DIRECTOR/PERFORMER
LAVY
Lavy is a gender queer, New York City based, choreographic dance artist. Graduating with their BFA in dance from Marymount Manhattan College, their performance credits include works by Kyle Abraham, Andrea Miller, Jenn Freeman, and Nicole Von Arx.
In 2021, Lavy founded VERBAL ANIMAL, a cohort of queer multidisciplinary collaborators. Lavy’s work has been presented at the 14th St Y, WAXworks, TADA! Theater, 3 Dollar Bill, Laguardia Performing Arts Center and Triskelion Arts.
In Fall 2023, Lavy was commissioned as an emerging choreographer by Mare Nostrum Elements to premiere a new work at LPAC. In addition, their work, with(in) limit, was presented at the 14th Street Y by the Pioneers Go East Collective, a show that features Radical LGBTQ and Feminist artists.
This past spring, VERBAL ANIMAL premiered their first curated, all queer festival, Queer Noise, providing emerging queer choreographers with full production to present experimental, multi-disciplinary, and process centered work.
Over the past year, Lavy has received space residencies from MOtiVE Brooklyn and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, as well as, being one of seven residents to be selected for the 2022 international choreographic residency at Art Omi. Most recently, Lavy received a commission from Mare Nostrum Elements as a returning choreographer to premiere a new evening length work at Laguardia Performing Arts Center in February of 2024.
Additionally, Lavy is currently a Co-Producer for the NY show, Kiss My Face, while also performing as a dancer with NVA & Guests and the off Broadway production, Emergence.
CO-DIRECTOR/PERFORMER
OCTI LEE
Octi Lee is a multidisciplinary performance artist, residing in both London and New York. Octi is currently obtaining her masters degree at Trinity Laban under the Leverhulme Trust Dance Award where she is focusing on building work around Trans Phenomenology through the scope of dance, as well as somatic healing and alchemy through authentic movement.
Octi is a collaborator to their artistic partner Lavy for she is a co-director of Verbal Animal and a co-producer to their performance art rave PLAY ME TECHNO AND TELL ME I'M PRETTY. Octi recently was in residency at the English National Ballet with Jean Abreu as she is a collaborator on their new work which will be presented at the Tate Museum in April.
Octi performed as a soloist in Antonin Riochies new work “Jesus in Berlin” shown at Doc 11 in Berlin. Furthermore she has been in residency with Moulin Belle in France where she spent the summer of 2023 researching authentic movement.
Outside of performance and choreography Octi is a DJ where she is a resident DJ for PLAY ME TECHNO AND TELL ME I'M PRETTY. Merging the world of performance art and rave culture is at the core of Octi’s interests and creating the space where two can live is where her art begins.
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
RAGIN SMITH
Ragin Smith (she/her) is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in dance at Marymount Manhattan College in 2020, where she performed works by Andrea Miller, Kyle Abraham, Loni Landon, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish and others.
Since then she has had the pleasure of performing works by Brendan Fernandes, Evan Ray Suzuki, Valeria Gonzalez, Morgan Bobrow-Williams, Ryan Bailey, Troy Ogilvie, La Intrusa Company, Michelle Thompson Ulerich, and more. Alongside these freelance projects, Ragin is a collaborator with Hivewild, Verbal Animal, Wet Hairy Women, Headlights Theater, MORISATO, and Alison Chase Performance Group.
She has presented some of her own work at The Tank, Fabled Narcissism, ESTIA Day Fest, and as an artist in residence at the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation and the Cell Theatre. Ragin also partners with Haley Morgan Miller to direct and produce the Fabled Narcissism arts events.
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
LILY
SHEPPARD
Lily Sheppard, she/her, originally from Howell, MI, trained under the direction of Liz Schmidt at Spotlight Dance Works and has recently graduated from Marymount Manhattan College receiving a BFA in Dance.
Lily has worked closely alongside and performed works by Peter Chu, Sonya Tayeh, johannes wieland, Micaela Taylor, Yin Yue, Jenn Freeman, Martha Graham and more.
