Iphigenia
New Evening-Length Premiere
CO-DIRECTORS
MEGAN & SHANNON KURASHIGE
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Megan & Shannon Kurashige are sisters, directors, choreographers, reluctant arts administrators, and mostly lapsed dancers. Across everything they do, they believe in telling stories and making space to listen. They co-founded Sharp & Fine in 2011 to make a home for ongoing collaboration and experiments in theatrical storytelling.
As choreographers, they have been commissioned by Robert Moses’ KIN, Kunoichi Productions, Oakland Ballet, the US/Japan Cultural Trade Network, and Soundwave. As dancers, they worked with Liss Fain Dance, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Christian Burns, Alex Ketley, Ballet Pacifica, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.
CREATIVE TEAM FOR THE IPHIGENIA PROJECT
(working title)
ERIC AVERY
Deviser + Performer
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Eric Avery is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer with over nineteen years of professional experience in theatre, interactive performance, and community-based projects. Since 2018, they have focused on applying a reparationist framework to their creative practice, organizing projects, and life. This dedication to relationship-centered process has put Avery in partnership with non-profit organizations, municipalities, social service agencies, universities, farms, community centers, prisons, art galleries, public spaces, and private homes. In addition to collaborations, Avery has independently created over 25 original productions. They earned a Bachelor's in Theatre & Film from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Theatre Arts from Towson University. Honors/Awards: Bessie Award (Outstanding Visual Design), Lavender Magazine Best of List (Outstanding Performance), Elliot Norton Award (Outstanding Design), 2024 MAP Grant Awardee, Zellerbach: Community Arts, East Bay Fund for Artists, Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency, TBA CA$H Grant, Rainin: New & Experimental Works, and more.
CHARMAINE BUTCHER
Deviser + Performer
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Charmaine Butcher is a dance artist based out of San Francisco. After graduating high school with an Associate's Degree, they continued their training at Alonzo King LINES Ballet's Training Program in San Francisco. Charmaine has worked professionally for various choreographers, including Amy J Lambert, Chuck Wilt, Beth Terwilleger, Cameo Lethem, Dwight Rhoden, Robert Moses and performed with Ballet22, Ballare Carmel, Coriolis Dance, the Seattle Opera, SFJazz, and Verlaine & McCann’s Burlesque Nutcracker. They currently work with Post:ballet, Sharp & Fine, and BODYSONNET. Charmaine frequently collaborates with their partner Babatunji, showing work independently at San Francisco Trolley Dances, RAWdance’s CONCEPT Series, Dance Lovers (SF), and with Inner Child Foundation. In 2019, Charmaine completed their Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing & Entrepreneurship. In addition to dancing and teaching movement, Charmaine is a visual artist working in the mediums of floral, paint, and clay.
KIRA FARGAS
Deviser + Performer
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Kira is a queer, first-generation Filipinx-American movement artist, choreographer, educator, and drag performer. She began her dance training at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, CA, and received her BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona in 2017. Kira has performed and collaborated with UNA Productions (Fuchsia), EIGHT/MOVES (Mia Chong), Detour Productions (Eric Garcia and Kat Cole), Sharp & Fine (Megan and Shannon Kurashige), New Dialect (Banning Bouldin), and KT Nelson, among others. Their choreographic work has been presented at UNA Productions’ Glimpse, ODC’s State of Play, BODYSONNET’s OTHER/self, RAWDance’s Concept Series, and more. Central to their artistic practice is an exploration of their Filipinx and queer identity, honoring both their cultural lineage and community. Kira currently co-directs the Contemporary Training Program at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts alongside Hadassah Perry. She is deeply committed to mentoring and collaborating with the next generation of dancers.
JORDAN GLENN
Composer + Performer
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Drummer/composer/improviser Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon and in 2006 relocated to the Bay Area where he received an MFA from Mills College. Since then he has been most closely associated with Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Motoko Honda, Michael Coleman and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Kyle Bruckmann’s Degradient, and tUnE-yArDs. He has also worked with Rhys Chatham, Secret Chiefs 3, The Rova Sax Quartet, composer/bagpiper Matthew Welch and has been commissioned to create scores for evening-length dance pieces by Sharp & Fine and Liss Fain Dance. As a leader he has composed and conducted the trio Wiener Kids, Mindless Thing (a collaboration with poet Jim Ryan) and the percussion heavy large ensemble BEAK.
