2018 PERFORMERS
~ Soriah ~
Soriah, which translates as "Pleiades" in Arabic, is the stage persona for the internationally recognized artist, Enrique Ugalde. Soriah’s craft is a blending of traditional Khöömei (Tuvan Throat Singing), tempered with Soriah’s own visceral force. Performances vary from being steeped in tradition and bound to its constructs to more experimental fascinations with electronic and acoustic accompaniments, and introducing Butoh and Ritual Performance Art. Soriah’s use of Khöömei as a transportive medium is an offering to nature in her own tongue, that of organic sound whether it be wind, water or the mimicry of animals. Soriah takes an annual sabbatical to Tuva to study with various masters and to compete. The 2008 Fifth Quinquennial Ethnomusicology Symposium, “Khöömei: The Cultural Phenomenon of Central Asia”, has honored Enrique Ugalde, “Third Place”, the highest a non-native to Tuva has yet placed. The Üstüü-Khüree Festival awarded him “Best Foreigner” for their 2008 selection. The rest of the year Soriah travels the globe with extended tours performing in various cities and enclaves of Japan, crooning in the cathedrals and ruins of Mexico, and intoning in ocean caves and amidst the swamplands of America. The artist has been invited to perform at society events such as The 2009 Peace Ball in Washington, D.C. for Obama’s inauguration, and by brigand artist elites, to sing at various installations of note at the Burning Man Festival. One becomes encased in an awe-laced ceremonial pallor while in attendance at a Soriah performance. A deep spiritualism imbues each piece performed, whether entirely traditional or exhibiting a fusion of music, movement and meditation that Soriah describes as Vocalized Ritual Drone.
soriah.wordpress.com
~ Shovelman ~
Shovelman is a junkyard beatnik, a shovel guitar wielding surrealist folk superhero. An enigmatic iconoclast, his music will lure you into another place and time. Drawing psychedelic rock melodies out of a barn shovel turned slide guitar, Shovelman manipulates cutting edge looping FX to craft broken orchestral experiences, retelling tall-tails and immortal hotel room hymns. The sounds of Mississippi delta blues from the electro-psychedelic future, collide with the antiquated rubble of lyrical one-man-band hoboetry. Shovelman’s industrial barnyard blues has been likened to the music of Tom Waits, Morphine and The Black Keys. Shovelman has become infamous on the west coast festival circuit, sharing stages with acts such as Primus, Beats Antique, Emmylou Harris, Kaki King, Daniel Lanois and Reggie Watts. He has also performed alongside the west coasts most prominent bohemian circus troupes, including Lucent Dossier, The Vau De Vire Society and The Wanderlust Circus.
www.shovelman.com
Shovelman Soundcloud
~ Dud Muurmand ~
Dud Muurmand is one of the Danish dance pioneers within all things tribal, theatrical and dark fusion!
Her dance and performance style are heavily influenced by the theater, she presents dances with both visual effects, strong emotional interpretations and very often with a tale from the shadow side of life – and inspired by the old burlesque theater style, ever so often also with a twisted humor and a grotesque smile.
www.dudmuurmand.dk
http://dudmuurmand.wixsite.com/tribalstyle
~ 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 White(assistant director), Karen R. Marshall, Tasha K, Shureen, and Jesse Stanbridge. 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. Creating a fusion. Wandering between darkness and light…
www.ariellah.com
www.deshretdance.com
~ Bad Unkl Sista ~
Bad Unkl Sista is a performance art ensemble that combines stillpoint choreography, improvised music, couture costuming, and physical theater elements to produce site-specific durational performances that seek to provoke and inspire – changing how witnesses relate to the performers, to the world, and to themselves.
~ DJ Ironfist ~
After almost a lifetime of working as a disposable cigarette lighter repairman in Europe, DJ Iron Fist 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 DJing.
~ Ashley Lopez and Allegro Dance Company ~
Based out of Portland, Oregon, Ashley is an internationally touring artist and instructor. She holds a bachelor of music in vocal performance/opera, is an 8 Elements™ Datura Style teacher, a Registered Yoga Teacher, a certified Pilates, cycling and fitness instructor and has performed in over 20 countries worldwide.
The Allegro Dance Company is an experimental fusion dance collective based in Portland, Oregon USA. They are known for their engaging theatricality, heart-pounding choreography, and the seamless merging of cross-genre techniques and inspirations. Allegro Company Members - Anna Maniaci, Ashley López, Bevin Victoria, Elise Morris, Heather Powers, Laura Blake, Morgan Fay, Rachel Smith, Tabra Bay, & Talia Vintzileos All company members offer choreography, artistic design, and production/marketing to the collective effort.
~ Coven of Ashes ~
Coven of Ashes is an all-female collaborative ritual performance project. We utilize a myriad of ritual knowledge, performing arts, altered states of consciousness, bloodletting, flesh hook suspension, spoken word, adornment fabrication and any other concepts we may want to throw into the cauldron. Our rituals vary from venerating and invoking blood goddesses, the divine and demonic feminine, embodying their archetypes, sanctifying our bodily autonomy, banishing negative societal stigmas, exploring our shadow/primal/feral selves and allowing persecuted women of the past possess us. We heavily connect with our blood (both veinal and vaginal), vulnerability, visceral pain and our need to manifest and transcend. There are currently 21 members of Coven of Ashes throughout California and Canada. We began performing in 2015 for a show dedicated to Women in Extreme Performance Art at the Black Castle in Los Angeles. The troupe created a Butoh performance in which we channeled women persecuted for witchcraft and invoked them to possess our bodies. We began as ash, rose through flame and were brought to trial where we admitted our guilt of sin with pride, bringing into creation Coven of Ashes.
