DanceAction Garden Series 2026 #1
About this Event
is a performance event that brings together artists from diverse disciplines (Dance, Music, Theater, & more!) to showcase short works rooted in improvisation and spontaneous composition practices. This event will showcase short performance pieces on Friday evenings in July, August, and September at its new garden performance venue in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Artist Carmen Caceres and her husband open their home for an evening of improvisation, performing arts, and summer celebration!
The evening starts at 8 pm with live performances by Carmen Caceres and guest artists in dance, improv comedy, and poetry/theater, and features a Tango Lab Workshop after the performances. During the Dance Improvisation Lab segment, we will explore and mix principles of Contemporary Dance with a twist of Argentine Tango, led by DanceAction Artistic Director Carmen Caceres and Argentine Tango and Contemporary Dance Teacher and Choreographer Silvana Brizuela Weigel. We will conclude this event with a dance party!
*Bring comfortable clothes, sliding soft-sole shoes, and socks
Friday, July 17*, 2026 at 8 pm
Doors open at 7:30 pm
BYOD or ACCESS THE BAR BY MAKING A DONATION!
Tickets: General Admission $25 | Student/Artist $10 | Pay what you wish Donation Option
Purchase your Tickets HERE
ONLY 25 SEATS ARE AVAILABLE!
*Dates are subject to change for inclement weather.
**The address will be disclosed after making a reservation.
Artists Lineup
Carmen Caceres DanceAction
Alessia Della Casa (Dance)
Chisato Fujii (Dance)
Grace Cooper (Dance)
Lilo (Poetry/Theater)
LoCo Dance Company (Dance)
MANX (Dance)
Raving Jaynes (Improv Comedy)
Sofia Ameglio (Dance)
Silvana Brizuela Weigel (Tango Lab)
About the Artists
Carmen Caceres is a dance artist originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her works have been presented in renowned venues in New York and abroad. DanceAction, her company, serves as a creative platform to produce performing arts works in collaboration with musicians, dramaturges, and visual artists. She worked with artists such as Lisa Parra, Sarah Berges, and Elia Mrak as a performer and collaborator. Carmen received an MA in Dance Education at Hunter College, a BA in Dance and Education at SUNY Empire, and deepened her studies in dance at the former Merce Cunningham Studio. In her native city, she graduated from the National School of Dance and studied Dance Composition at UNA. Carmen also works as a dance educator and consultant in different organizations in New York City.
“Welcome to DA Airlines’ journey through El Péndulo, an immersive experience featuring improvisational dance. Please fasten your seatbelts at this time and secure all baggage underneath your seat. Should the cabin experience a sudden loss of pressure. Oxygen masks will drop down from above your seat. Place the mask over your mouth and nose. Pull the straps around your ears to tighten it. If you are traveling with children, make sure that your own mask is on first before helping your children.”
Originally from Switzerland, Alessia Della Casa completed her ballet studies at the Academy of Riga (Latvia). She moved to New York, where she received a scholarship to complete a 2-year certificate in the Cunningham technique. In 2016, she completed a Certificate for Advanced Studies in Performance at SUPSI Academy of Teatro Dimitri in Switzerland. In New York, Alessia danced for various artists, including Olsi Gjeci, Sally Bowden, Vanessa Tamburi, and Anita Cheng. She started developing her choreographies and was selected to participate in the Choreographic Lab 2014 (Luzern, CH). She is the founder and coordinator of the Festival Ticino in Danza and is a board member of IDACO NYC (Italian Dance Connection). In 2017, she was awarded a dance mediation grant by the Cantonal Department of Culture and Reso-Swiss Dance Network for the project Percorsodanza. Shortly after, she was selected for the young audience Lab residency to begin developing her work Diventare Cappuccetto Rosso and was chosen as a semi-finalist for PREMIO SCHWEIZ with the project DANSONOGRAPHY. Alessia leads L’Associazione Veicolo Danza in Ticino, Switzerland, where she has resided since 2015. This organization promotes artistic productions and education opportunities concerning contemporary dance and movement. www.veicolodanza.com
Chisato Fujii (she/they) is a Japanese dancer, Butoh performer and choreographer based in New York City. She graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Dance from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College in Spring 2025. Fujii has performed works by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Norbert De La Cruz III, Kevin Wynn, Tsai Hsi Hung, and Symara Sarai, among others. She is currently working as a freelance dancer while performing with multiple dance companies. As a choreographer, she has presented her work at Green Space, Green Lung Studio, Creature Space, and Dance Lab Studios. https://chisatofujii.wordpress.com.
