Katherine Adamenko
Actress/Trainer/Dancer/Writer
Ladypants
Welcome to Ladypants Productions
A fierce and uninhibited performer, writer, choreogrpaher, and installation artist, Katherine has presented her own special brand of Cabaret Performance Art, Butoh Dance and Physical Theatre for
more than a decade throughout the US and Europe.
FULL-LENGTH ONE-WOMAN SHOWS (writer/performer/designer)
For Her Own Good: Chronicles of Women and Madness (work in progress)
o A multi-media performance art work exploring the misguided history of female sexuality and madness,drawing from historical accounts writing written by and about women incarcerated against their will.
The Story of a Phallus Woman, Produced and Performed at Theatre for the New City, NYC
o A humorous and subversive six character, one-woman multi-media and physical theatre work that explores a woman’s contradictory relationship to both the phallus and the penis.
Ladies Who Go Bump in the Night, Trinity Studios Gallery, Colchester, UK
o A funny, provocative, interdisciplinary cabaret promenade work of ten installed vignettes that delves into the various worlds of the female performer.
SOLO BUTOH DANCE AND PHYSICAL THEATRE
choreography and performance (selected)
Mask in the Mirror
o Fudge the Pimp Performance Salon, Gabrielle Schaeffer, Producer, NYC
o 30th Annual Halloween Ball, Theatre for the New City, NYC
La Chanteuse d’Opera
o Hanae Mori Butoh Festival, Vangeline Theatre, prod., Galapagos Performance and Art Space, NYC
YELLOW/CREEPING/PAPER
Excerpt: For Her Own Good: Chronicles of Women and Madness
o 28th Annual Halloween Ball, Theater for the New City, NYC.
o 2004 DUMBO Dance Festival, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park, NYC
Water Cure, excerpt: For Her Own Good: Chronicles of Women and Madness
o Evolution Arts, Yonkers, NY
o Ken Hiratsuka Studio Performance Series, NYC
o An Evening of Butoh Solos, Vangeline Theatre, prod., Galapagos, NYC
CENSORED I, Pancake Palooza II at Cellspace, San Francisco, CA BUTOH AND MOVEMENT COMPANIES Vangeline Theater, Company Member, Vangeline, Artic Director, NYC
CENSORED II: Can Ms, Democracy Save the World?, Theater for the New City Halloween Ball, NYC
o An embodied statement against censorship performed to Mozart’s “Requiem.”
Neuvo Butoh Harpa (co-founder, choreographer, and performer)
Co-founded in 2005 with electric harpist and composer Mia Theodoratus, NBH create unique feminist musical performance installations that combine sounds of North Indian Classical, experimental, and pop music with Japanese Butoh dance and physical theatre. Works include: Elements Series, Madame May, and Sickness.
o 2006 Chashama, Oasis Festival, Riverside Park
o CBGB’s 313 Gallery Farewell Performance
o Rubulad Performance Art Parties
o Elise Mankes Gallery, Marblehead, MA
o The Living Room Series at the Gershwin Hotel
o 2005 Howl Festival, NYC
o Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
o TROPIC OF CANCER, guest artist. Theater for the New City, NYC
o VOOM, Here Performing Arts Center, NYC
o “Fireflies,” C.A.R.O.U.S.E./L, New, New Stuff Series, PS122, and LES Theater for the New City, NYC
o The Gates Procession, Public Performance, Central Park, NYC
Cilla Vee Movement Project, Motion Sculpture Installations, Claire Barrett, Artistic Director, NYC
o Carmen Miranda and Golden Leaf, Chashama, NYC
o Elegant Cocktail Party, LES Festival, Theatre for the New City, NYC
o Attack of the Tubes, TNYC and the Bronx Academy of Arts, NYC
o Water Suites, Hudson River Association, NYC with Chashama, NYC
Ancient Touch Butoh Ensemble, Company Member, Artistic Director Delphine Mei, San Francisco
o “Butterfly Dream,” International Dancing Poetry Festival, Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco
PERFORMANCE ART INSTALLATIONS
Salon Apartment Series of Experimental Performance and Art, Curator and Performer, Davis, California
Three site-specific performance installations use burlesque as its frame. Each is an intimate and explicit statement of female sexuality, exploring visceral spectator/performer relationships.
o La Guapa Gorging Geisha, Ciao/Chow Salon: Combining Butoh and Tango motifs, the piece explores stereotypes, servitude, and the iconic roles of the Geisha and “exotic” Latina, where the refrigerator becomes a site of Woman’s passion. Performed to musical pastiche and monologue.
