October 2018 Artist in Residence-

Sharleen Chidiac- 

October 30th, 8:30pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Sharleen Chidiac is a Brooklyn-based artist working in performance, choreography, film, and music. Influenced by Butoh and Gaga movement practices, Sharleen's choreographic style is distinctive for its intuitive understanding of the sensation and pleasure found through the moving body. Based on her studies in dance/movement therapy, Sharleen's research aims to develop a kinethestic awareness that can be used as a tool for healing the mind and body. She is interested in the function and expression of the body in everyday movement, how one's habitual movement behavior can transform through performance. As Otion Front's October Artist-in-Residence, Sharleen's new solo work titled 'Metonymy of a Fragmented Self' explores the disappearance and memory of the self in performance. This performance is an interpretation of research ranging from Western philosophy to confessional performance art.

September 2018 Artist in Residence-

Sam Banks- 

September 30th, 8:30pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Sam Banks is a dancer living in Brooklyn, NY.  His formal training consists only of a competitive dance program in High School. He shelved his passion for years as a young adult until he was encouraged to perform in San Francisco’s drag scene by friends. After a couple years performing in San Francisco, Banks moved to NYC with one of his drag sisters. Together they collaborated with three other artists to create a drag troupe called Chez Deep. Through that collaborative, familial relationship Banks was given the space to explore alternative forms of drag that existed on the margins of the traditional canon. Never having been very proficient with makeup, he abandoned painting a feminine face and instead chose to feminize himself through movement; a theme he still values as one of his most dynamic traits as a performer. After several large scale productions and countless drag shows both across America and overseas, the group grew apart and Banks was left to navigate his passion for performing alone. After two years of feeling lost and putting performance on the back burner while pursuing a devoted Yoga Teaching practice, he returned to dance through developing an ongoing video diary of dance solos. Banks also collaborated in co-creating an opera seated in the themes of queer kinship and survival that premiered at Donaufestival in Austria and MoMA PS1. He continues to make dance in his living room and public spaces and is currently building a group movement cooperative in Brooklyn.

August 2018 Artist in Residence-

Destiny - 

 b. 1990

August 31st, 8pm at Otion Front Studio (1196 Myrtle Ave)

Destiny Be was raised in Maryland, in a Black suburban enclave of Washington DC. A mover and a dancer from an early age, she was trained in ballet through childhood to adolescence , and continued to practice and enjoy movement. In 2009, she moved to New York to attend Parsons school of Design, and has since resided in Brooklyn. As an artist she integrates many disciplines to explore speculative futures and project her own consciousness onto reality to produce criticality’s and investigate the Self. Her interests and foci are wide, she takes advantage of her art and design disciplines to articulate, to understand, and problem solve the world around her.

July 2018 Artist in Residence-

Mikaela Jamille Berry- 

July 30th, 8pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Mikaela Jamille Berry is a recent graduate of the Fordham University Theatre Program where she studied playwriting. Previous playwriting credits include Precious Medals at Crashbox Theatre Company, Negro Necropolitics for FEAST: a performance series, Incurable with the Dirty Blondes Theatre Company and a staged reading of This is a Play About Race with the Tribe Theatre Company. She is thrilled to finally have the opportunity to explore a topic that has been embedded in her existence for seemingly    centuries. In the Fall she will be attending the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Masters Degree in Performance as Public Practice.

June 2018 Artist in Residence-

Rachel Ruth Lewallen- 

July 1st, 8pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Rachel Ruth Lewallen (RRLEW) is a performance artist currently based out of Brooklyn, NY. Hailing previously from Rhode Island and North Carolina, RRLEW uses the materials of technology (music/voices made by a computer), lights, movement, costume, and speech to build Rube Golderberg Machine-like live performances that transport audiences through fantasy realities, perverted nightmares, profound heartbreaks, moments of beauty, sadness, humor, and manic joy. RRLEW uses these strange worlds (which are built only for the purpose of being destroyed), as test sites for her own twisted ideas about lesbianism, Gay Conversion Therapy, southern queerness, vulnerability, Aileen Wuornos, club music, mad scientists, traffic court judges in New England, the comedic absurdity that is the white heterosexual cis man, kink, TaTU, and whatever the hell else she's into at the moment. Her work is fairly un-intellectual on purpose and has been presented at The Perez Art Museum Miami, The Lab, and in countless DIY queer/punk/noise spaces across the country. She beyond honored to be this month's artist in residence at Otion Front Studio <3

May 2018 Artist in Residence-

Nile Harris- The rise and fall of the Huxtable family

May 29th, 8pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Nile Harris is a Brooklyn based performer and theatre maker. Fascinated with the idea that theatrical events, through the live nature of their existence, become a part of history. He creates events that re-contextualize historical images of black bodies in an attempt to write a version of history where God was created in his image. Nile’s performances are a reaction to the absurdity of the black experience in Amerikkka—being the living product of a country that brought us here but did not want us here. His work has been presented at The Watermill Center, Dixon Place, Miami Art Walk, and SoleTree Barn. He currently performs for 600 HIGHWAYMEN and has performed Off-Broadway in ‘Occupied Territories’ and on television in ‘The Path’ (Hulu) and ‘Masterclass’ (HBO). He is excited to be in residence at Otion Front and develop and present a new work-in-progress ‘The Rise and Fall of the Huxtable Family’ at the end of May at Secret Project Robot!

April 2018  Artist in Residence -

Jes Nelson- The club can't even handle me right now

May 1st, 8pm at Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway)

Jes Nelson is a Brooklyn based artist, entrepreneur, dancer, performer and choreographer. Her lifelong exposure to the wild fluctuation of dance instruction ranging from rigid ballet to deep subconscious throttle jams have lead her to develop a new piece as part of the Otion Front Studio Residency program where she has spent the last month in studio.

In ‘The club can’t even handle me right now’, Jes Nelson provides us with a particular lens into the dramatic structure of the dance space while portraying the dynamic function of the body in group movement. A cast of 15 performers lead you through a ballet where the camera is prima ballerina and you are in class.