches workshops and performs and can be seen on music videos as well as recent Television.
Edenia has even toured with the popular Belly Dance Super Stars (BDSS) to Japan in 2011. Likewise, you can often find her as a highlighted performer and instructor at the most popular Events.
Edenia insists, however, that she loves all styles of dance and says that every dancer out there is an inspiration to her. And it is through her passion that she attributes her growth in life.
~ Sataray ~
Sataray is a one-woman project spawned by Katrina Ellison, based out of Olympia WA (formerly Seattle). It is ritualistic in nature, creating compositions based in a dark ambient/ gothic/ metal fusion, using primarily layers of vox and various drone keyboards, as well as other electronic elements.
Sataray's compositions as well as live performances utilize vocal invocations from an unknown abyss, creating a raw dark terrain.
She has mostly performed along the West coast of the US, as well as an appearance in Berlin and in the very past, Colombia.
New albums are in the works.
www.sataraymusic.com
Sataray on SoundCloud
~ DJ Keyz ~
Music resonates with our souls because it knows how to connect with our emotions, amplify our desires and vibrate our hearts. DJ Keyz does just that—with her rhythmic musical selections—by calling to each of us to embrace the dark vibes within all of us. Her musical choices provides a sanctuary for lovers of the night and dancers of the dark. DJ Keyz has been a staple of the Gothic-Industrial-EBM scene for over a decade in California. With DJ appearances spanning from San Francisco to Los Angeles, DJ Keyz has showcased her ever-evolving talents at various pre-eminent clubs such as Death Guild, Dark Shadows, Hexed, Die Maschinen, Das Bunker and Noize Faktory. She also wholeheartedly supports and nurtures the ever-growing scene in her hometown of Sacramento, by being a constant creative and fundamental force within the community, including her own new night club in 2017 called Necromancy. As she looks ahead to Shadow Dance, DJ Keyz hopes her musical style will conjure up beauty in darkness and offer a spooky haven for those that seek that deep connection that her music can create.
~ Jenny Atomik ~
Raised in a small town in central New York, Jenny was a child who always loved creating motion. Even in the late hours of the evening when she should have been sleeping, she would be up dancing around her room, expressing her thoughts through movement. Jenny started taking dance classes at the age of 3 and by the age of 17, Jenny had studied ballet, jazz, tap, and her favorites..hip-hop/street styles, and contemporary. At that age she then also discovered her love for circus and aerial arts. Seeing her first aerial performance of Cirque du Soleil's "Quidam," Jenny was intensely captivated by the magic of aerial movement and flying above the ground. Jenny went off to college at Notre Dame de Namur University. During her time at the there, Jenny studied Theatre Arts and helped to build a Dance Minor for the school and received a Deans Award for it's creation. Upon graduating college, Jenny moved to San Francisco and began training intensely in aerial acrobatics at San Francisco Circus Center. She was also accepted in to Acrosports City Circus and became a part of their company and training program in 2010-2012. From there Jenny studied with coach Marina Luna on the essence and building blocks of her corde-lisse act and trained acrobatics with coach Dominik Wyss. In 2012, Jenny began to work with Master coach Jeremy Sheets, Lead coach of the San Francisco Circus Center Aerial Pre-Professional Program, to solidify her aerial corde-lisse act.
Jenny now has debuted her rope act at Supperclub San Francisco, CA and has performed her rope act all over the world. She also performs and coaches at Emerald City Trapeze Arts in Seattle, WA which is now where she currently resides. Jenny has also participated in many circus fundraising projects such as fundraising for The Uncle Junior Project, and The Paper Doll Militia, as well as the prestigious fire cabaret "Heat" at the Crucible, Oakland where she performed on a silk hammock that flew over the crowds on a bridge crane. Jenny is very excited to be back in San Francisco performing with the ShadowDance Festival and to be performing alongside such a captivating group of talented hearts and minds.
~ Tatseena ~
Tatseena is honored to conjure a pre-show ritual evoking dark and light forces brewing within. A Bay Area original, dancer of the deep, full of spirit, knowledge, love and creativity she has tantalized her audiences over 4 decades. Tatseena traveled the globe performing on many continents, staying a month in Egypt in 1984, then another in Greece, and more months in Europe, drawing from her life experience to create a unique blend of styles. In 2000 she journeyed to Taiwan as an ambassador of the arts performing poetic dance at a international peace conference. A lover of nature, former pro- spelunker staring in a reading rainbow show in 1989. Director/ teacher/choreographer/costumer/ bellydancer her troupe the “Serpent Sirens” are known for their mystical shows including snakes, swords, annually performing at the NorthernCal Pirate Fest, and at the Pirates Of Emerson Haunted Theme Park too. Tatseena infuses her spiritually into her art, workshops, and classes in the East Bay and Tri Valley. An awarded master in Mid-Eastern Dance, producer, philanthropist, poet, singer, and long time natural healing artist, CMT, she carves out her living from her dance and bodywork.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix
www.Tatseena.com
Master of Ceremonies
~ Loren the Black ~
ShadowDance has become an annual pilgrimage for your Master of Ceremonies Loren the Black, whose Heart was not left in Oakland...but perhaps a part of his Soul was reclaimed there. Light from beyond The Darkness is his motivation and his Gift compelled to share with you. Words pour in joyous Truth to introduce My Brothers and Sisters...and some Prayers are best sung. At other times, LtB serves as UnGuard for children of all ages around interactive contemporary art, sings as the Deathly Doctor in a six-pirate band, and spends a few weeks each year, with several thousand people, in front of the camera on a boat. In fangs.
