Performers
Chris Bell
Chris Bell, MFA (Case Western Reserve) BS (Lamar) and currently makes work with Raja Feather Kelly & The Feath3r Theory. Recent Projects: Teeth (Assoc.Choreo./PH), Eighty-Sixed (Assoc. Direct. & Choreo./ 2ndstage), Jelly’s Last Jam (Choreographer/LWT). He teaches for The National Theater Institute, Roundabout Theatre Co., Marquis Studios and TADA! Youth Theaters. chrisbelldances has presented work nationally recently at CU Boulder and Men in
Dance (Seattle), and locally including evening length works at Dixon Place, Gibney and Triskelion. chrisbelldances was the first dance company in residence at Cherry Grove Community House and Theater, America’s longest continuously operating LGBTQIA+ summer theater.
Ashley Chavonne
Ashley Chavonne is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, movement director, and performing artist from Detroit, MI. Most recently, she has worked as associate choreographer for Macbeth in Stride at Shakespeare Theatre Company, movement director for Bernarda’s Daughters at the Signature Theater, musical staging for Ryan Raftery’s Mother of the Year-The Kris Jenner Musical at Joe’s Pub, and made
her off-broadway debut in the role of Lisa in The Village! A Disco Daydream. She has been a collaborator with The Feath3r Theory since 2019.
Ami Gernux
Amy Gernux is a New York-based performer and artist at the intersection of dance, theater, voice, costume, and makeup design. She works primarily with the feath3r theory (Raja Feather Kelly) and Faye Driscoll, and is delighted to have also performed for Jim Findlay and Third Rail Projects. Notable Choreographic Associate credits include: Met Gala 2022: In America: an Anthology of Fashion (Raja Feather Kelly and Rachel Chavkin), UGLY: BLACK QUEER ZOO (Raja Feather Kelly, 2018), Calving (Faye Driscoll, 2022) and Weathering (Faye Driscoll, 2023).
Alexandria Giroux
Alexandria Giroux is from Arizona, and attended New School for the Arts and Academics. She has been a member of the feath3r theory since 2018. She has assisted Raja on other projects including most recently, New Dances (Julliard), and White Girl in Danger (Second Stage Theater). Alexandria is also a Doula.
Sara Gurevich
Sara Gurevich was born and raised in New York City. She began performing with Raja Feather Kelly | the feath3r theory in 2015. Gurevich holds a BFA with honors from the Ailey School/Fordham University, and an MSW from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. She is also a psychotherapist.
Amy Hoang
Amy Hoang is a dance artist originally from Amarillo, TX. She holds a BFA in Dance
Performance and Education from the University of North Texas. Amy joined the feath3r theory in 2019 and has since been a part of other TF3T projects such as Bunny Bunny (live and animated), The KILL ONE Race, and WEDNESDAY. Amy loves house dance.
Nick Sciscione
Nick Sciscione is a dancer from Elizabeth, New Jersey. He holds a BFA in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He currently resides in Brooklyn and also works as a Rehearsal Director for STEPHEN PETRONIO DANCE COMPANY INC.
Creative Team
Christoph Mateka
Christoph Mateka’s focus is on sound and listeners‘ experience with sound. He has
more than 15 years of experience as a sounddesigner, musician, music producer
and sound engineer for theater, opera and studio productions. Christoph Mateka has been living and working in Vienna, Austria, since 2003.
Tuçe Yasak
Tuçe Yasak has been following light in NYC since 2008, creating over 100 site-specific light installations for performance in the US and abroad. Yasak received the 2018 and 2019 BESSIE award for Outstanding Visual Design for her designs and has ongoing collaborations with Raja Feather Kelly | the feath3r theory, Contra Tiempo, Miguel Guitierrez, Ayesha Jordan & Charlotte Brathwaite, Daria Fain, Ni’Ja Whitson and Nia Whitherspoon, among many others. Light, movement and architecture intertwine in her work to support space-making and story-telling.
Kate Enman
Born and based in Brooklyn, Kate is a photography artist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Time Out New York, and Ain’t Bad Magazine. Having studied and shot in Tel Aviv, Rome, and New York City, she is passionate about analog photography, delights in documenting the world around her, and specializes in portraiture, dance and still-life. She currently holds the role of Asset Manager, Media / Video Archivist for New York City Ballet, and lives in Bushwick with her husband, new baby, and two cats.