~ Julia Jerome ~
ulia Jerome has been a Circus Artist for ten years and works as an aerialist, fire artist, and stilt walker. She has performed internationally with a number of companies including Boston Circus Guild, Imagine Circus, Nimble Arts and Acrosports and attended New England Center for Circus Arts’ professional training programs. Her favorite inspirations come from the macabre and bizarre and she enjoys every opportunity to create a juxtaposition of grace and elegance with the disjointed and strange.
~ Loren the Black ~
As ShadowDance strikes the sacred cycle of its twelfth year, Loren the Black returns with joyfully dark heart. Five years as Master of Ceremonies and singer with this show marks the mid-point of his decade performing such blessed duties for the darker side of the Dance community where he calls Home. It was there, lending his voice to the Tangled Web of one Zahara, that Ariellah...and ShadowDance...came to Call.
While his appearances as the deathly Doctor Arlington Graves with Band of Pirates have come to a legendary close, Loren continues to join with stage-siblings both local and abroad, whilst still on occasion playing undead for fun and profit. After a season ashore, his seventh aboard the haunted steamboat USS Nightmare saw a triumphant return to the bow of the Death Dredge, to greet and terrify tens of thouands in front of the camera.
Loren the Black on FB
USS Nightmare
~ DJ Melting Girl ~
It all started with mix tapes. DJ Melting Girl made them for herself. She made them for friends. Then those mix tapes turned into DJ sets club dance floors. Music is celebration. Music is heartbreak. Music is love. With every song she spins, DJ Melting Girl finds the emotion in the melody, the power in the lyric and the way the beat can bring you to the dance floor again and again. She has been part of the San Francisco Goth/Industrial scene for over 20 years. She is a resident DJ at Death Guild, the longest running weekly Goth/Industrial club in the United States. She is also a member of Anthony Jones’ live band. A project she treasures and has allowed her to explore a new type of musical creativity.
Once again, she returns to the ShadowDance family for another inspiring and breathtaking year or art, dance and performance.
~ Brynn Route ~
Brynn Route is a contortionist and pole artist based in Los Angeles. She has over 17 years of a combined background in gymnastics, acrobatic pole, and flexibility training. Brynn discovered circus arts and was immediately hooked when she realized it could combine her childhood training in gymnastics with her love of artistic expression. Her passion for performance has taken her around the world and has provided her opportunities to collaborate with artists from all walks of life. She is honored and grateful to be able to share what she loves through performance and workshop instruction.
Brynn Route on FB
~ Brian Patterson ~
A Punch & Judy show ~ the Dominion of Fancy
Brian Patterson has been performing his Punch & Judy Show since 1990. In California, as the son of the producers of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faires, Brian had grown up seeing a lot of theater and puppetry including Punch &Judy.
He got the first notion to give the show a try when he was 25 and ventured to England at the age of 30 where he finally learned the sacred art of the Swazzle at the 1995 Covent Garden May Fayre Festival for Punch & Judy.
His show has been enjoyed internationally as he has traveled and performed in Italy for Carnivale, England for the festival of the Millennium in Birmingham, and the Big Grin Festival in London 2012 for Punch's 350th birthday. As well as, Canada for the Edmonton Fringe Festival and even Malibu, California for Pierce Brosnan!
The version Brian presents is a mix of classic traditional Punch & judy with a contemporary edge that todays audiences can identify with. Brian also hand sculpted, painted and costumed all of his puppets as well as the theater in which the show is done. At 52 he continues to perform the show as his full time occupation.
At Shadowdance you will see a 10 minute dark snippet of the Punch & Judy show.. adapted for a more grown up perspective.
www.piccolopuppetplayers.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 on FB
Band of Pirates on FB
VENDORS
~ Oakthorn Studios ~
"From the dark forests of the Pacific Northwest, Oakthorn Studios is a one-woman artist and printmaker creating unique gothic, esoteric and subversive accessories."
~ Eyescream ~
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 Witchy Gothic Ritual Jewelry. Specializing in Quartz & Stone Talisman from the 'Sorcery Collection', Snake Vertebrae Earrings, Eyes, Bats, Moons, Skulls, Artifacts Macabre, & other dark delights.
Find the artist at Eyescream 3816 Telegraph Ave. Oakland Ca. Please check the website 'Location/Hours' link for current Shop Open Dates (& also open by appointment). Eyescream Jewelry Eyescream Jewelry on Instagram
FINE ARTS AND MIXED MEDIA
~ Spinestealer ~
Spinestealer is a dark artist, best known for their heartfelt miniature sculptures and acrylic paintings. Focusing on sentiments of intense emotions, the subject matter is meant to make the viewer left feeling haunted. The artist explores chronic medical conditions, heartache, and the human condition, in order to create works that connect people together during times of great loss or great change. From light-hearted characters, to sorrowful circumstances, there is bound to be an emotion stirred within the spectator.
STAGE CREW
~ Janelle Slavik ~
After performing in theatre, music and dance productions for the past 25 years, Janelle has moved to stage production and management. As an assistant stage manager for Vaue de Vire and Edwardian ball, she has been challenged in amusing and unusual ways, and after several years working with Shadowdance and Conjure, she is currently taking on the head stage manager role at ShadowDance.
