Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Dance 2025

Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein

Photo by Maria Baranova.

2025 Grants to Artists
Dance
Performers, Choreographers, Performance Makers
Live in Brooklyn, NY
Lisa Fagan
Born 1989, Philadelphia, PA
Lena Engelstein
Born 1994, Silver Spring, MD
Additional Information
lisafagandanceproblems.com
lenaengelstein.com

Artist Statement

Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein have worked together since 2017. Intensely physical and visually maximal, the pair’s works are rooted in dance-adjacent physicality but reimagine what choreography can be used to accomplish theatrically. They play out each other's ideas and endeavor to delight each other in performance, using trust in their collaboration to take risks.

Unburdening the body as solely responsible for making meaning, Fagan and Engelstein instead braid together three elements—physical performance craft, experimental structures, and site-responsive design—to affect audiences. They thrive in unconventional performative frameworks, fueled by the enigmatic, grueling process of making something worthy of an audience’s time.

Treating rigorous physicality as a source for ideas, "dance" is prioritized only insofar as it heightens performativity and deepens audience connection. The pair delight in running choreography through innovative structures that place it under pressure, purposefully restricting it to produce conditions that reflect the strange, strained mannerisms of contemporary social life.

Not quite dance, not quite theater, certainly not performance art, and somehow not quite dance-theater—their work lurks mischievously amidst all the above, taking the most rambunctious parts of each and dancing them.

- December 2024

Biography

Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein are dance makers who create theater, or theater makers who make dances, or some third thing. Obsessed with the audience and their attention, they have functioned as a cogenerative, circulatory idea machine since 2017, creating highly physical, intensely detailed performance works.

Fagan and Engelstein’s collaborative work Deepe Darknesse premiered at the Collapsable Hole in New York, NY (2023) and was remounted in 2024 as part of New York Live Arts’ Live Artery festival, with support from a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. The piece employs a made-up backstory of semi-famous Italian pop singer Cocki Mazzetti and the framework of The Golden Ass, an ancient Roman novel written by Apuleius. In this frenetic, unrelenting physical theater work, performers exert extreme effort and employ hack rituals to push the needle towards their desired transformation. In 2025, Deepe Darknesse will tour to The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD and ODC Theater in San Francisco, CA.

Their other collaborations include Friday Night Rat Catchers, New York Live Arts, New York, NY (2025) and 1-800-3592-113592, MITU580, Brooklyn, NY (2024), directed by Fagan for interdisciplinary performance company CHILD, of which Engelstein and Fagan are members. Fagan has also created Catches No Flies (2020) and Red Carrots (2019)—both presented by the Exponential Festival in Brooklyn, NY—with Engelstein as a core collaborator. Fagan received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant for Red Carrots.

Separately, Fagan choreographed for the opera HILMA (2024) at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, PA, produced in partnership with New York City-based theater company New Georges. Engelstein’s collaboration with Jo Warren, all I want is what you want, premiered at the 2022 Exponential Festival at The Brick in Brooklyn, NY.

The duo has been awarded a New York Live Arts Live Feed Creative Residency (2024-2025), and Fagan and Engelstein have each received the NYSCA Support for Artists Award in 2023 and 2025, respectively. With CHILD, they were artists in residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY (2023).

Fagan holds a B.A. from Bard College, where she received the Ana Itelman Prize for Choreography (2011). Engelstein holds a B.A. from Colorado College.

Lena Engelstein and Lisa Fagan, both wearing sparkly dresses, move through a black-walled and floored performance space. Engelstein, wearing blue, looks down and has her arms angled outward. Fagan, positioned behind Engelstein wearing red, looks over her shoulder and gestures with both hands to her right. They both wear streaks of makeup in different colors.

Performance still from Deepe Darknesse at The Collapsable Hole, New York, 2023. Performed by Lena Engelstein, Lisa Fagan, and Hannah Mitchell. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Lisa Fagan, wearing a trench coat, an orange leotard, and blue eyeshadow, holds a shrimp in one hand. With her other hand, she reaches for a shrimp cocktail glass sitting on top of a stack of cinderblocks on a table. Audience members sit behind her against a white brick wall.

Performance still from Friday Night Rat Catchers (work in progress) at CATCH at The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York, 2024. Performed by Lena Engelstein and Lisa Fagan. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Lena Engelstein runs across a stage lit with purple and pink lights in front of a group of musicians, a clothing rack, and a performer sitting behind a desk being recorded by a camera on a tripod. Lena Engelstein is wearing a sparkly blue top and tan pants and her elbows and knees are pointed at sharp angles.

Performance still from 1-800-3592-113592 at Mitu580, New York, 2024. Performed by Lena Engelstein (foreground). Photo by Maria Baranova.

Lena Engelstein and Lisa Fagan are on the floor of a performance space with brick walls and a wooden floor. Engelstein, in the foreground, wears a white shirt under a blue romper. Her arms are outstretched and in one hand she holds dirt. Fagan, wearing a white shirt and pants, is sitting on the background facing away from the audience while she grabs one of several grey boxes that are toppling over. There are several wooden chairs with red seat cushions scattered throughout the scene.

Performance still from Catches No Flies at The Brick, New York, 2020. Performed by Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk.

Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein, illuminated by hot pink light, dance in brightly colored outfits. Lena Engelstein is standing partially squatted with her elbows extended outwards, arms pointed up, and hands pointing down. Lisa Fagan rests the back of her head against Lena Engelstein’s pelvis and raises one hand above her head while pinching her nose. Audience members sit against a white brick wall behind them.

Performance still from Friday Night Rat Catchers (work in progress) at CATCH at The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York, 2024. Performed by Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein. Photo by Maria Baranova.

On a stage, Lisa Fagan stands on the left holding a black printer and a fabric pouch while Hannah Mitchell, on the right, sits to put on leopard printed high heels. Zebra printed fabric and a blonde wig lay on the floor around them. Behind the performers, a wine glass, a lamp, a jug that reads “XXX”, patterned bags, and other accessories sit on a table.

Performance still from Deepe Darknesse at The Collapsable Hole, New York, 2023. Performed by Lena Engelstein, Lisa Fagan, and Hannah Mitchell. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Trailer for Deepe Darknesse at The Collapsable Hole, New York, 2023. Performed by Lisa Fagan, Lena Engelstein, and Hannah Mitchell. Sound design by Tei Blow. Lighting design by Masha Tsimring and Christina Tang.

Excerpt from 1-800-3592-113592 at MITU580, New York, 2024. Performed by the full company of CHILD (12 performers, including Lena Engelstein) Director: Lisa Fagan. Band: Catherine Brookman, Nate, Repasz, Eriq Robinson, and Miles Toth. Creative Producer: Emma Orme. Assistant Director: Matthew Antoci.