Lili Weckler | Unhinge

The punk Lovechild of the Earth and Death must reunite her estranged parents in order to take a stand against the Shatterer of Worlds. In a gender-bending, mischievous rock-opera, a group of contemporary dancers and musicians will investigate themes around good death, veils, bonds between the human and the universal, and the end of time. A collaboration between dancer, musician, poet and previous Bread and Puppet company-member Lili Weckler, and Jen Meller, lead singer of the LA-based band Beast, the piece will include cosmological characters, fierce choreography applied to a narrative structure, and a rock band playing all original songs.

Lili Weckler (Choreographer, Songwriter, & Performer)

Lili Weckler is the artistic director of Lili Weckler | Unhinge, a dance-theater company fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts. Lili was a company member of Bread and Puppet Theater, and attended the Lecoq School in Paris. A founding member of Hatch Collective, she has performed locally with Nina Haft and Dancers, Fog Beast and Boxcar Theater and taught at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, East Bay Gyrotonic, LINES, the SF Mime Troupe, and NCTC. Also a published writer, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2010 and released a folk-rock album in 2017.

Jennifer Meller (Musical Director & Performer)

Jennifer Meller was born in New York City into a very artistic family. Her father plays piano for a living and her mother is an Italian immigrant who sings, paints, plays guitar and does a lot of existential philosophizing. She started dance, theatre, and music lessons at a very young age and feels most at home on and around the stage. She plays multiple musical instruments and had a rock band for about 10 years which achieved moderate success. Since moving to San Francisco in 2004 she has formed her own dance company which focuses on historical dance of the Italian 15th and French 18th centuries. Jennifer is very excited to be stretching the boundaries of art, dance and music with fellow dancer and musician, Lili Weckler!

Scott McPheeters (Performer)

Scott McPheeters is an Oakland/Philadelphia-based performer, choreographer, and educator. He co-directs dance and video installation company, subcircle (www.subcircle.org) and is currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Sierra Nevada College. Over the past 15 years, he has performed for individuals and companies including Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Subcircle, Headlong Dance Theater, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Kun-Yang Lin / Dancers, Marianela Boan, Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, Bronwen MacArthur, and Gina Hoch-Stall. This is his second time working with the incredible Lili Weckler. From 2014-2017 he was an adjunct faculty member at Temple University, and he has guest taught at Swarthmore College, Dickinson College, Franklin and Marshall College, Drexel University, The University of the Arts, West Chester University, and Georgian Court University.

Alisha Ragon (Performer)

Alisha is a project dancer and chocolate maker based in San Francisco, currently fascinated with repetition and ritual. Alisha graduated from the Lines BFA program in 2017, and has since danced with Unhinge in previous projects, with Kathryn Roszak's Dance Lumiere, as well as several independent choreographic ventures. They hope to continue dancing and to see you around!

Jane Selna and Hannah Meleokaia Ayasse (Performers)

Jane Selna attended the SF Conservatory of Dance. In San Francisco she has danced with Hope Mohr and Sharp and Fine, among others. Hannah Ayasse is the Klanghaus Artists Ensemble.