Angel Izaguirre is a Two Spirit, Nuyorican, Drag King, sideshow performer, and producer. With his drag character “Oliver Herface” and his family friendly circus persona “Angel Inferno” he invites audiences into his fantastical universe with high energy and theatrical performances. His performance art is focused on themes of trauma, sex work, culture, racism, colonialism and history. He uses their body as an instrument to express the depth of human resilience through intentional and ritualistic performances.

Angel plans to spend this residency researching and writing a circus show about BIPOC sideshow history.

Find him at @Oliver_Herface on instagram

Photo credit: Mthr Trsa @mthrtrsa

Troy Lingelbach is a circus and performance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Troy performs in cabaret and variety shows across NYC and the world, and has coached generations of NYC aerialists for a decade. Informed by their background in theatre, music, dance, philosophy, and gymnastics, Troy seeks to challenge and empower audiences through their art.

Troy will be developing their second evening length piece during the Hupstate Residency. Their project is a stark assessment of the consumer relationship to plastic, reimagining recyclables as a medium for circus performance.

Find them at @troydaboy1 on instagram or www.troylingelbach.com

Photo credit: Luis Suarez (@suarfotos on IG)

Ella is a multidisciplinary artist with a passion for story telling. Ella freelances fine arts, animation, aerials, and the flying trapeze. Ella can generally be found hunched over a drawing tablet or in a circus gym covered in chalk.

During this residency Ella plans on creating a short film about an aerial straps artist.

Find her at @ellavshea on instagram or ellasheanimates.com

Matthew Morgan is a circus artist residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is a straps specialist, ground acrobat, partner acrobat, and general aerialist. Find him performing regularly with 3AM Theatre and Duane Park. He teaches at Cirquehaus, Warrior Bridge, Circus Academy New York, and Om Factory.

During this residency Matthew plans on expanding and refining a duet with violist and vocalist Javen Lara.

Find him at @dizzymattymorgan

Photo credit: Mario Mayes

Javen “Jae” C. Lara (she/her) is from Harlem, New York City. She has performed as a violist and/or vocalist at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and other prolific NYC venues. Graduating from Bard College and Conservatory in Italian Studies and Viola Performance, studying with violist of the Shanghai Quartet Honggang Li, Lara was one of two of the first African-American graduates of Bard College Conservatory. She is a member of the first all black orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall, Gateways Symphony Orchestra.

Javen plans on workshopping and performing with Matthew Morgan on a joint piece for Circus work on Straps and Viola/Vocal performance.

Find her at @sexistential_crisis on instagram

Photo credit: Zongheng Zhang (@zigzag_conducting_violin)

Cheryl Lewis is a NYC based multi-discipline artist/performer for stage and screen, member of SAG-AFTRA*AEA*AGVA*AGMA. She is a professional stunt performer/martial artist/actor/dancer/circus aerialist/puppeteer. This physical expertise informs her work as a photographer/fight choreographer/action architect /director/ award- winning writer.
Founder of CinA Studios, a media production, consulting & creative services house specializing in Narrative-Driven Action Design, Fight/Movement Choreography, Actor Stunt & Movement Training, Action Consultant and Performance & Event Photography.
Awareness and respect for the art & science of motion, Cheryl integrates these techniques for unique & authentic storytelling across many specialties.
She is known for:
The Last Frontier – Stunt Double: Alfre Woodard (Currently steaming on Apple TV+).
The Gray Man – Stunt Double: Alfre Woodard (Directed by the Russo Brothers).
Wonder Woman:1984 – Stunt Performer (Directed by Patty Jenkins).
Abdo and Saneya – Stunt Coordinator/Action Architect (feature film)
American Koko – Stunt Coordinator/stunt double/Action Architect (ABCd)
Fantastic World ~Universal Studios, Japan - Aerialist / Dancer / Stunts
The Disney Cruise Line – Dancer/Fight Captain.
Metropolitan Opera (Benvenuto Cellini) – Inamorata ~featured dancer.

Cheryl plans to spend this residency in a choreographic investigation into the intersection of circus aerial arts and traditional film stunt work with the intention to develop an action sequence that integrates circus bungee & aerial techniques into narrative stunt design.

Find her at @CherylinAction on instagram or https://cherylinaction.com/

Photo credits: CinA Studios ~photography

We develop and present new work with an emphasis on magical and technical elements used to amplify story. Our work history includes "Lucky" at Dixon Place (“Best Off-Off Broadway Show” Time Out Magazine), "The Bear, Every Time" in the 2025 Queens Short Play Festival, "The Clown," with Atlas Circus Company, and "Connect2U," a short series commissioned by Rizzle (1 million views, IAWTV Festival).

