NIGHTWOOD by Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd is a Brooklyn based dance artist originally from Albany, NY. He is a 2025 graduate of the DAS Choreography master’s program in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As a performer, he has had the pleasure of working with David Dorfman Dance, Jonathan Gonzalez, Beth Gill, Tere O’Connor, Netta Yerushalmy, Donna Uchizono, Monica Bill Barnes, Joanna Kotze, and more. His teaching practice has brought him to The American Dance Festival, Rutgers University, New York University, University of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, Gibney Dance Center, and Mark Morris Dance Center. His work has been produced by: Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, LaMama, BAAD!, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and The Center for Performance Research. Lloyd received the 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, two New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award nominations, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts dance research fellowship, and was listed on Dance Magazines 2023 “25 to Watch” list. For more head to jordandlloyd.com

ABYSS by slowdanger

slowdanger – anna thompson and taylor knight are co-founding artistic director of slowdanger, a multidisciplinary performance entity creating experiences at the intersection of contemporary performance, experimental music, and technology founded in Pittsburgh, PA USA. Crawling out of the fractured infrastructure of Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic Rust belts, their name was inspired by the Pittsburgh road construction signs that signify a demolition of old surfaces to build upon the remnants. They return to this overarching concept cyclically in performance creation; deconstructing, rebuilding, slowing down to examine the remains and re-imagine new futures. From engaging a multi-channel sound installation to teaching dance at a queer rave in the woods, they transform their shape to adapt to a variety of different containers. slowdanger has performed across North America and Europe in venues ranging from proscenium theater and museum to nightclub and dive bar. Their work is responsive to site and interrogates the architectural, social, and systemic intersections of location through adaptive and concept touring models. slowdanger has received support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, New Music USA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NEFA/National Dance Project, and more. Their work has been shared at Jacob’s Pillow, the Warhol Museum, Honcho Campout, the Flea, Hirshhorn Museum, and more.

My Name’sound by Pioneers Go East Collective with Symara Sarai (choreographer) and syd island (composer)

Pioneers Go East Collective is a radical queer laboratory collective of performing and visual artists, curators and social practitioners dedicated to time-based and media art to empower the LGBTQ+ experience. Since 2012 based in New York City, we create works of high artistic merit, speak out about social issues and build a platform to positively impact the LGBTQ+ community. Founded and led by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Daniel Diaz, and Philip Treviño, in collaboration with Joey Kipp, ALEXA GRÆ, Anabella Lenzu, Mark Tambella, Remi Harris, Joyce Isabelle, Sugar Vendil, and syd island, the collective portrays same-gender-loving experiences, memory, and marginalization that resonate with contemporary lives. Pioneers Go East Collective combines stories of vulnerability and courage with popular culture to facilitate communal meaning and advocate for cultural integrity. Pioneers Go East Collective’s work has been developed in residencies and presented in New York City at Socrates Sculpture Park (2025/26), BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music’s residency in 2023), BRIC ARTS MEDIA (2022/23), The LGBT Center (2019-24), Judson Church (2018-26), La MaMa Moves (2024 & 2026), Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (2018-19), Center for Performance Research (2021-23), Ars Nova (2022), JACK (2018), La MaMa (2012-26), St Ann’s Warehouse (2014), Governors Island/ Process Residency LMCC (2013/14), Chashama Gallery (2012), Goethe Institute Gallery (2012); and Upstate NY at Lumberyard (Catskill, NY) in 2023,  Collar Works Gallery (Troy, NY) in 2023 and 2026, Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency (2024 & 2026), Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (Tivoli, NY) in 2024, and Time Space Limited (Hudson, NY) in 2025. Current collaborators: Symara Sarai, Darrin Wright, joy burklund, Adele Overbey, bree breeden, Kathleen Kelley, and Bryan Baira