Laura Snow
Laura Snow is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and longtime collaborator of the feath3r theory. Snow holds degrees from Connecticut College and the University of Melbourne, and has associate produced documentary series for PBS, VICE, A&E and CNN, as well as the documentaries, NEWTOWN and HOUSE TWO. Snow’s 2016 short film LEAVE-TAKING premiered at DocNYC 2016, won the Online Audience Award at the 2017 Mindscape Film Festival, and was acquired by the media company Conscious Good. Snow currently works as a video and podcast producer for New York City Ballet.
Emma Denson
Emma Denson (Project Manager) is an Alabama-born, Brooklyn-based director and playwright. She was recently selected as a 2024 member of Directors Lab North. In September 2023, she directed a staged reading of the new musical Runaway Home, starring Melissa Gilbert, Michael Park, and Abigail Breslin. She was a 2023 Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Artist, where she worked with LeAnne Howe and Colm Summers on The Keening (Co-Deviser/Associate Director). Emma won Best Short at Downtown Urban Arts Festival 2023 for her play, Otis and Anna, which she wrote and directed. She directed a reading of the bilingual Ukrainian play, Hunger (which she co-adapted with Maria Rewakowicz) at Irish Arts Center for Origin Theatre Company’s 1st Irish Festival 2023, and a second reading took place at the Ukrainian Museum. She was a director-in-residence at her alma mater, Mississippi State University. Emma is the Associate Director at Origin Theatre Company and a New Georges Affiliated Artist. Select credits: Phaedra’s Love (Assistant Director, Columbia University), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Director, Stagedoor Manor), The Messages (Assistant Director, BRICLab Performing Arts Residency), The Taming of Kate (Director/Deviser, WAXWorks at Triskellion Arts), Emily (Director, The Chain). She has loved returning to the feath3r theory after working as a production assistant on Wednesday in 2021!
Neysha Merced
Neysha Merced (she/her) is a DeSales University graduate with a BA in Dance. Her background, being born in Puerto Rico and raised in Allentown, PA, fostered her love of nature and performance. Now living in NYC, she is focused on community building through movement and networking with dancers and artists of all genres to create a sustainable future for the arts. Neysha is a dancer and the Associate Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, a project-based dance company led by Jessica Chen. She assisted in designing the relaunch for the JCP 2022 Mentee Program. This is her second year as the Associate Manager of the Bessie Awards and her first year as Raja’s assistant. She is a certified GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® Trainer, a model represented by Stetts Model Management, and a freelance florist outside of her arts administration career.
Dahlia Qumhiyeh
Born in Malaysia & raised in Kuwait, Dahlia Qumhiyeh grew up outside of the US as a Palestinian-Malaysian expat with her family. She received her B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has since moved to New York City, working as an actress/movement artist with United Talent Agency. She has worked with Tanisha Scott, Mandy Moore, Brian Friedman, Charm LaDonna, Luam Keflezghi, and has contributed choreography to The Brooklynettes, and movement directed on campaigns for Bergdorf Goodman and Marla Aaron Jewelry. She has also been featured as an upcoming artist on Paper Magazine, GQ Magazine, NatGeo, Schön Magazine, and was awarded the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency in 2022. She recently debuted a solo work at Danspace Project under her collective “Barr Bodies” and is currently working with Yaa Samar Dance Theater at The Shed.
Artist Support
The Absolute Future was first developed with a Research and Development Commission as a part of the Live Arts Bard commissioning program at the Fisher Center at Bard (fishercenter.bard.edu), Co-Commissioned by NYU SKIRBALL Center, and with generous support from The Simons Foundation and is part of its “In the Path of Totality” initiative. (For more information, visit inthepathoftotality.org.) Other support for The Absolute Future includes Gibney’s Open Interval Residency Program. This work is supported by a technical residencies at the National Center for Choreography (NCCAkron); The Church at Sag Harbor; The Mercury Store; a Guggenheim Works-in-process residency at Bethany Arts Project; BAM; and the Park Avenue Armory, where Raja Feather Kelly is an Artist in Residence.