L TRAIN at TADA! Theater

Sara Pizzi

Sara Pizzi is an Italian contemporary-conceptual dancer and choreographer, now based in NYC. She attended Steps on Broadway and Peridance Center from which she graduated in 2020. In the same year she founded her creative space S|R|P|Z working with international and national artists, producing live and virtual performances. Now, Sara is dancer for the NY based dance companies: “Valerie Green/Dance Entropy” by Valerie Green, “The Next Stage Project” by Marijke Eliasberg and Jana Hicks, “VALLETO” by Valeria Gonzales and “Open Dance Ensemble” by Philip Foster and co-funder with Aika Takeshima of the movement collective sarAika.

Aika Takeshima

Aika Takeshima is a 10+ year career dance artist, DEI practitioner, and a co-funder of sarAika movement collective with Sara Pizzi. From 2014, Aika attended the International Dance Program in the academy Peridance Center in NYC working with Amy Jordan “Victory Dance Project Company'', Ashlé Dawson “ESTADO INGRAVITTO”, Julia Eshstrand and Elisabetta Minutoli. In order to help people find more freedom and possibilities in themselves, she creates dance works, and founded an DEI organization LIVABALL in 2020 aiming to make the society more livable in Japan.

Mayu Nakaya

Mayu Nakaya is a dancer and choreographer from Japan. She moved to New York City in 2019 and studied at The Ailey School scholarship program for two years. Currently, she is a member of the sarAika Movement Collective and Helen Simoneau Danse, Yu.S.Artistry, and the improvisation-based company Open Dance Ensemble with Philip Ellis Foster. In Addition, she has presented her solo piece at several showcases as a freelance artist. She started ballet training when she was three years old. After then, she learned contemporary dance and choreography, gaining a lot of performing experience at the Contemporary Dance Course in the Performing Arts Department at Tokyo Metropolitan High School of Arts and the Dance Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba of Physical Education. From 2016 to 2019, she participated in several dance competitions in Japan and the Soul International Dance Competition, dancing her choreographies, and always qualifying as a finalist and winner. She participated in the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving Day(2019) and the piece”The Dinner Party” by Jessica Castro at the Judy Chicago, Brooklyn Museum for the International Women’s Day celebration filming project(2020). And she has worked with Jesse Obremski and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau at Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance(2022) and Yoshihito Sakuraba in New York City.

Faustine Lavie

Faustine Lavie was born in Toulon, France, where she started ballet at 3 years old. She studied in different renowned dance schools such as Paris Opera Ballet School and ESDC Rosella Hightower. She moved to NYC in 2015 to attend The Ailey School, where she graduated from the Certificate Program in May 2018. Faustine had the opportunity to perform works by many choreographers, such as Darrell Grand Moultrie, Manuel Vignoulle, Winston Dynamite Brown, Amy Hall Garner, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Clifton Brown and Shay Bland. Faustine worked with An Nuo Spiritual Dance & Art, with whom she performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in 2018 and 2019. She is currently a company member with i KADA Contemporary Dance Company, LaneCoArts, Footprints Dance Company, The DynamitExperience, Arim Dance, Keiko Fujii Dance Company and Six Degrees Dance. She founded Faustine Lavie Dance Project in 2020. She is delighted to join Sara and Aika in the production of L Train and is looking forward to more projects with them.

Haley Morgan Miller

Haley Morgan Miller is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She observes the existence of movement in all things from nature to technology – gentle choreographies of time passing. Sensitive to these patterns, her creations derive digital realms and physical apparitions to zoom in on emotional entanglements, stories, and inquiries. Haley is a creative director and co-producer of Fabled Narcissism arts events. Her media art and creative technology has been presented at Art She Says, Rubulad, and Paraffin. Haley’s choreography has been shown at Movement Research, Christina Noel & The Creature, Fabled Narcissism, Marinnovators Science and Technology Festival, and Vision Series Festival. She has presented films at Anyplace Anytime Online Dance Film Festival by Cross Move Lab, FRAMES Virtual Festival hosted by Collective Exchange, and Saint Bimbo’s Film Church. Haley is a company member with sarAika movement collective, and Chloe Kastner Dance Company. She was pleased to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022. As an AR filter creator she has designed for fashion brands, musicians, dance companies, tattoo artists, and events. Haley graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Contemporary Dance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she performed work by Mark Morris, Juel D. Lane, Michael Figueroa, Jun Kuribayashi.