MOLLY LEVY
Deviser + Performer
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Molly Levy is a performer and dance educator who is drawn to the heart and humanity of dance. She is curious about how movement uncovers truths we may otherwise never know and inspired most by untethered honesty. Born and raised in the Bay Area and currently based in Oakland, Ca, Molly has performed throughout the country in devised original works, immersive theater, site-specific dance, and full evening burlesque shows. Her collaborations have included work with Sharp & Fine, Paufve Dance, Post:ballet, Cantankerous Creatures, Katie Scherman + Artists, Seattle Opera, The Equus Projects, and LROD. In addition to performing, Molly has worked in theater as a movement director creating fluid movement languages and character specific movement studies for adaptations of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, devised site-specific theater, and The Light Princess (a musical). As a teacher, Molly integrates her background in ballet, floorwork, and body-mind centering practices to offer a grounded and supportive approach to learning dance with an emphasis on anatomical alignment, functional progressions, musicality, and individual expression.
HADASSAH PERRY
Deviser + Performer
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Hadassah is a queer woman, artist, and musician currently based in San Francisco. She grew up in Riga, Latvia where she began her studies in dance and piano. In 2016, she moved to Israel Palestine to study with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. In 2018, Hadassah joined New Dialect, directed by Banning Bouldin, where she worked closely with and performed works by Hofesh Shechter, Roy Assaf, Ariel Freedman, Rosie Herrera, Ana Maria Lucaciu, and Alex Ketley. In 2021, Hadassah moved to San Francisco and joined UNA Productions, directed by Chuck Wilt. Hadassah is the co-director of the contemporary program at the Westlake School of the Performing Arts, where she teaches, mentors, and choreographs. She is passionate about making queer art with her partner, Kira Fargas, and has performed throughout the Bay Area. This is Hadassah's first project with Sharp and Fine, and she is thrilled to be joining.
RYAN ROULAND SMITH
Deviser + Performer
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Ryan Rouland Smith holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2014, Smith became a member of Kate Weare Company, performing in and originating roles in such works as Dark Lark, Unstruck, Marksman and Praise. In 2019 while dancing in New York, Smith had the pleasure of working with Stefanie Batten Bland, Look Who is Coming to Dinner and Nicole Vaughn Diaz, A Portrait of Them. Following the collaborative process between Kate Weare Company and ODC, Decameron/Up For Air; Smith joined ODC/Dance from 2021-2025. While there he had the pleasure of dancing and originating works by Sidra Bell, Mia J. Chong, Sonya Delwaide, Catherine Galasso, KT Nelson, Dexandro Montalvo, Kimi Okada, Amy Seiwart and Brenda Way. Currently Smith is freelancing in the Bay Area, this is his first collaboration with Sharp & Fine.
ALLEN WILLNER
Lighting Designer
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Allen Willner is a lighting designer for theater, dance, and opera. He has lived and worked in San Francisco and New York as a Lighting Designer for 20 years. Locally, he has designed for many Bay Area dance companies including Sharp & Fine, Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, inkBoat, Garrett Moulton Productions, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Katie Faulkner’s Little Seismic Dance Company, Kristin Damrow & Company, ABD Productions, Moving Ground, and Epifany Dance Theater. Allen has designed for regional and international theaters and has received numerous awards and nominations for his work, including the Theatre Bay Area Award, Bay Area Critics’ Circle Nomination, and the Isadora Duncan Dance Award.
PAST COLLABORATORS
PERFORMERS:
Marissa Brown, Christian Burns, Katie Cassady, Cora Cliburn, Julie Crothers, Sonja Dale, Josianne Fleming, Eric Garcia, Tristan Ching Hartmann, Katharine Hawthorne, Caitlin Hicks, Emily Jones, Rachel Laws, Shannon Leypoldt, Sarah Lyman, Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, Chelsea Reichert, Jane Selna, Carson Stein, Kelvin Vu, Sarah Woods-LaDue, Meredith Webster, Megan Wright
COMPOSERS:
Max Judelson, Erika Oba, Theo Padouvas, Aram Shelton, Cory Wright
MUSICIANS:
Steve Adams, Ben Davis, Max Judelson, Joshua Marshall, Arjun Mendiratta, Erika Oba, Theo Padouvas, Crystal Pascucci, Teddy Rankin-Parker, John Schott, Aram Shelton, Matthew Wrobel
VOCALIST:
Ina Rae Woods
LIGHTING DESIGNERS:
Stephanie Buchner, Delayne Medoff
WRITERS:
Kat Howard, Amber Hsu, Ben Loory