Performance
Kenna Cottman, Valerie Oliveiro, Pramila Vasudevan
Tiger Balm #8
Dates
Thu, Feb 12, 12:00 am
Sliding Scale: $0 - $20
Volunteer at any Tiger Balm and get complimentary access to the whole series! Sign up HERE
Free tickets available. Come gather and exchange with our community.
Support Frontline Community Observers
Red Eye has partnered with Powwow Grounds, which has been collecting supplies for people on the frontlines—those patrolling or serving as legal observers.
The most needed item right now are gas gift cards (speedway, holiday, etc). They are also accepting respirators/gas masks, KN95 masks, high-visibility vests, hand warmers, and more. See the complete list here [link].
If you're attending Tiger Balm, you may bring any of these items and leave them with us. We will deliver them to Powwow Grounds after the event. You can also donate to Red Eye directly and we will purchase gas cards on your behalf. Here is how you can donate [Venmo @redeyecollaborations, link here].
FEAT. Masanari Kawahara, Malia Burkhart & Lelis Brito + Romero Cannady + Trè Da Marc
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ORGANIZED AND CURATED BY KENNA COTTMAN + VAL OLIVEIRO + PRAMILA VASUDEVAN
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From dance, to dance, by dance, for dance: for the skeptics, the ambivalent, and the believers
A salve for those who are jaded by talkbacks
An irritant if you insist on a singular lens
An ongoingness, a continuous labor, an unarrival
A viewing practice of holding complexity, difference, context, impact
The pleasure of the sting, the slow burn, and, if you're lucky: an opening.
Three short dance works in process. One running experiment in discussion, together. Because relational, because dance, because dance wants to be in conversations of dance, because dance is what wants.
Funding
Tiger Balm is made possible by the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board and Metropolitan Regional Council for the Arts.
Accessibility
Red Eye’s space is fully wheelchair-accessible. Masks are highly encouraged. Some events require masking and masks will be available at the venue if you don't bring your own. Please only attend if you are feeling well, and if not, we are happy to change your tickets to a different day at no charge.
About the Artists
Masanari Kawahara, Malia Burkhart & Lelis Brito
Masanari Kawahara 川原正也 has been creating works for stage in the Twin Cities since 1993 as a Butoh mover, theater artist, puppet and mask artist, and educator. He has been Naked Stages Program Director since January 2022. Masanari is a resident teaching artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre, where he works with toddlers, preschoolers, elders, and individuals from MSS. He is the founder of Compassionate Artist of the Heart Butoh, co-leading with Lelis Brito and Malia Burkhart to cultivate practices in a community of Butoh movers. Other current projects include working with Sam Aros Mitchell as 2025-2026 Resident Artists Working in Cross Cultural Collaboration for Center for Performing Arts; working for Skewed Visions in the creation of Inhuman (2026); and working with Pramila Vasudevan on a project, Gut Soil, inspired by plants and grains. Masanari is a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow 2018-19 and 2010-2011. He is a (part-time) Zen Buddhist inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh. Masanari was born in Hiroshima, Japan.
Malia Araki Burkhart (she/they) is a Multidisciplinary Artist, Community Activist, Somatic Massage Therapist, and Arts-Educator. Their work in Performance Art is influenced by puppetry and mask-work. Butoh, Global Somatics Process, Contact Improvisation, and “Moving Stories” — Somatically-based improvised storytelling. In 2001 I was awarded a grant via the Asian American Renaissance and Jerome Foundation to study Butoh dance with Min Tanaka at the Bodyweather Farm in Yamanashi, Japan. Past productions include Sacred Garden, BreatheLoveKnowRelate , The Survival Pages, and Remembering Rachel Corrie.They have been awarded several grants for their work including Forecast Public Art’s McKnight Mid-Career Professional Development Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board’s “Artist Initiative Grant” and the Jerome Foundations’ Naked Stages Program. In 2020-2021 and 2022 They participated in grant-supported fellowships through Monkeybear Harmolodic Workshop.
Lelis Brito is a Venezuelan-American installation artist, theater director, choreographer, educator, performer, writer and director of the Center for Moving Cultures. As director of CMC Brito advocates for tactile/kinaesthetic knowledge in education and cultural transmission. Brito has created over 80 original works, varying from 6 minute dance solos, to one-hour plays and 3-hour long movement-theatre works. Brito’s work is sourced from the human body’s potential and activation—the work of clarifying choice-making through the knowledge gained within the experience of a moving sensing body. Lelis was introduced to Butoh by studying with Maureen Fleming, and went on to study with ARIADONE, SU-EN, Vanessa Skantze, and others with an eye to intersection with Latin American trance/euphoric dance traditions. Brito’s choreography that is Butoh-centric includes Everyday (1989),Unhinged (2004), Artifacts: Redshift (2005) Unfurl (2007), Weighted (2012), and Fall (2015). Brito led a Butoh Study Group from 2004-2006, and currently teaches within the Compassionate Artists of the Heart Butoh Club Founded by Masanari Kawahara.
Romero Cannady
Romero Cannady is a teacher, choreographer, dancer, and artist who began his dance journey at the age of seven with his mother, Tanya Lynn, his first dance teacher. From that foundation, he went on to earn a BFA in Dance and a Master’s in Education at the University of Minnesota, along with training and performing at TU Dance Center. His choreography centers on emotional truth and meaningful connection between dancers and audiences. As an educator, Romero emphasizes honest communication, strong technique, inclusivity, and authenticity. He is the founder and artistic director of Saints Ensemble Movement (SEM), a pre-professional and professional dance organization dedicated to developing both spiritual character and physical capacity, forming dancers who are as grounded in purpose as they are in technical excellence.
Trè Da Marc
Tré Da Marc is an international boylesque sensation that is singular in magnificent styling, scintillation and spectacle . Known for his trademark combination of sass and ass, he leaves his stamp (and a fair amount of glitter and sweat) on every stage he graces. A cast member of Black Hearts Burlesque, Sovereign Tease Productions, Resident member of GalaxyCon After Dark, 2025 Headliner of Dragoncon and the Artistic Director of Juneteenth Jubilee: An All Black burlesque show!
This international multi-award-winning performer began his burlesque career in 2013, at the Nudie Nubie Amateur Reveal Show where he won that month’s Nubie competition. Since then, he has performed in more than 40 festivals around the world, been featured internationally at the Vienna Boylesque Festival,the 2016 Amsterdam Burlesque Awards and Headliner of the 2025 Toronto Burlesque Festival.
Tré competed in the 2018 Mr. Exotic World/Best Boylesque Category at the Burlesque Hall Of Fame in Las Vegas. He was crowned King of Burlesque at the Noire Pageant in 2020 and was voted one of the Top 50 most influential burlesque industry figures of 2020-2022 by thousands of burlesque peers and fans worldwide.