DARES: a collective individual solo togetherness evening of new works curated by Cohort XI. We triple dog dare you to come and experience a night of laughter, hope, dread, sadness, joy, nostalgia, and whatever else makes you human.
Dare to meet our fourteen artists?

“Here is the pleasure of being touched, joy of our magnificent bodies, discomfort of change, and the pain of being human in this world. I believe fully inhabiting our bodies is anti-oppressive practice, and art-making is radical work. I’m obsessed with mycelium, anatomy as metaphor, dams affecting rivers over time, and the impact of removing them.” -Lyra Butler-Denman
Performance: Loose Edges, May 11th
“I harness the power of vibration as ‘The Science of Sexy Squiggles’ traveling through air to create music that makes people fucking MOVE. Big, queer, terrifying, colorful music that makes people dance to the deep cosmological horror of being a human body in space. And it’s awful. Awe-ful.” -Tyler Leif Catanella
Performance: FRACTALS, May 11th
“I have a deep desire to create work that is specifically designed for audiences to learn from a collective nostalgia. A nostalgia that perhaps doesn’t belong to them, that allows for a healthy and harmless amount of appropriation. Why? Because we all need a little more empathy but a little less guilt.” -Arantxa Chávez
Performance: The Whisperer, May 11th
“The enrapture, entrance, surprise, mystify, and delight my audiences/ A magic trick where I explain how it’s done, but you’re still surprised by the result. Sparking curiosity and wonderment in your hearts, and disbelief in your eyes. A big, long joke that you don’t exactly know if it’s funny, but you’re grateful that it was told to you.” -Graham Cook
Performance: In Suspense, May 11th
“I want my art to pull people out of the loneliness that their individual challenges put them in and find solace in the fact that these challenges belong to the human race; that they have been felt by many over the course of human history.” -Elizabeth Feinschreiber
Performance: I Almost Forgot to Tell You, May 11th
“I make pieces that live at the intersection of science, nature, and art. Art that undulates, wiggles, swims, and crawls through the audience, creating a web to uplift the group over the individual. I’m interested in questioning the concept of autonomy and creating new neural pathways towards an earth first mentality.” -Jo Kramer
Performance: Off in the Distance, May 11th
“My artistic interests include theatrical photography, physical/devised theatre, playwriting, and cinematography. I often find myself moved by the power and influence of silence, stillness, and negative space, and hope to portray those things in whatever way I can.” -Derek Smith
Performance: Late To The Party, May 11th
“Through playful nostalgia I strive to queer the community, society and the world I live in. My queerness is art and I want to share my pride and shame (whether it be through dance theatre, poetry, and/or conversation) to build a more meaningful community, sustained happiness, and fulfilling love.” -William
Performance: May I Descend the Staircase, May 12th
“I play foolish to disorient power. I play vulgar to invite poetry. I manifest unrecognizable creatures to recognize more of ourselves. I create space for grief to breathe and for enthusiasm to be unapologetically unordinary. My art explores the potential of what we weren’t looking for.” -Michael Amendola (Dola)
Performance: Alternate Endings, May 12th
“An insect’s life cycle, a waiter’s daydreams, the way a tree breathes when wind hits its branches; I’m interested in blowing up the seemingly mundane into vulnerable, hilarious, beautiful performances.” -Aiden Ankli
Performance: Sizzler, May 12th
“This piece is inspired by: commerce, debt, workplace etiquette, HR training videos, repressed animus, profit, front-of-house/back-of-house, exploitation, and biting your tongue.” -Tenara Calem
Performance: Buckle Up, May 12th
“I am a multi-hyphenate queer black artist and proud. Inspired by courage in the face of injustice and fueled by spite, my purpose as an artist is to explore extensions of myself in each character or role I embody. My artistry is my catharsis for life. I would not be who I am without it.” -Ryann Elise
Performance: They Play Checkers, I play chess, May 12th
“I seek to dyslexify minds; shake the caleidoscope in our brains; to shatter the illusions of normalcy that keep us trapped in a world of hypocrisy and oppression; to reveal the beauty in the uncomfortable. With every performance, I aim to charm and unsettle, to inspire and provoke.” -Frankie Gormley
Performance: Double Dare, May 12th
“I am interested in challenging audiences to laugh at sacrosanct moments. My characters remove the emotional masks we wear every day to reveal hidden rich internal lives. I expose the dark absurdity of society and show the audience they actually love all the messed up stuff in our world.” -Alexis Howland
Performance: Combination Platter, May 12th
Performance Details
Saturday, May 11, 2024 | 7:30pm
Sunday, May 12, 2024 | 7:30pm
Pig Iron Studios
1417 N 2nd St
Philadelphia, PA 19122