MINNEAPOLIS: Pillsbury House + Theatre (PHT) has announced the 2023 Naked Stages Fellows: snem DeSellier, Yoni Light, and Dakota Blankenship.
Naked Stages is a seven-month development program that provides time, financial support, and mentoring to three early career artists as they develop their unique voices as performance artists and creators. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Jerome Foundation. This year’s fellows were selected by a panel of experienced artists facilitated by program director Masanari Kawahara. The scheduled performance dates for the 2023 Naked Stages artists are Nov. 9-18 at Pillsbury House + Theatre.
snem DeSellier often calls themself a multi-modal maker and an organic improviser. They grew up
along the long tidal river in Western Massachusetts and were trained as a dancer and facilitator in Mettler-based group improvisation through a relationship with the Tucson Creative Dance Studio, counted as a graduate of Hampshire College’s history of scrappy emboldened learning, and welcomed into the fold of trans-centered theatremaking in Minneapolis.
Yoni Light is a multidisciplinary artist from Saint Paul, Minn. She has been dancing professionally for the past nine years acquiring her training from multiple programs and schools, including TU Dance, SPCPA, and Perpich. She was a co-founder of the Hip Hop dance crew called New Black City, a crew dedicated to using dance to create and activate social change. She has been a part of many collectives dedicated to blackness, expression, and social change, some including S.H.E, New Black City, and Atlantis 13. She has collaborated with multiple artist/shows including Pavielle French, TPT Artist is…Black Light, DejaJoelle, Controlled Burn, SHE Al’twam, Abandoned Outlines, and many more.
Dakota Blankenship is a somatic wellness coach, intuitive healer, and artist. For nearly a decade, they have worked behind the scenes as a dresser in theatres across the country as well as crafting countless garments for the stage. A passion for helping people become more comfortable in their own bodies, whether through clothes or touch, has led them to create their own healing practice.
Pillsbury House + Theatre is a performing arts organization based in Minneapolis and is part of Pillsbury United Communities. Their mission is to create challenging theatre that inspires enduring change towards a just society.