Carrie and Henry plan to spend this residency developing their mentalism/illusion based show currently titled "Specious."

https://www.carriekeating.com/

https://www.henry-evans.com/

www.toastco.org

Faxtra Larq is a modern-based dancer and multidisciplinary artist with a diverse background in dance and sideshow circus techniques. She has trained extensively in Modern, Contemporary, and House dance, as well as Voguing, Burlesque and Sideshow Circus, immersing herself in New York City's vibrant underground dance scene.

A member of the International House of Elle, Faxtra performed across various venues in Mexico and New York, including The Joyce Theatre and Coney Island USA.

Faxtra plans to spend this residency developing a piece that pushes boundaries with a visceral journey of strength, focus and fun.

In her work, Lindsey celebrates unique traditions and characteristics of place, culture, and community, finding humor and humanity in complex places. She is currently co-directing and editing a comedic hybrid film about the juggling community called SERIOUS PLAY. She has also recently edited the hybrid documentary feature, HOLDING BACK THE TIDE, which premiered at DocNYC in 2023.

She is known for directing and editing several short films including: THE EXCEPTIONALLY EXTRAORDINARY EMPORIUM about the significance of costuming in New Orleans, MY NAME IS MARC, AND YOU CAN COUNT ON IT about Cleveland’s late-night commercial cult icon Marc Brown, and RHYTHM'S GONNA GET YA, a city symphony of the many challenges NYC subway commuters face. Her award-winning films have screened at numerous festivals across the country, appeared on PBS's Reel South, and her work has been featured on The New Yorker, Time Studios, The Washington Post, Vox, and CNN’s Great Big Story.

Lindsey is excited to spend this residency with circus artists editing the film, Serious Play, which has been rooted in collaboration with the juggling community.

https://www.seriousplayfilm.com/

Nicki Miller is an interdisciplinary theatre maker, aerial artist, performer, writer, and movement educator interested in art and performance that ignites the imagination, troubles the intellect, and nourishes the body. Her work weaves aerial dance, rigging dramaturgy, puppetry, playwriting, collage (video, sound, analog, assemblage), and ritual with applied neuroscience, ecology, mysticism, and disability studies to create spaces of artistic togethering that restore the empathetic and somatic connections necessary to dream forward as a collective.

Nicki plans to spend this residency developing her interdisciplinary performance project  "Ghost Love," a piece which positions the human body and planet earth as mirrors to one another through blending elements of theatre, aerial, and ceremony to conjure hope and regeneration amidst conditions of collapse. Through communing with the local ecology and collaborating with Benjamin E. Oyzon, she is excited to evolve rigging design, projection/shadow elements, and relational aspects of the piece

www.nickimiller.com

Photo credit

Effy Grey IG: @effygrey_photography

Madison Ward is a multidisciplinary artist from Austin, Texas. Her extensive work across mediums such as circus, dance, film, and visual arts, reflects a career focused on experimentation and collaboration. Madi attended the National Circus School of Montreal ('ENC', class of 2019) specializing in aerial rope and acrobatics. Since graduation she has traveled worldwide, performing in a range of venues spanning warehouse floors to the Broadway stage. In addition to her performance and circus work, she a coach, writer, and lifelong student. Her free time consists of a wealth of personal projects and studies.

Book Kennison is a circus artist in New York City. His inimitable style combines a deep and highly-researched understanding of juggling with newer vocabulary in dance and acrobatics. With decades of experience on stage and a natural, understated presence as a performer, Book is comfortable working as a solo artist (credits include Midnight Circus, Circus Flora, and Bindlestiff Family Cirkus) or in a group show (7 Fingers, Hideaway Circus).

Madison and Book plan to spend this residency developing Travis, a two-person show set in an eternal, rural America. Using circus, physical theater, text, and original music, we inhabit two characters–at turns blustering and forlorn, familiar and uncanny–navigating a neglected world in which God is ever present and always silent.

https://www.bookkennison.com/

Queens, New York

I am a flying trapeze artist and animator currently based in Rochester, NY. Ultimately, I want to create art that combines the physical artistry of circus with more traditional art styles.

During the residency, Ella worked on an amalgamation of animation, performance art, and circus all wrapped up into a short film.

Brooklyn based artist from San Diego

Troy is a circus and performance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Informed by a background in gymnastics, musical theatre, dance, and philosophy, their art seeks to challenge and inspire audiences.

Troy worked on their first major individual project while at Hupstate, a two act solo show.

New York City

Linda spent the beautiful week weaving dance, aerial silks, Shakespeare and the sounds of nature together.

Photo by Jenni-Kate Deshon

From Santa Barbara, CA; resident of NYC since 2005

A self-described, yet not-so-serious “classically trained vocalist rescued from the clutches of the opera world,” Heather came to circus after a career in classical music (but also dreamt of running away with the circus at age 7). Now, as a circus artist and teacher trained primarily in aerial silks and corde lisse, she enjoys fusing aerial movement with singing, and exploring multi-disciplinary collaborations that allow room for more varied theatrical narratives than traditional opera.