Loren the Black
USS Nightmare
Band of Pirates Band
VENDORS
~ KORRUPT LABEL ~
Born in Thailand and raised with a punk rock ethos and DIY mentality, Henry Miyoshi founded Korrupt Label in 2006, and creates deconstructed, highly detailed t-shirts and hoodies layered with text, images and patches proudly self made in West Oakland, California.
~ MALVOYE ENTERPRISES ~
Jeremy Burmeister is a Bay-area artist with a flair for found objects of vintage and organic varieties. His creativity finds expression in the media of jewelry, sculpture, mirrors, and performance.
The organic sensibility of Jeremy’s work owes to his childhood near the southern New Jersey shore where he was fascinated by oceanic creatures, insects, fossils, and other treasures. The result is a harmonious combination of discovery and invention that distinguishes his art.
The unisex jewelry line "The Organic Collection" is his main focus, and is a collection of bronze, sterling silver, and some carved hardwood pieces. While inspired by nature, these are each unique creations having not previously existed. The mirrors and wall decor are assemblages of disused antiques, repurposed and salvaged woods, found bone, and rusted and weathered materials.
Occasionally, Jeremy can be found performing with the antique fortune telling booth of Malvoye the Mentalist, a rare revival of America's side show and carnival history.
Jeremy holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
~ SACRED WELL ~
The Sacred Well is the Bay Area's favorite shop for accurate, heart-opening intuitive tarot & astrology services, beautifully crafted ritual & ceremonial items, sage & incense, high-energy crystals & gems, healing gemstone jewelry, essential oils, purification, attraction, and prosperity baths, hand-blended herbal teas, tarot & oracle decks, locally-sourced artisanal gifts.
Our magical family has been growing our business together for 9 years, bringing light, joy and spirit to Lake Merritt/Grand Avenue in Oakland. And soon we will be bringing magic to a second location in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, grand opening is 11/11/16!!!
Magic Happens Every Day!
~ EYESCREAM JEWELRY ~
Jewelry to inspire your muse...
Artist Ruby Smith creates ornate totem adornments, implementing various techniques and mediums. She crafts them in moonlight, while most of the world sleeps, etched with metal scribe, hand stamped esoteric sigils in brass & copper, talisman sculpted in molten metal, art painted with delicate bristles, works torched in flame, or encased in glass like surfaces, encrusted fossils and minerals, embellished with intricate wires, imbued with Vintage remnants and found objects of past lives, antiqued in dark patinas, formed with calloused fingers, and sent out into the world with undying love. Custom and one of a kind Ritual Witchy Gothic Tribal Jewelry, Quartz Pendants, Bones, Silver Sorcery, Eye Talisman, Bats, Moons, Skulls, Artifacts Macabre, & other dark delights. Find the artist at Eyescream 3816 Telegraph Ave. Oakland Ca. Open Most Fridays & Saturdays 1-6pm or by Appointment.
EyeScreamJewelry.com &
EyeScreamJewelry on Instagram
FINE ARTS AND MIXED MEDIA
~ BART D. Frescura ~
Born and raised in the Bay Area Frescura has been obsessed with film and film making, since he was a child. This obsession is seen in the variety of mediums in which he works (photography, painting, sculpture, and illustration). With a cinematic perspective and a hungry eye, his works have a film noir quality; creating strange characters and documenting lost stories. His Unique vision marries classic Universal monster movies, monster make-up and masks, music, religious art and Icons.
Frescura’s art has been exhibited throughout the East Bay Area and North Bay, LA, Pittsburgh,Arizona, and Orlando.
He also has worked behind the scenes in make-up, costume, and illustration for local filmmakers. He lives and works in the East Bay.
STAGE CREW
~ Little Boy Blue ~
After almost a lifetime of working as a disposable cigarette lighter repairman in Europe, Bruce now lives as a hobo in the United States, traveling from state to state, juggling rats, birds and insects for food, and sometimes he can be seen doing cartwheels behind hot dog vendors. During his off season, he enjoys needlepoint work and stage managing.
