Alchemy Performance is engaged in several collaborations, on both an ongoing and a single project basis. Scroll down to read about our current projects:

Alchemy Dance Theater: a contemporary global dance company

HYBRID: a forum for new evolutions in contemporary global performance

Alchemy Performance Collaborations: ongoing projects with musicians, DJs, theater and installation artists, and movers in all disciplines: contemporary dance, yoga, new circus, classical Indian dance, and beyond

Alchemy Dance Theater is a contemporary global dance company. Sarah Johansson Locke and Irina Akulenko combine their diverse experience in several forms of dance to create a dynamic and sinuous language together. Sharing a lifelong interest in artistic expression of all kinds, an endless intellectual curiosity, and a strong belief in the power of women's stories, their alchemy creates a moving collage across cultures, from the ancient to the modern. Recent Alchemy guest artists include Renata and Vorona.

Sarah Johansson Locke is the artistic director of Alchemy Performance and Alchemy Dance Theater. Click here for her bio.

Irina Akulenko is a performer, teacher and choreographer with a wild imagination and a burning passion for the arts of all genres. Although she discovered Middle Eastern dance purely by chance, her interest in expression started at an early age and was channeled into ballet training, in addition to piano lessons, chorus and drawing. However, belly dance became her main addiction which she sustained by seeking instruction with numerous New York-based teachers. For the last 7 years, she explored both Egyptian Cabaret and American Tribal belly dance and now enjoys fusing these styles as well as everything in between. Today, Irina is a member of two professional dance companies, Alchemy Dance Theater and BellyQueen, and is dedicated to continuing her dance education, always looking for new ways to be inspired. She is also a member of Public Urban Ritual Experiment (P.U.R.E.) and enjoys collaborating with other local artists. Furthermore, Irina holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science, and has a strong interest in women's issues and visual arts.




Alchemy Performance artistic director Sarah Johansson Locke is a resident artist at Galapagos Art Space. She curates and produces HYBRID, a performance series featuring artists who explore new forms and fusions from ancient and contemporary sources. Dancers, musicians, spoken word and circus artists, these performers sample ethnic and electronic elements -- from India to the Balkans, North Africa to Brooklyn -- and remix them into a moving collage across cultures.

HYBRID began in 2006; there have been 12 shows to date. Alchemy Dance Theater and musician Pete List are HYBRID resident artists. Other artists have included: Kazuma Motomura, Urban Tribal Dance Company, Desert Sin, Solstice, Kassar, Balkan Tales, Ansambl Mastika, and many more. Check the events page to see a listing of other artists who've appeared in past shows, and to find out about upcoming performances.


Sarah and Alchemy Dance Theater collaborate with artists in all media, both on an ongoing basis and for single projects. Pete List is a longtime collaborator:

Pete List is a beatboxer, composer and multi-instrumentalist who performs with various diverse music, dance and theater projects at venues ranging from PS 122, Joe's Pub, BAM, and The Knitting Factory to the Blue Note and Lincoln Center. He is a resident artist in Alchemy's HYBRID performance series at Galapagos. Pete often performs as a solo act creating and layering live loops of beatbox, guitar, and vocal textures to build hypnotic songs with the intensity and power of a full band. All sounds are created from Pete's guitar or mouth and looped live; nothing is prerecorded. Pete's CDs are available cdbaby.com and itunes or through his website.

Other artists that we have worked with recently on Alchemy projects include:

Renata www.renegadepix.net

Vorona web.mac.com/voronabellydance

Anasma www.anasmadance.com

Elisheva www.elishevadance.com

Geneva www.genevabybee.com

Akim Funk Buddha www.funkbuddha.org