Heather worked on a multi-section piece using aerial, singing, and movement sensor devices that explores the constraints of a life in a Western classical art form, and how breaking away can often lead to freeing your creativity.

Photo by Michael Schulze Photography

Joni is from High Point, NC and Queen grew up between St. Croix and Baltimore, MD. Both are based in Brooklyn, NY.

Twin Eclipse is NYC’s Premiere Black Aerialist Duo. Twin Eclipse creates circus pieces that clearly represent their love for African culture, Black culture, and the resilience of African and Indigenous people here in the USA. The artwork revolves around ancestral celebration and cultural struggles with the goal of providing healing to the past traumas of these cultures while presenting them to a wider audience in a way that is both visually inspiring and full of historical context that is more easily digestible.

Twin Eclipse manifested a black ancestral celebration piece which will incorporate dance, live music, acrobatics, and aerial.

Rochester, NY

Katherine Marino is a physical theater artist based in Rochester, NY where she creates original multi-disciplinary performances incorporating contemporary dance, clowning, and theater. She is known and loved in her community for her big hair, her unique movement style, and her hat juggling and clowning work, including her solo clown show titled A Show with Cookies. In addition to writing and performing, Marino finds great joy in teaching classes and workshops in contact improvisation, physical theater, and clown.

During the HupState residency Marino continued to develop ideas from her 2022 hat juggling act, "Locks," researching the use of her hair as a prop and mask and incorporating this research into her hat juggling vocabulary.

Photo by Avi Pryntz-Nadworny

From Brooklyn via Kansas City.

Kaitlin Gould is an actor, writer, and aerial performer, who received her MFA in Acting from East 15 Acting School in East London. She has been creating her own work since graduating, including her play 'Mirrors' and her short film 'Expectations' which won best cinematography at Toronto Feedback Female Festival. With a strong focus on mental health, she seeks to tell bold stories that create a dialogue and incite change.

During the residency Kaitlin will be developing a new play that's storytelling centers around aerial and circus arts.

From New York City.

I am a circus artist, primarily with the Cyr wheel. I also have hi-tech LED versions of many of my props that are notoriously hard to photograph. I 'was' also a photographer in days gone by, so I would like to combine these talents to create something new.

I plan to photograph LED circus arts.

From Buffalo, New York.

Rebecca is an aerialist known for her powerful flow and bold style. Aerial hoop is her main apparatus of choice but she also practices hula hoop, juggling, and pole arts. She considers herself a lifelong learner in all aspects of life.

Rebecca plans to use her time in residency to create performance art inspired by her life with mental illness.

From New York City.

I am an Aerialist/Dancer/Performer based in New York City. I create art to tell stories and connect with the shared humanity of audience members. I create work that feels like an authentic extension of my inner landscape, looking to reach out and access other peoples’ inner worlds with themes relating to the human condition.

I plan on creating an aerial/dance solo exploring the themes of grief and loss.

From New York City and New Jersey.

We are in collaboration exploring the intersectionalities of our disciplines, styles, and techniques, creating a piece exploring storytelling using our physical movement and the incorporation of our journey with American Sign Language (ASL).

We are developing a story focused on the theme of connection through combining our backgrounds in dance, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics, and circus.

From Brooklyn, New York

Tara’s 20 year circus performance career delights in exploring the movement potential and the deep inner workings of the human body. From teaching and performing at Club Med Resorts, to touring with Celebrity Cruiselines, to gigging all over New York City with companies such as Cirquetacular Entertainment, the Love Show, and the House of Yes, Tara art has touched the lives of many. She hopes to bring her audiences along with her on this journey and leave them with the joy of remembering their wholeness.

I am planning to create a new contortion work exploring the interrelated themes of rape culture and climate change. How the violence and suppression of the feminine mirrors our culture’s lack of care for the ecology of our planet.

Photo credit Michael Blaze.

Danielle Marie Fusco is a multidisciplinary performer, choreographer, aerialist, and cultural preservationist whose work bridges professional concert dance, Italian folk traditions, and ancestral healing arts. Her career spans Off-Broadway productions, commercial theater, and international concert stages, grounded in extensive training, performance, and instruction in Martha Graham and Luigi Jazz, as well as professional circus training at Circus Warehouse NYC.

As a circus artist and dancer, Danielle performed for eight years with Dzul Dance in New York and Mexico, as well as with Big SkyWorks and STREB Lab for Action Mechanics. She is a Lyra and Silks/Hammock instructor at Aerial Haven and was a proud circus artist-in-residence for the inaugural launch of the Hupstate Circus Residency with Circus Culture and Salstonstall.

In her current artistic practice, Danielle shares Southern Italian mysticism, ritual, and embodied lineage through workshops, retreats, and performance-based works. Her interdisciplinary creations unite movement, spirituality, and heritage to cultivate transformative experiences that honor tradition, ignite embodiment, and deepen cultural connection.

Photo credit: Wendy Wild