Symara Sarai (choreographer), a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally with deep recognition. Named Dance Magazines’ 2025 “Top 25 to Watch,” a 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, and a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago, she is known to be a courageously committed performer and maker. The Dai Ailian Foundation scholarship led her to Beijing, China where she spent two years gaining an associate degree in modern choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy. Sarai is a 2019 graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program. She was a resident artist for Bearnstow, Gibney 6.2 Work Up, Gallim’s 2022 Moving Artist’s Residency, BAX’s Fall 2022 Space Grant Program, Center for Performance Research’s 2022 AIR Program, New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Artist 23/24 as well as a 23/24 Women in Motion Commissioned artist. They are currently a 24-26 Movement Research Artist in Residence and a 24-26 Abrons Arts Center Performance AIRspace Resident. Their work as a performer and maker has been reviewed and featured in the NY Times, Dance Enthusiast, Fjord, as well as promoted through Forbes. She has had multiple film works commissioned by Berlin-based choreographer Christoph Winkler. They have presented work at New York Live Arts, The Clarice at UMD, The LGBT Center in NY, Judson Church, BAAD, Kestrels, and other venues throughout the United States, China, and Germany. She is currently an Urban Bush Women company member. She has also notably worked with Jasmine Hearn, Ogemdi Ude, Pioneers Go East Collective, Kevin Wynn, Joanna Kotze, Nattie Trogdon+Hollis Bartlett, and Slowdanger, among others.

Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (director, filmmaker, installation) is a Gay immigrant and a NYC-based director, installation artist and filmmaker dedicated to performance and new media installations that reflect queer perspectives. Artist-in-residence at Judson Church, La MaMa, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Collar Works, and the Artistic Director of Pioneers Go East Collective dedicated to performance and media that reflect queer perspectives and vulnerability. Gian Marco is the NYSCA’s Creative Residency Award recipient (2023- 2026); Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2019-22); Mertz Gilmore Foundation (2021-22); DCA (2022-24); NYSCA Artist recipient (2019); LMCC/Creative Engagement Individual Artist recipient (2014-18); and Finalist for the Jerome Foundation’s Fellowship (2019-20), and finalist for the Creative Capital Award (2025). He developed new performance and installations with residencies & fellowships at: Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship (2025-26); Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) artist-in-residence (2023); EMAR/ Elizabeth Murray Artist-in-residence (2024 & 2026); BRIC ARTS MEDIA residency (2021-22); Center for Performance Research’s Artist-in-residence (2022); LMCC’s Process Space Residency fellow (2014/15); New Vic Artist Associate (2015). Additional creative residencies and presentations at Time Space Limited (Hudson, NY, 2025); Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (Tivoli, NY, 2024); Lumberyard (Catskill, NY, 2023); Buddies in Bad Times (Toronto, Canada, 2019). Press: Brooklyn Rail digital interview (2023); The Observer interview (2024); Forbes Magazine featured interview (2023); TimeOut NY Critics’ Pick (2023), New York Magazine’s Pick (2019); The New Yorker’s Pick (2021); Maxamoo’s Pick (2018-19); hailed by CULTUREBOT as “a strong gesture about collective queer yearning on a deep microcosmic, personal level.”

syd island (composer/ writer/ performance artist) (they/them) is a queer vocal and performing artist based in Brooklyn. they have a BA in Music from Brown University. syd performs and collaborates with Pioneers Go East Collective most recently as a NYSCA Support for Artists grant recipient for DISTANCE /DECAY/ in 2025. syd helped develop My Name’sound as a Resident Artist 3.0 at BAM in 2023, as well as through BRIClab in 2022-23. syd is also one third of the theater band Friend of Friend and co-created and developed Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone alongside Andy Boyd and Philip Santos Schaffer as a part of The Assembly’s 2022 Deceleration Lab. since then they have performed Room, Room, Room, at The Brick (2023), Joe’s Pub (2024) and HERE Arts Center (2024). syd has collaborated on several incarnations of Devotion Devotion by Lydia Mokdessi and Jason Bartell at The Exponential Festival (2020), Crossroads at Judson Memorial Church (2021), and The Brick (2022). in 2019, syd performed in Margot Mae’s softboarding: medium shred at Roulette Intermedium. in addition to performing in experimental theater and dance, they sing choral and plainchant sacred music at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Park Slope. IG @syd.island I www.sydisland.com