UPCOMING – Dance Parade, May 20, 2023
New York’s beloved and joyous Dance Parade returns to the streets Saturday, May 20, 2023 celebrating its 17th year with 10,000 dancers featuring over 100 unique styles of dance, live bands, and DJs. Headlining a ribbon cutting ceremony will be Grand Marshals: Ronald K. Brown, Natasha Diggs and, our own Elizabeth Streb to kick off the event at 11:45am for the ribbon cutting at 17th Street and Sixth Avenue.
STREB EXTREME ACTION will present a quick action event at the Grand Stand stage (4th Ave and 8th Street) at around 1:00pm.
DanceFest 2023, featuring FREE Kid Action classes (3:00pm and 3:30pm) and a performance by STREB’s Kid Company (around 4:30pm) will take place at Tompkins Square Park after the parade!
STREB’s Spring Season, March 24, 2023- May 21, 2023
STREB EXTREME ACTION’s home season performances are a wild kaleidoscope of Action Heroes, Events, and Machines— a celebration of Elizabeth Streb’s life-long preoccupation with Action. Bring your friends, take the kids, and experience the fun, grit, and explosive sights and sounds of STREB. The members of Elizabeth Streb’s company, STREB EXTREME ACTION, combine virtuosity and technical skill with openhearted popular appeal. A show fit for all ages!
STREB’s 2023 Spring Home Season will be performed March 24-May 21, 2023; Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 5 pm and Sundays at 3 pm at the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics (SLAM), located at 51 N. 1st Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. General Admission Tickets are $25 & Premium Seating Tickets are $50.
Fridays @ 7:30pm, Saturdays @ 5pm, Sundays at 3pm
STREB Lab for Action Mechanics
51 North 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
EXTREME ACTION HEROES
The members of Elizabeth Streb’s company, STREB EXTREME ACTION, combine virtuosity and technical skill with openhearted popular appeal. Founded in New York City in 1985 by choreographer Elizabeth Streb, the company has traveled, artistically as well as geographically, from the heights of the experimental dance world to the cutting-edge of popular entertainment.
“If dancers are the athletes of God, Streb’s members are the gladiators. Flipping, tumbling, leaping marvels, they perform one arduous feat after another, putting their brawny bodies through punishing routines that leave their audiences grimacing and shielding their eyes.”
Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times
- Cassandre JosephCo-Artistic Director/Director of Corporate and Program Development
Cassandre Joseph (She/Her/Hers) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her investigation in movement began at the age of four with the sport of gymnastics. Over a span of twenty years as a competitive gymnast, she earned several state and regional titles. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in English Literature and studied journalism at Temple University’s graduate communications program. She joined STREB in 2007 as an instructor and company member. In September 2017, Cassandre Joseph was appointed Associate Artistic Director of STREB Extreme Action, and also oversees SLAM’s education program. As a performer, she has been seen ziplining across the Park Avenue Armory, scaling the walls of the Bergdorf building and dancing on the spokes of the London Eye. Cassandre has been the Creative Director of the STREB Kid Company since 2010 for which she has choreographed and self-produced three evening length works: Heroes (2015), Momentum (2016) and Navigation (2017). She is a strong believer in the transformative power of movement and is passionate about empowering young people to push boundaries and expand their notions of what is possible. When she is not seen in a rehearsal, teaching classes or creating action events at SLAM, she can be found training her daughter Nia to be a mini-action hero.
- Jackie CarlsonSenior Action Hero
Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Jackie Carlson (She/He/They) is a 15- year STREB ACTION HERO veteran! Jackie has studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, and gymnastics since the age of 6. She’s won many awards and scholarships in the dance competition world, including Miss Dance of Michigan in 2000 and “Most Outstanding Dancer ’01” with NYC Dance Alliance. She spent five consecutive summers on full scholarship at The Milwaukee Ballet School, before moving to New York City right out of high school to join Dance Theatre of Harlem, a professional ballet company founded by Arthur Mitchell. Jackie’s dream came true when her lifetime goal of becoming a stunt double and her love of dancing COLLIDED in 2008 when she joined STREB Extreme Action!
- Tiffany TorresAction Hero
Bronx native Tiffany Torres (She/Her/Hers) began her curiosity for movement at the age of 7, studying ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, and hiphop dance styles at the Bronx Dance Theater, whilst also dabbling in other areas of movement, including boxing and weightlifting. Tiffany pursued her interest in performance as a commercial dancer and has had the opportunity to perform and appear in Lane Bryant’s This Body campaign, Ladies of Hiphop Showcase , Lip Sync Battle, season 4, and Ailey Summerstage. This year she is ready to embark on a new journey with the STREB Extreme Action company and is excited to be able to combine her passion and curiosity for movement and take it to new heights!
- Nailah CunninghamAction Hero
Nailah Cunningham (They/Them) was raised in the weird city of Portland, Oregon. At a young age, following in their sister’s steps, they began their movement training at a nonprofit arts school, Portland Metro Arts, where they trained in ballet and modern dance. In 2017 they chose to pursue movement as a career and moved to New York to start training on scholarship at The Ailey School. In 2019 Nailah was honored to perform at Lincoln Center with the company in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria before graduating in 2020. Throughout 2021 they worked with 98 Art Collective as their featured movement artist. Nailah joined STREB in March 2022. They are very excited to push their limits and learn to fly.
