Coney Island Ritual Cabaret Festival Set For This Month

The 5th annual Coney Island Ritual Cabaret opens Coney Island USA's spectacular 2023 season! After cancelling in 2020 due to COVID, this festival finally marks International Culture Lab's (ICL) 5th year of probing the fantastical blending of ritual and entertainment on Coney Island USA's (CIUSA) Sideshows by the Seashore stage. Once again, ICL has assembled an array of performance artists, musicians, puppeteers, sideshow performers and (butoh) dancers, all of whom have been tasked with presenting original works that define "ritual cabaret" through the lens of their own particular aesthetic, discipline and lineage.

The history of the Coney Island Ritual Cabaret Festival is informed by dancer/ choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata who in the 1950's originated a dance form he called "butoh" with his ensemble of burlesque dancers in an effort to defy and subvert authority, including conventional notions of dance, thereby seeking transformation - on the personal, societal and political level.

Inspired by this historical reference, in its call for proposals, ICL challenged artists to deconstruct and reinvent their particular art form, whatever it might be. We asked: If the goal is TRANSFORMATION - of the self, of society, of politics - what will it take to bring this about? Is it possible to invent a new genre? What is Ritual Cabaret to you?

Cabaret, burlesque, vaudeville, and circus sideshow have a long and storied history in Coney Island, and Coney's rich legacy of amusement, community, and innovation make CIUSA the perfect venue to explore the intersection of ritual & entertainment.

Poster and set design by Si Golraine

PERFORMER LINEUP:

FRIDAY, March 31
Omer Gal of Cookie Tongue
Jonathan Kopp
Jacquelyn Marie Shannon
SisterDada
Suidae
PNK VLVT WTCH
Durational performance by Dimitri Saari

SATURDAY, APRIL 1
Wharton Tract
Sprankles
Amazing Amy
Mistral Hay
Ama Diver
Aida Miro & Ken Arii
Durational performance by Dimitri Saari

SUNDAY, APRIL 2
Si Golraine Ensemble
Erika Hassan & Bob Lyness
Celeste Hastings "The Butoh Rockettes"
Obsidian Absurd
Alter Kacker Rocker Amos
John D'Aquino
Durational performance by Dimitri Saari