“A human life is filled with desires and tragedies. This woman is no exception; she moves through fear, pleasure, loneliness, longing, and regret, and ultimately dies. What, then, was the meaning of her life? Where does the beauty of living reside? Through the chaotic journey of this one woman, the work contemplates the strength and fragility of human existence.”
Grace Cooper (she/they) is an NYC-based interdisciplinary performer and creator. She is a company member with The Equus Projects and Alpine Artist Collective. She has also performed with HOLDTIGHT, IMPACT Dance Company, and Control Group Productions. They have presented work in dance festivals in NYC and Colorado, including PhysFest, Fertile Ground, Body/Speak, and Convergence. In 2026, her evening-length work, “I Can Almost Reach You,” will be produced by Spoke the Hub (NYC) and Fort Collins Fringe Festival (Colorado). Her work is deeply engaged with her identity as a queer woman and the position of the self within the human and more-than-human world. She is a teaching assistant to Ellen Robbins and performs alongside her alumni. She holds a BA in Dance and English from Colorado State University.
“In this trio that uses jump rope to explore rhythm, repetition, and risk, the dancers will explore improvisational scores and develop movement motifs as they go within the structure of always having to keep tempo with the rope. I'm the ever-present possibility of failure (what happens when someone doesn't jump at the right time? What happens when the rope stops?).”
Lilo is a Bronx-born teaching artist, activist, spoken word poet, and actress who’s been performing for 13 years. She uses her art as a way to educate, connect with, and create a safe space for others. Her work primarily focuses on social issues and introspection. Her art lives at the intersection of healing and resistance, using poetry and performance to educate, empower, and create a safe space. She’s shared her voice alongside changemakers like Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vanessa Gibson, and Richie Torres, and has opened for Hamilton: The Musical. Whether in classrooms, theaters, or rallies, Alyssa's words aim to reflect the truth and reimagine the future. Instagram.com/lilo_marz.
“The piece I am sharing was developed to raise awareness and create a safe space for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.”
Louise Coleman is a New York-based dancer-choreographer. Founder of LoCo Dance Company (2026), Louise’s work questions the relationship between mundane gestures and human desires, internal improvisational research and performance, and task-driven play and character building. Her work has been performed at Arts on Site, Green Space, The Craft, and Jack Crystal Theater. She has also presented work in the Pohler Dance Festival and Spark Theatre Festival (2026). She had the pleasure of being the 2025 fall artist-in-residence with the “Study Series.” During this residency, she gained the confidence to found the dance company, LoCo Dance Co. With the support of the B. Wilson Foundation Grant, she is excited to premiere her first evening-length work this spring. locodanceco.com.
"I am interested in exploring how memory is intertwined in the contrast between subtle gestures and loud athleticism. Which extreme does our body forget, let go of, and move to the next compared to what we hold on to and remember every detail of. How can subtle shifts of mundane gestures turn into loud physical bursts of explicit humanness? Can these two extremes find themselves within each other? Can a soft sigh with the chest have the same impact as a loud, full-body roar?”
MANX, short for Movement Arts Nature Exchange, is a dance/opera fusion company integrating opera and dance through embodied research, healthy technique, and artist-centered processes. Led by Artistic Director Melanie Holm, MANX produces and collaborates on dance/opera fusion performances and leads Movement/Singing workshops and residencies. At its core, MANX is about embodied experimentation and creating humane spaces where opera and dance are integrated through curiosity, sustainable technique, and fearless exploration. Through interdisciplinary performances and educational outreach, MANX challenges stereotypes about what it means to be a dancer or opera singer and helps artists cultivate and develop greater confidence in their bodies and voices. Recent and current MANX projects include a dance/singing collaboration with Courtney Murray, the dance/opera film Ach ich liebte with pianist/videographer Amy Zhang, multiple collaborations with the Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble, a Movement/Singing workshop series at MOtiVE Brooklyn, and artist residencies with Bearnstow near Mount Vernon, Maine, and Moulin Belle in Mareuil en Perigord, France. https://www.manxoperaanddance.com/.