o Sgt. Anna Conda and Combat Confessions, Closet Salon: Using the eroticization of masculinity as a motif, the bedroom closet is transformed into the Altar of Ultimate Phallacy. Special Forces Sergeant & Sage, Anna Conda asks audience members to come inside confess their closeted secrets.
o Amy Abrahams Performs Preparation and Presentation, Strip Salon: The bathroom is transformed into peep show. Performed to a recorded comedy routine about the rituals of daily beauty, the stripper parodies this illusion of beauty, as she shaves and twirls her pasties for an intimate audience.
o A Feast for Sore Eyes Thanksgiving, Grub Club Performative Dinner, Chef Gecko, Dollhaus Gallery, NYC
o Hungry Jack and Spamela Anderson edible instant American dinner art installation
o Feast Fairy interactive feeding installation
o The Human Buffet, Caesar Pink’s Imperial Orgy Masquerade Ball
o Interactive Food Installations and Feedings, Stephan Gang Gallery and Webster Hall, NYC
Museum of Fetishized Identities, conceived by Guillermo Gomez Peña, Ceredigion Museum, Aberstwyth, Wales EXHIBITIONS / INSTALLATIONS
o Interactive performance installation with “Rosy Spade,” chained Victorian strip poker player bride.
2003 The Universe, Arcadia Artmaker Tarot, CBGB 313 Gallery, NYC PERFORMATIVE PEOTRY
2001 Human Buffet, Imperial Orgy Masquerade Ball, Webster Hall, NYC
2001 Mon Dieu Live Art Buffet, Imperial Orgy Masquerade Ball, Stephan Gang Gallery, NYC / Lilith, Walker Design Gallery, Davis, CA / Memorial Day at the Beach, CA / Installation Retrospective, Davis, CA / Censored, Davis, CA
2004 War Haikus/Haikus For War, Westbeth Performance Space, NYC
2001 Moving Boundaries Moving Bodies, Performance Studies International Conference ‘07, Germany; Dance Under Construction Conference, UC Davis; Graduate Student Association Conference, CA.
2000 Reaction Tactics, Performance Studies International 6, Conference, Tempe, AZ
1999 What If, Wow Café Theatre, NYC
1999 The Cave of Knowing, New Age Cabaret, Wow Café Theatre, NYC / Theatre of Operations, London
1998/9 Cunning Linguists Collective, various locations, London
RELATED TEACHING AND ARTS EXPERIENCE
Creative Movement & Theatre Teacher for Children-Adults (Special Needs Focus) 1991-Present
o Developed and adapted movement and drama workshops to enhance motor skills and body awareness through creative thinking and imaginative play (detailed list available upon request).
University Level Teaching 2000-2005
o Assistant Butoh Teacher, Vangeline Theater, Brooklyn College Theatre Department, NYC
o Guest Lecturer & Workshop Leader, “Creating Solo Performance Art: Installation & Visual Communication,” Department. of Environmental Design, UC, Davis
o Workshop Leader, “Movement for Theatre” Undergraduate Festival of Plays, UC, Davis
o Lecturer/Teaching Assistant, Performance & Culture: Introduction to Performance and Theory, Department of Theatre and Dance, UC, Davis.
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
“Reaction Tactics,” Audience Participation: Essays on Inclusion in Performance, ed. Dr. Susan Kattwinkel, Praeger Publishing Group, Inc.: Westport, CT, 2003
“A Body of Text: Challenging Notions of Vision and Visuality,” Maska Performing Arts Journal, guest ed. Maaike Bleecker, ed. Emil Hrvatin, Ljubljiana, Slovenia, Spring 2003.
INCLUSIONS / INTERVIEWS
Ayers, Robert. “Body Language: Women’s Performance Art and Sex.” Contemporary Visual Arts Magazine. Issue 27, 2000.
Gomez-Peña, Guillermo. Ethno-Techno: Writings on Performance, Activism and Pedagogy: Routledge, New York and London, 2005. Sainer, Arthur. The New Radical Theatre Notebook: New Expanded, Revised Edition, Applause, New York and London, 1997.
AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
o Artist-in-Residence, Evolution Arts, Yonkers, NY, 2008
o Artist-in-residence, Theatre for the New City, 2002
o Fellowship, travel, and performance grants, University of California, Davis, and University of Essex, UK