Staff
Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (artistic director, writer, and cultural organizer)
Daniel Diaz (co-founder, writer, cultural organizer)
Philip Treviño (resident designer, curator, and cultural organizer)
Joyce Isabelle (chief development consultant, cultural organizer)
Jo Wiegandt (producer, and community coordinator) Hilary Brown-Istrefi (curator) Joey Kipp (resident artist, writer) ALEXA GRAE (resident composer) Symara Sarai (resident artist, choreographer)
Magda Kaczmarska (Su Casa teaching artist)
Mark Tambella (resident artist) joy burklund (resident cinematographer) Adele Overbey (resident cinematographer)
Shaina and Bryan Baira (resident artists)
Annette Buckner (Accounting) Janet Stapleton (Press Representative)
Board of Directors
Daniel Barry - president
Margaret Browne - secretary
Barry Ghirija Ranganathan - treasurer
Anabella Lenzu - board member Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte - board member
Sergio D’Auria - board member
Agosto Machado - board member Kelly Rudman - board member
Honorary Board of Directors
Annina Nosei; Nicky Paraiso; Joyce Isabelle; Jean Carbain
Funding
Pioneers Go East Collective's programs in 2023/24 are made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council's discretionary funding provided by councilmember Carlina Rivera and 2nd District; SU-CASA (DCLA); The Jerome Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; Harkness Foundation for Dance; The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation; A.R.T./New York’s NYC Small Theatres Fund made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation; and the Mosaic Network and Fund in The New York Community Trust.
Pioneers Go East Collective is a resident company at La MaMa since 2012; a company in residence at Judson Church since 2018, and The LGBT Center since 2020.
Residencies: Kaatsbaan Park (2024); Collar Works (2023-ongoing); BAM (2023 residency); BRIC MEDIA ARTS (2022/23); Center for Performance Research (2022/23); Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (2018 & 2019); The Exponential Festival (from 2017 & ongoing); A.R.T./New York - Theatre Pilot program (2017); New Victory LabWorks - Professional Development Artists (2015/16); Process Space/ Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2014); St Ann’s Warehouse – Puppet Lab (2013/14); Incubator Arts Project (2013/14); Chashama (2011); Goethe Institute (2011).
Collaborators include syd island, Vanessa Rappa, Symara Sarai, ALEXA GRAE, Darrin Wright, Mark Tambella, Azmi Mert Erdem, Noa Rui-Piin Weiss, Owen Prum, Jesse Timm, Nancy Kim, Lynn Ligammari, Maria Eisen, Kathleen Kelley, Bree Breeden, Hilary Brown-Istrefi, Hollis Bartlett, and Shaina and Bryan Baira.
The Collective - Bios
Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (Artistic Director, curator) is a Gay immigrant of Italian/Middle Eastern descent and a NYC-based writer, director, filmmaker, and cultural organizer. He is the Founding/Artistic Director of Pioneers Go East Collective dedicated to performance and media that reflect queer perspectives and vulnerability. Since 2012, he has created works developed with residencies and presented in NYC at venues and galleries, including: BRIC ARTS MEDIA (2022/23), BAM (2023), Abrons Arts Center (2024), The LGBT Center (2019-24), Judson Church (2018-24), La MaMa, (2012-19) Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (2018-19), Center for Performance Research (2021-23), Exponential Festival (2018-20), JACK (2018), Governors Island/ Process Residency LMCC (2013/14), Chashama Gallery (2012), Goethe Institute (2012); and Upstate NY at Lumberyard (Catskill, NY), and Collar Works (Troy, NY). A NYSCA Creative Residency recipient (2022 & 2023), NYSCA Individual Artist 2019, NEA, Bel Geddes Design Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts recipient (2019 & 2023), finalist for the Jerome Foundation's Fellowship (2019-20), and LMCC’s Creative Engagement recipient (2014-19). With Pioneers Go East Collective: NEA award (2022-23); NYSCA (2018-24); Mertz Gilmore (2020-24); Harkness Foundation (2021-24). Currently on the Bessie’s Selection Committee (2021-24), Gian Marco Riccardo’s creative and curatorial practice has been highlighted by The New York Times, New York Magazine’s Pick, The New Yorker’s Pick, TimeOut NY Critics’ Pick, CULTUREBOT, Hyperallergic, and featured interviews published in Forbes, The Observer, and The Brooklyn Rail. Since 2013, he has been teaching performance, dramaturgy, installation, and production design courses at Universities and in the public school system. He leads several of the collective’s programs, which are designed as storytelling platforms for young LGBTQ adults. MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Daniel Diaz (writer/ performer/ video-maker/ curator), a NYC-based performance artist and writer, is a lead member of Pioneers Go East Collective. Joining in 2013, Diaz with projects presented in all five boroughs. Diaz works alongside LoForte, Trevino from concept to presentation on all the collective’s presented works. His passion has drawn him to aspects beyond dance and acting, including performance art, video-art, and design. Diaz creates works from a queer male perspective to inform audiences and bring clarity on social-political injustices through storytelling, movement, burlesque, video and choreography. With a focus on modern and interpretative dance, Diaz has performed at various New York City venues including BRIC ARTS MEDIA, Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, Chez Bushwick, La MaMa, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, PS1 MoMa, The Brooklyn Museum, The Coney Island Sideshow, Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, JACK Arts, Time Space Limited,
Bree Breeden (performer/ choreographer) is from Cheraw, S.C. Currently, she is a dancer and the Managing Director for Proteo Media + Performance, the Operations Associate at Movement Research, Production Manager for Sidra Bell Dance New York, and dances with VON HOWARD PROJECT and Michiyaya DANCE. She also choreographs and performs her own work which has been presented at Embodied Spaces Festival, Montclair State University, Danceworks, ACDFA, and at Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts dance talk series. She was awarded the Choreographic Excellence Award in 2015 and the Outstanding Performer Award in 2016 from Montclair State University.