Maitlin Jordan

Maitlin Jordan is a full time New York City-based teaching and performance artist. A graduate of the University of South Florida and rigorous Limon Professional Studies program in New York City, Maitlin was hand-picked by the artistic director, Colin Connor, of the Limon Dance Company to perform as a guest artist during the Limon Dance Company’s 2018-2019 season. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, Maitlin has performed at venues such as: The Joyce Theatre, Aaron Davis Hall, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Tank, Triskelion Arts, among many others. She is presently working with choreographers such as: Kathryn Alter, Colin Connor, Bridgit Stanton, Sandra Robbins, and several others. Her improv work can be seen in various videos for musical artists, and showcases such as Dance Astoria, Calling All Magic, and the upcoming debut of L TRAIN Production. Alongside her own performance career, Maitlin is currently on faculty as a modern, Contemporary, and Jazz teacher at Dance Matters NYC, leads the Dance Education Program at the Academy of the City Charter School, and has set award-winning choreography for several dance studios along the east coast.

Arianna Wellmoney

Arianna Wellmoney is an Italian actress currently living and working in New York City. In April 2016, she graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was directed by Lisa Milinazzo in Ellen McLaughlin's Tongue Of a Bird, playing the role of Charlotte. In September 2019, Arianna reprised the role of Tam in “The Pot”, this time performing it at the Schimmel Center. The event was supported by the United Nations, World Health Organisation and Pace University. Arianna will appear in “La Santera”, a new TV pilot filmed in The Bronx, NY. Her story as a queer New Yorker was featured in the new Tinder series, #SwipeLife. Throughout 2018, she was featured in the webseries "Immigrants Eat it". She also recently appeared in the new Snapchat's webseries "3018". Arianna's Off Broadway credits include: Lord Byron's "Marino Faliero", Sophocles' "Antigone" and Michael Seebold's "Enoptromancy", which had its world premiere in April 2018. In 2017, Arianna was part of the movie "Dissonance", which was part of the Short Film Corner at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. In the summer of 2017, she was part of the alumni production of “American Waltz” a musical at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She made her New York debut starring as Lori in the Alpha NYC's production of Romantic Fools by Rich Orloff. She worked as assistant stage manager and understudy for the F2T's production Love, Chekhov and the Magic Trunk. In October and November 2016 she starred as the lead role in Women of the Wild West and A Sketch Of New York. Prior to her studies at AADA, Arianna trained at Campo Teatrale Acting School in Milan, Italy; where she studied Acting On Camera and played the role of Rachel Plescan in the original production of Quel Giorno all'Improvviso. During her high school experience, Arianna made several short films, including Diritto al Lavoro: TG Pacle, which was premiered at Bicocca University in 2013.

sarAika movement collective by Sara Pizzi & Aika Takeshima

sarAika is a movement collective based in New York since 2021, funded by Aika Takeshima and Sara Pizzi. We make art about and for humans, creating a bridge of connection between artists and non artists. Our art is a form of activism, documenting key issues and topics, highlighting how they may change, and creating space for reflection with the goal is to generate awareness and reflection on actual global social issues by breaking the concept of standard performance creating collaborative, conceptual, interactive art experiences, basing our choreography on contemporary dance, partnering, floorwork, improvisation skills, story telling, conceptual art and street style influences. sarAika presented their works for: Green Space, 7MPR, Dixon Place, The Craft, IKADA, JCAL, BAAD! The Bronx, Movement Research, Dance Parade, SJAC, Creative Performances, The Tank, The Brick, HERE, Queensboro Dance Festival, Turnout NYC, The Museum of the City of New York, NWNY, Liberty Hall, TADA! Theater and more.