“Inspired by the painting Gently Letting Go by Mary Jane Q Cross, Letting Go is a danced/sung piece exploring the messy journey two people take when, in order to move forward, they must let go of what no longer serves them. Through a fusion of dance and song, Letting Go is a window into the nonlinear journey of two people trying to shed past demons and move forward with lighter burdens.”
The Raving Jaynes, Jamie Graham and Amy Larimer, started out as classically-trained professional dancers. Ten years ago, they were seduced by the dark sparkle of improv comedy and became the Raving Jaynes! They perform regularly at the PIT and Players Theatre in New York City and have been presented at Dixon Place, Joe’s Pub, Triskelion Arts, and The Tank. They have performed in over 30 festivals both nationally and abroad. Highlights include Improv Fest Ireland, Mount Olymprov Improv Festival, La 2da Muestra Nacional de Improvisación Teatral/ImproTop, IMPRO Amsterdam; The Big City Improv Festival; Femprovisor Fest, Twin Cities Improv Festival; The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, and the District Improv Festival. ravingjaynes.com.
“Jamie and Amy have been working for over a decade on combining dance improvisation with theatrical improvisation. All our work together is fully improvised. We create formats for each venue depending on the time frame, audience, and space. We continue to develop new forms and are particularly interested right now in exploring how dance can be the foundation for creating a character.”
Sofia Ameglio was born and raised in Argentina. She is a dancer, actress, Pilates instructor, and model. She studied at the National Dance School in Buenos Aires and fulfilled her dream of completing four years of study at the Martha Graham School in New York. Currently, she works for several dance companies and projects in New York and abroad, including DanceAction, AbunDance Dance Company, Nuevo Tango Ballet, and Dances For A Variable Population (DVP). She has performed at renowned venues in New York, such as the Center at West Park, Lincoln Center Plaza, and the Martha Graham Studio. Sofi also teaches Pilates, dance, musical theater, and stretching and actively participates in movement, acting, and singing classes.
Silvana Brizuela-Weigel is a dance instructor, choreographer, and performer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied at the Escuela Nacional de Danzas, the Teatro Colón, and the Teatro Municipal General San Martín in her native city. She also studied Argentine Tango with Mingo & Esther Pugliese, Eduardo Sotelo & Ivonne Laens, and Gabriel Missé, among others. Silvana also practices Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, and the ancient Chinese art of Nei-Kung. Her teaching style emphasizes technique, partner connection, and improvisation.
DanceAction is a contemporary dance company based in New York, led by Argentinian dance artist Carmen Caceres. With a culturally diverse team of artists, we create educational opportunities and artistic experiences that foster collaboration and inclusion and promote critical thinking. Together, we develop performing arts works that reflect social realities that concern people, relationships, and social justice. Our primary purpose is to interpret these issues and use our work to propel change. DA participated in numerous festivals, performance series, and residencies in New York and abroad, including the Center at West Park’s Evolution Festival, Take Root at Green Space, Under Exposed at Dixon Place, the Women Center Stage Festival, Festival FIDCDMX in Mexico City, and Ticino in Danza in Ticino, Switzerland. DA has self-produced and presented several full-length works, including “Pathways & Architecture” (2025), “The Price is Right (De-Valued)” (2024), “BLINDSPOT” (2019), “BMH” (2018), and “Game Night” (2015). DA's awards include the Brooklyn Arts Council Community Fund, the City Artist Corps, and the LMCC Creative Engagement Grant. Through DA, Carmen Caceres produces the DA Garden Series, a performance event held at her home-built garden dance floor, which welcomes artists from diverse disciplines to showcase short works rooted in improvisation and spontaneous composition practices. https://www.carmencaceres.com/about
https://vimeo.com/953838619
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 25.00
