LENA ENGELSTEIN
LENA ENGELSTEIN is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. She is part of the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Lisa Fagan. Her work, lauded as “subtly campy and hilariously queer” by the Brooklyn Rail, has been presented in NYC dance and theater festivals such as Prelude, Exponential Festival, and Fresh Tracks. Since 2020, Engelstein has collaborated with Jo Warren, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Magda San Millan on new works. Other recent performance credits include: Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, Brendan Drake, Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present), and Third Rail Company’s Then She Fell (company member, 2019-2020). She choreographs for and performs with the band Lou Tides. She has taught dance and choreography at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Bard College, and The Field Center. Lena holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College. @lenaengelstein
Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein are NYC-based experimental dance makers and performers whose work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics. Since 2017, they’ve functioned as a cogenerative, circulatory idea machine, whose unconventional performative frameworks are rooted in dance-adjacent physicality but reimagine what choreography can be used to accomplish theatrically. Recent work includes Deepe Darknesse (Jan, 2024 in New York Live Arts’ Live Artery, received full-page review in The New York Times by theater critic Brian Seibert, and June, 2023 at The Collapsable Hole), 1-800-3592-113592 (March, 2024 at MITU580 with performance collective CHILD, of which Fagan/Engelstein are founding members), Catches No Flies (Jan 2020, Exponential Festival, recipients of inaugural Exponential Fellowship), Red Carrots (Jan 2019, Exponential), and many more short works and experimentations. Their work has been supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center (2023 BAC Open), NYSCA Individual artists grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Mercury Store, and others. Along with their work as a collaborative duo, credits include: Fagan: No President by Nature Theater of Oklahoma (dancer), experimental opera HILMA at Tony Award Winning theater The Wilma (choreographer), Open Throat at Little Island NYC, by Henry Hoke, dir. Caitlin Ryan O’Connell (choreographer), THESE DAYS short indie series premiering at Sundance 2021 (choreographer), Promenade by Maria Irene Fornes, dir. Morgan Green (choreographer).
Along with their work as a collaborative duo, Engelstein currently works with choreographer Joanna Kotze, musician Teeny Liberson, playwright Ben Gassman, and has worked with Sophie Amieva, Barnett Cohen, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, Brendan Drake, Faye Driscoll, Isa Spector, Jo Warren, Alexa West, among others, and performed in Third Rail Projects’ Then She Fell. She has choreographed for and danced in music videos and films by Catherine Brookman, Lou Tides, Pavli Serenetsky, and appears in the forthcoming feature film by comedy group Simple Town. Engelstein is originally from New Jersey and has a BA in Mathematics from Colorado College.