- D’Sherrick WilliamsAction Hero
Born and raised in Marshall, Texas, D’Sherrick (Dee) Williams (He/Him/His) spent his childhood spinning in colorguard and kicking in Karate. In 2022, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Dance from Northwestern State University. D’Sherick has studied various dance forms, including Hip-Hop, Modern, Tap, Jazz, Ballet, and Partnering. D’Sherrick spent the summer of 2021 in Canada teaching dance at a camp for the arts. There, he furthered his pedagogic skills as well as his deep love for choreography and free, raw movement. D’Sherrick can be seen spending his free time skateboarding, playing one of his many instruments, or working as a fireman at his local fire station.
EXTREME ACTION HEROES (Spring 2023 Season)
ELISA HERNANDEZAction HeroElisa Hernandez (she/her), born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, is a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. She received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Temple University. She has produced a music video and three dance films, and was a dancer with Cebo Carr’s house dance company GenX. She joined the STREB Extreme Action team as a project-based performer in October 2022. She is a recipient of the Disability.Dance.Artistry grant as well as the NYSCA 2023 grant for film, media and new technology.
ANDREA LAISUREAction HeroAndrea Leisure (she/her) is from Long Island, NY where she competed in gymnastics and judo before starting dance in High School. She graduated from Muhlenberg College with majors in International Studies and Spanish with a concentration in Public Health. There, she found a passion for aerial arts. Having just completed a full time circus program at Aircraft Circus Academy in London, Andrea is excited to take her love of flipping, flying, and dancing to STREB this season!!
SARAH PEREZAction HeroSarah Perez is a dance artist from France where she earned gold medals at the France National Dance competitions. With her crew, she finished 2nd in France at the international hip-hop competition, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world, qualifying her for the world championship finals in Phoenix. Sarah recently graduated from the Peridance Certificate Program and has performed in videos for monotronic, Caural, Ryan serhant, Sabrina Lonis, and for brands Sony alpha and RSVLT.
WILL PETTIGREWAction HeroWill Pettigrew (They/Them/He/Him) was raised in Maplewood and South Orange, New Jersey. They trained competitively in artistic gymnastics from an early age before finding a love for contemporary dance. In 2022, Will graduated with a BFA in dance from George Mason University, where they studied ballet, modern, and contemporary dance styles, while also honing their skills as a choreographer. Will is eager and excited to be part of STREB EXTREME ACTION!
To Book STREB EXTREME ACTION, Contact Booking Manager Anne McDougall: anne@streb.org
To Book Elizabeth Streb for Speaking Engagements, Contact Company Manager Shannon Reynolds: shannon@streb.org
TIME MACHINE
Emerging from the pandemic with a newfound appreciation for their past, the STREB Extreme Action Company revisits their roots with a retrospective of Elizabeth Streb’s classic solos from the 70s and 80s, early equipment experimentations from the 90s, and extreme action opuses with the large scale “action machines” which the company has since become known for from the early 21st century. This historic look back not only provides a sense of grounding, and an instructional DNA for how Streb built to human flight, but it sows the company’s soil for new seeds of extreme action to germinate as they push boundaries into the future. Time Machine premiered at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2021.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Bring the Extreme Action to your next event.
For forty years, STREB has performed in theaters large and small, served as artists-in-residence at the world’s top art museums, and taken its work into the streets and sports stadiums. The company has also taken their signature extreme action to iconic locations including Grand Central Station, Coney Island’s fairground, the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, Madison Square Garden, the mall outside the Smithsonian Institution and more.
SPECIAL THANKS to all the former STREB Action Heroes whose contributions and movements live on in our hearts, bodies and minds, and continue to inform our actions:
Jason Jaworski, Alma Langley, Guadeloupe Martinez, Liam Clancy, Christine Knight, Adolpho Pati, Ned Malouf, Soldana Rivera, Mark Robison, Paula Gifford*, John Landes, Katrina Birchfield, Brain Levy, Gary Lutes, Jorge Collazo, Peter LaRose, Henry Beer, Jane Setteducatto, Nancy Alfaro, Daniel MacIntosh, Joseph Arias, Diann Sichell, Boris Willis, Michael Schwartz, Christine McQuade, Matthew Stromberg, Brandon O’Dell, Hope Clark*, Albert Elmore Jr., Christopher Batenhorst, Brian Brooks, Sheila Carreras Branson, Lisa Dalton, Eli McAfee, Nikita Maxwell, Weena Pauly, Chantel Deeble, Jonah Spear, Aaron Henderson, deeAnn Nelson, Terry Dean Bartlett*, Christine Chen, Yushemepree Spencer, Ami Ipapo, Kevin Lindsay, Sarah Donnelly, Chris Lee, Sarah Callan, John Kasten, Samantha Jakus, Justina Grayman, Leonardo Giron*, Matthew McEwan, Jamarious Stewart, Loganne Bond, Fabio Tavares*, Felix Hess, Marcus Smith, Chance Hill, Sophia Wade, Kairis Daniels, Brigitte Manga, Luciany Germán, Daniel Rysak*, Tyler DuBois, Justin Ross.
*Indicates 10+ year tenure