Kristi Cole & Guests
Max Coker (Musician, Sound Engineer)
Max Coker is a digital audio/visual performer and installation artist based in Brooklyn with a background in radio, sculpture, and software engineering. Education includes media studies, new media art, engineering and computer science from Stony Brook University and Brooklyn College. As MD at WUSB Stony Brook, responsibilities included management of control rooms, vinyl library archival and on-campus live performance engineering. As an artist’s assistant to collaborative duo LoVid based on Long Island, Max gained skills and knowledge of video technology and paradigms of video art performance.
Performance fills space with improvised sound mixing and real time video composite projections using an amalgamation of custom software and a collection of found sound and video. Showings include performances at Stony Brook University’s MFA open studios and Zuccaire gallery, Wesleyan University’s Zilkha gallery and DIY shows in Brooklyn and Queens at various venues.
Madeline Robertson (Performer)
Madeline Robertson decided to begin pursuing her dance training seriously while growing up at The Dance Gallery of South Dakota. During this time, she attended summer programs such as Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago before getting accepted to the dance conservatory at SUNY Purchase. She had the opportunity at Purchase to perform works by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Adam Barruch, Sidra Bell, and Doug Varone as well as performing in and choreographing for other students in the program. Since graduating in 2017, she has been based in New York City as a freelance artist and has worked with A-Y Dancers, Joan Bradford, Emily Kessler, Depth Dance and others. She is excited to be a part of this project with Kristi!
Greisy Genao (Cinematographer)
Greisy Genao (she/they) is a poet and filmmaker from Queens, NY with a BA in English Writing and Film Studies from DePauw University. She was awarded the Posse Foundation scholarship to DePauw University in 2014, and in 2018 conducted research on Dominican folklore and film in the Dominican Republic as a Fulbright U.S Student Researcher. They have been published in the anthologies “Women of Eves Garden”, “Ritmo Que Late” and "Ni de Aquí, Ni De Allá" from the Dominican Writers Association, and Sarah Lawrence College’s “Lumina Journal." Their film work has been celebrated across the Dominican diaspora, and alongside being featured at the 2021 Golden Dragonfly International Film Festival in Santo Domingo, their latest short film “Si Ardiera La Ciudad” won first place for the “Dominicans in the Diaspora” short film competition of the 2020 Dominican Film Festival in New York. Greisy has also produced “Stories of the Diaspora," a series dedicated to capturing the narratives of multi-generational Dominicans in New York. As a multidisciplinary storyteller, Greisy seeks to explore and honor the connection between folklore and nostalgia as it appears in the hyphenated Dominican experience.
Therese Ronco (Performer)
Therese is a Brooklyn-based dance artist. She is very excited to be working with Kristi. Therese dances with Kinesis Project Dance Theatre, ChristinaNoel & The Creature, freelance projects, and her own work. She performs with MICCA, Jeff Shortt, and Effy Grey. Therese graduated with a BA in dance from Goucher College where she had the joy of performing works choreographed by renowned artists such as Andrea Miller, Doug Elkins, Pascal Rioult, Doris Humphrey, Jon Lehrer, and Gwen Welliver. She is originally from Massachusetts where she found her passion for the art form learning from Frances Kotelly and Richard Colton.
Shannon Finnell (Filmmaker/ Photographer/ Curator)
While strongly believing that the key to social change is compassionate relationships that lead to genuine support, Shannon Finnell’s work attempts to embody that lesson through the exploration and deconstruction of supportive gestures and moments. Pulling from her BA in Studio Art and Peace Studies from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, the marriage of visual art and questioning oppressive social structures is where Finnell finds inspiration for her work. She received an MFA in Fine Art Photography from the Parsons School of Design in 2018 and continues to engage with concepts of support through her fine art practice. She brings this passion for support into her role as the Founder and Director of Arts Connective, an arts organization that aims to strengthen international arts conversation through hosting pop-up shows and sharing resources.
Kimiko Tanabe (Performer)
Kimiko Tanabe is from the great state of Colorado and currently resides in Brooklyn as a freelance performer and dancer. She is currently in process with Marion Spencer and Kristi Cole & Guests and collaborates with Lena Engelstein. She trained as a competitive gymnast before slowly making her way to the contemporary dance world. Kimiko holds a degree in English - Creative Writing and Dance from Colorado College. Aries by day, Scorpio by night, she is a lover of literature and finds herself making important life decisions under the eyes and influences of fiction. Drawing inspiration from the novel as form, she understands the body as a vessel to tell stories.
Emma Lalor (Performer)
Emma Lalor is a Queens-based dance artist. A native of Asheville, NC, Emma began her formal dance training with Heather Maloy and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts contemporary dance high school conservatory program. She graduated magna cum laude from Florida State University’s BFA Dance Program with Honors in the Major distinction. While in college, Emma developed a unique study abroad program and spent a semester at London Contemporary Dance School. She has been heavily influenced by the movement experiences and performances she witnessed during that time. Emma has performed repertoire by Trey McIntyre, Ohad Naharin, Alex Ketley and Zane Booker, and danced in new works by Maxine Doyle, Shannon Gillen, Luca Signoretti, Éric Oberdorff and other notable choreographers. She has been featured in creations by LED (Lauren Edson Dance), and Atlanta-based companies Staibdance and T. Lang Dance. She most recently performed in works by Annalee Traylor and Javi Padilla, and is delighted to be working with Kristi Cole for the first time.
Lea Torelli (Performer)
Lea Torelli is a New York based dance artist, choreographer, and administrator. A graduate of Muhlenberg College, she trained at American Dance Festival, Accademia Dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy and b12 in Berlin, Germany. Lea has worked with Shapiro & Smith Dance, Marianela Boan, Svea Schneider, Josh Pacheco Dance Theatre, Deirdre Towers, Beth Soll & Company, and Spaces of Fontana. She is currently collaborating with ChristinaNoel and the Creature and Thea Little. She is a cofounder of Futile Gestures and collaborates with them when not making solo work. When she is not dancing, Lea is an in home Pilates Instructor and freelance grant writer.
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