Anabella Lenzu (choreographer/ educator) Originally from Argentina, Anabella is a dancer, choreographer and teacher with over 25 years’ experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy and the USA. Her choreography has been commissioned all over the world, for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines, and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. The book contains writings in Spanish and English on the importance of dance, choreography, and dance pedagogy. Currently, Lenzu conducts classes at Peridance Center and NYU Gallatin, and is Artist-in-Residence at CUNY Dance Initiative, 2019-2020.
Agosto Machado (writer/performer, activist) - Agosto Machado - Performer, Artist, Activist and Witness, is best known for his work with Ellen Stewart's La Mama ETC, and his association with Jack Smith, Mario Montez, Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Marsha P Johnson, Ronald and Harvey Tavel, Ethyl Eichelberger and Peter Hujar. Agosto appeared in over 30 Off-Off Broadway plays by Ken Bernard, Jackie Curtis, Al Carmines, Harvey Fierstein, H.M. Koutoukas, Megan Terry, Jeff Weiss. A member of John Vaccaros' 'Playhouse of the Ridiculous'.
Joey Kipp (dance-maker/ performance artist/ educator) is a Queer Afro-Latinx-Brazilian Brooklyn-based artist. Joey collaborates with Cynthia Madansky, Biba Bell, Ani Taj, Rachel Klein, Pioneers Go East Collective, and Heather Kravas. In 2019 he was in residency at the Rauschenberg Foundation with Heather Kravas, Vic Haven, and Zeena Parkins. Joey was featured in The New York Times and their online project Speaking in Dance for Biba Bell, Stacy Grossfield, and Jody Oberfelder. Theater credits Opera WOW: AN OPERA (BRIC), THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN (Progressive Theater), SOCIAL! (Park Avenue Armory), & LUCKY STAR 0.3 (Pioneers Go East Collective). Joey is a writer who has shared work with TELL: A Queer Storytelling, Occupy City Hall, & JUNETEENTH at Grand Army Plaza.
Parijat Desai (choreographer/ performer/ educator). India-born, U.S.-raised choreographer/dancer Parijat Desai creates hybrids of contemporary, Indian classical and folk dance, theater, and other forms, crossing boundaries of nation, language, and identity through performance. The NYT wrote that Parijat “moves with lush attack,” and called her work “a seamless blending of new and old, a rejoinder, both physical and verbal, to the sentiment” of xenophobia. Parijat is a recipient of the 2019–20 LMCC Creative Engagement grant, and a finalist for the NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography. Parijat was also a Gibney’s 2018–19 Moving Toward Justice Cohort member and an artist-in-residence through CUNY Dance Initiative. She also leads Dance In The Round—collective movement experiences based on circle dances from Gujarat, India—offering workshops for all ages and abilities. Parijat’s work has been performed at venues including: Danspace Project, Harlem Stage, and Asia Society (NYC); Skirball Cultural Center and the J. Paul Getty Center (LA); ODC Theater (SF), The Dance Centre (Vancouver), and National Centre for the Performing Arts (Mumbai).
Philip Treviño (lighting design/ environment design/ curator) is a Pioneers Go East Collective resident artist. Treviño is a 2010 New York Dance and Performance Award (BESSIE) recipient for his lighting and scenic design for Pam Tanowitz’s Be in The Gray with Me. He is also the scenic designer for Camille A. Brown and Company’s Mr. Tol E. Rance, which won a 2014 BESSIE for Outstanding Production. Some of his other credits in lighting and scenic design can be seen in works by Brian Brooks Moving Company, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, Henning Rübsam’s Sensedance, Kymera Dance and Pam Tanowitz Dance. His work has toured nationally and internationally at venues including BAM, The Joyce, Joyce Soho, DTW, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Kitchen, New York City Center, and Jacob’s Pillow. He has stage managed for Trisha Brown Dance and José Limón Dance Company. Treviño is a proud alumnus of San Francisco State University and is the current TD for the Dance Department at Marymount Manhattan College where he teaches Production. (www.philiptrevino.com)
Office
Pioneers Go East Collective is located at 85 Delancey, Suite Ph10 - New York, NY 10003
Office hours: Mon-Fri 10a-5p and by appointment
Mailing address: Pioneers Go East Collective - 7 East 3rd Street, # 10 - New York, NY 10003