She has also attended training programs that include b12 festival in Berlin, Springboard Danse Montreal, GibneyPro and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
Upon graduation from Marymount in 2022, Lily was awarded the Gold Key in excellence for modern dance.
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
KENLEY
HARDWICK
Kenley Hardwick is a recent graduate from Marymount Manhattan College.
Before coming to New York for college he began his training in South Carolina where he attended the South Carolina Governor's School for Arts and Humanities.
Upon Graduation, Kenley began studies with Gibney Pro, working with choreographers such as Rena Butler, Maleek Washington, Laja Field, and Elia Mark.
Recently, Hardwick joined VERBAL ANIMAL as a company member for their 2023 season.
CHELEN
MIDDLEBROOK
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
Chelen Middlebrook was born and raised in Northern Virginia. Throughout her childhood, she primarily trained in ballet at BalletNova Center for Dance in their pre-professional conservatory program.
Chelen credits her training to BalletNova and other training programs such as The Dance Theatre of Harlem and Houston Ballet.
She is a recent graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance. Throughout her training, she was featured in works choreographed by Arthur Michell, Robert Garland, Stanton Welch, Hannah Garner, Annie Rigney, Kayla Farrish, and Gregory Lau.
Chelen is passionate about writing and choreography. She is open to dancing professionally in concert, commercial, or dance theater spaces.
TRUTH colon
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
Truth Colon is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her movement explores embodied sensations of emotional states, physical and psychological thresholds along with shared narratives of intersectional communities.
She received her education from Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and her BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. In 2021, Truth collaborated with NYC Street Artist Zbigniew Zolkowski to create an improv score to be shown at his Trocha Gallery Closing.
Most recently she performed her work in progress solo and dance film, ‘a delicate displacement’, at Philips Action House through the art collective Textured Memos.
Upon graduating Truth attended SpringBoard Danse Montreal and toured with the Liz Gerring Dance Company to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Since then, she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers Marla Phelan, Stefanie Batten Bland, Kelly Aston Todd, and Kayla Farrish, and has been featured dancing in campaigns for NOAH NYC and Wiederhoft.
Truth is a volunteer at organizations La Plaza Community Garden, Arts on Site, and Groove with me.
COLLABORATOR / PERFORMER
SLOAN
CALDWELL
I am blessed to have trained at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and London Contemporary Dance School as well as workshops throughout the US and Europe.
Currently based in Amsterdam and New York City, recent performances include company work in Salt Lake City with Salt 2, immersive theater projects in London (James Cousins) and the Netherlands (Jort Faber), and a performance directed by Micaela Taylor in Berlin.
LIGHTING DESIGNER
PHILIP
TREVINO
Philip Treviño is a Queer Chicano from California who has worked in NYC for the past 20 years in Dance and Theater as Designer, Production Manager, Technical Director, and Stage Manager.
Philip has been a grantee of New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) funding for FY2021 and FY2023 for his design work with Pioneers Go East Collective; which was a 2023 BAM Artist in Residence Company.
He is a 2010 recipient of a New York Dance and Performance Award (BESSIE) for his lighting and scenic design for Pam Tanowitz’s Be In The Gray With Me. He is also the scenic designer for Camille A. Brown and Company’s Mr. Tol E. Rance, which won a 2014 BESSIE for Outstanding Production.
He has served as a subcommittee member for the New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies). He is a proud alumnus of San Francisco State University (2000).
At Marymount Manhattan College, Philip served as Technical Director for the Dance Department from 2006-2022 and taught Stagecraft for Dance. He is the Director of Production for Arts and Culture at the 14th Street Y.
SOUND DESIGNER
SARILOU
VENNING
Brooklyn-based French multidisciplinary artist, ST2You, develops music, jewelry and tattoos inspired by the uncanniness of nature. When they’re not melting metal around clearwater pearls, they’re tattooing intricate floral patterns.
When not at their tattoo studio, ST2You is at the microphone at the frontlines of their psychedelic jazz band Cocomofo.