2016

January - August

The following artists participate din Otion Front studio's month long residency in 2016.

Becca Kaufman - January 2016

BECCA KAUFFMAN is a performance artist based in Ridgewood, Queens working in the mediums of video, dance, lyric, and score.

She has performed solo at Bruce High Quality Foundation, Museum of Arts and Design, and The Brick, as well as numerous comedy venues throughout the city. Her video work has screened at Flux Factory, Big Law Country Club, and Otion Front Dance Art Video Screenings. She is a member of the New York band Ava Luna, choreographer for the Jennifer Vanilla Dancers, and founder of Master Cactus Audio Cassette Magazine, a sound art publication released on tape. Her Home Music Video Series and other projects can be found at beccakauffman.com.

For her residency this month, she will be working on a four person dance-play entitled, "In Pursuit of Self-loss." Touching on the upswing of organized group dance events in the Internet age (electronic music and the contemporary club scene), the performance will ask questions about the value of celebration now, the thrill and satisfaction of synchronized movement, and the productive use of dance and large scale participation as a contemporary means of release, communion, and self-definition.

Hans Rasch - February 2016

Hans Rasch is a dancer, printmaker, and graphic artist originally from Miami, FL. He is an animal for work, utilizing performance, dance, choreography, printmaking, set and costume design; Hans’ desire is to give his audience an immersive and transformative experience. His work often makes references to the series Sailor Moon, mythology, Queer and Latino culture. He holds and MFA in studio arts from Florida State University. Hans has shared his works with audiences at Fountain Art Fair, the Miami Science Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Tallahassee, the Frost Art Museum, Nina Torres Fine Art, the Bureau of General Services- Queer Division, WOW Theater Cafe, Arts@Renaissance, and Otion Front Studios.

Kathleen Dycaico - April 2016

Kathleen Dycaico is a choreographer and installation artist living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work, both choreography and installation, deals with the aim to eden/heaven and the dystopian end times in which we exist.

Born and raised in the fertile farmlands and post-1960s utopia wreckage of California, she was fed on a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy novels until she moved to Brazil at 18. She graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California at Davis, immersed in the study of creating perfect cities and societies. It was here that she began to direct site-specific choreographic inquiries into creating connection to place.

She is currently a partner and Residency Coordinator at Otion Front Studio, an experimental performance space in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Recent projects include Apple-Eaters, a solo show at UC Berkeley in California, and Authority Figure, a group performance at the Knockdown Center in New York. Authority Figure brought together musicians, installation artists, choreographers, and over 150 performers in a choreographic experience designed to challenge ideas of authority in our everyday lives. Authority Figure received press in the New York Times, The Fader, The Village Voice, and more.

Ciara Clements - August 2016

Ciara Clements is a dancer and performance artist currently residing in Ridgewood, Queens.  Ciara's bodily investigation of the world begins with language and feeling and attempts to understand through somatic expression.  She doesn't always know what parts touch each other because her container is finite, and so she is compelled to occasionally overflow.  The transformative act of coming back to herself is the goal. Themes that may be explored include sex and sexuality, family and self and spheres of separateness.