Guest Artists and Speakers
Get to know workshop leaders in this year’s Miami Immersive Intensive.
Pioneer Winter
Artistic Director of
Pioneer Winter Collective
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Pioneer is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theater company, rooted in social practice and community, queer excellence, and beauty beyond the main stream. Recognized in Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch in 2019, Pioneer Winter's work democratizes performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film. Selected commissions include Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson & Dancers, Tigertail Productions, Live Arts Miami, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bang On A Can! Productions, the Miami Light Project, Carolina Theatre of Durham, and O, Miami. Pioneer has curated and directed Screen Dance Miami Festival since 2017, presented by Miami Light Project; his own films screen internationally. Pioneer’s choreography and writing has been published in Artists on Creative Administration (2024) published by The University of Akron Press and NCCAkron, Screendance from Film to Festival: Celebration and Curatorial Practice (2022) by Cara Hagan, and in the quarterly journal, Stance on Dance.
An extension of his creative practice, Pioneer created Grass Stains in 2016, a site-specific project that prioritizes the cultivation of artists from South Florida, emphasizing a commitment to long-term investment in individuals. Through Grass Stains and the lens of a communal location shared by intersecting bodies, the experiences of race, class, development, gentrification, erasure and memory are able to honor South Florida while also holding it accountable for its history in public spaces. To date, Grass Stains has engaged nearly 80 local choreographers and live performance artists with site-specific mentorship, professional development, and over $100,000 in direct artist support.
Alexandra Renzo
Creative Director
for Meow Wolf
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A classic millennial multi-hyphenate, who doesn't know how to use Linkedin. Most often known as ‘Renzo’. First performing professionally at the age of 15, Renzo has willfully and stubbornly been immersed in the world of story for all of her life. Italian and Ukrainian hailing from the midwest, now part city, part desert dweller. After over eight years with Meow Wolf (yep: before it became a company), she is currently a contracted Creative Director for Meow Wolf, helping usher in two brand new shows opening summer 2025, formerly a jack of all trades with the company, primarily focusing on how humans interact with the space as a Creative Director of Performance, Events Curator and Producer. She has directed and curated immersive theatrical adventures inside Meow Wolf's walls and outside events, worked on designing and developing the Creative Operator program, strategizing the performative and narrative relationship for all exhibitions, trained employees and built ensembles of performers. They also at one point had her project manage the delivery of a giant blow up dinosaur, but that didn't go well. She did however produce the feature length documentary Meow Wolf: Origin Story (SXSW 2018). (She has another life as a producer and an actress)
Mikhael Tara
Garver
Founder of Culture
House Immersive
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Immersive pioneer for over 2 decades, is the Founder of Culture House Immersive; was the Director of Immersive Experience of the THEA award-winning Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser; staff director of A.R.T.’s Sleep No More; and Creative Director for the band Great Caesar ( fandom-building journey at SXSW that 100x’d their fans in 8 days). She’s created award-winning experiences for AMC Television, Amazon, National Park Service, Bloomberg, BBDO, Hormel, Smirnoff, IDEO, Facebook, and Virgin. She is a founding board member of the Immersive Experience Institute; was awarded the first-ever immersive commissions from The Kennedy Center and National Theatre of Scotland; a multi-year grantee of Pop Culture Collaborative; an International Sacatar Fellow; and a Lead Creative Consultant Internationally for Walt Disney Imagineering. Garver has spent her career consulting and building business models in the immersive entertainment field while fundamentally centering artists, audiences, and culture change. She is currently launching Culture House Immersive’s Inaugural Incubator.
Octavio Campos
Choreographer
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Octavio Campos is a Cuban-American performance artist, choreographer, and community agitator known for immersive, site-specific works that blur the line between ritual, rebellion, and performance. A master of disruption and deep feeling, Campos has staged flash mobs in shopping malls, led car wash operas, motorcycle ballets, created spectacles in abandoned buildings, and brought immersive theater into motelrooms, city streets, and recovery centers. His longtime collaboration with Juggerknot Theatre Company has redefined Miami’s performance scene, engaging audiences as participants in raw, unpredictable, and deeply human experiences. Trained at SUNY Purchase and Germany’s Folkwang Hochschule under the legacy of Pina Bausch, Campos has worked with global visionaries including Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Vivienne Newport and Yoshiko Campos brings rigor and mischief to every space he enters—whether a stage, a street, or zero gravity. With over 40 years of work across continents and communities, his practice remains rooted in transformation, joy, and the radical power of presence.
Tanya Bravo
Artistic Director
Juggerknot Theatre
Company
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Tanya Bravo is the Founder and Artistic Director of Juggerknot Theatre Company, a pioneering force in site-specific and immersive theatre based in Miami, Florida. Under her leadership, Juggerknot has become nationally recognized for reimagining storytelling through groundbreaking productions such as Miami Motel Stories and Miami Bus Stop Stories. Tanya’s vision bridges history, community, and innovation, bringing audiences into intimate, transformative encounters with place and narrative. Her work extends beyond theatre into large-scale collaborations with partners such as the HBO International Latino Festival, The Latin Grammys, Heineken USA, Chivas Regal, The Leah Arts District, MySpace, Remezcla, and The South Beach Comedy Festival. Through Juggerknot, she has consistently built platforms for storytelling that reflect Miami’s diverse communities and complex histories.
Committed to connecting people through place-based performance, Tanya continues to position Juggerknot as a vital cultural force in Miami and beyond. Her passion lies in building bridges between artists and communities, and in telling stories that celebrate the richness of Miami’s multicultural identity.
FranceLuce
Benson
Playwright
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France-Luce Benson is a Haitian-American playwright/screenwriter and Assistant Professor at CSU San Marcos. From 2021-2022 she was a staff writer on Paramount’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Her play Detained, which had its world premiere at Los Angeles’ Fountain Theatre, was the winner of four NAACP Theatre Awards. A longtime collaborator of Juggerknot, her work in immersive theatre lives at the intersection of history, social justice, and community building. In 2020 she was a contributing writer for Long Distance Affair, creating a powerful interactive piece that explored grief, sensuality, and spirituality through dance and ceremony. Miami Bus Stop Stories took students on a ride through Coconut Grove, Liberty City, Overtown, and Little Haiti – uncovering overlooked stories of Miami’s Black American and Caribbean pioneers. Following the incredible success of Miami Bus Stop Stories, Juggerknot and Benson partnered with History Museum Miami in the creation of Tropical Dreams. Set in HMM and co-written by Juan C. Sanchez, Tropical Dreams is a multidisciplinary theatrical experience that brings Miami’s entire history to life through oral history, song, and dance. Benson’s honors include The Lily’s Lorraine Hansberry Award, Dramatist Guild Fellow, NYSCA's Individual Artist Award, Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Fellow, Zoetrope’s Grand Prize for original screenplay, and Sam, French OOB Festival Winner. Her plays have had productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Fire This Time Festival, Fountain Theatre, Billy Holiday Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, Juggernaut Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre NYC where she is a company member; development workshops at Atlantic Theatre Company, The Playwright’s Center, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among others. She’s a recipient of Sony’s Teaching Artist Award for Innovative Curriculum. Her plays have been published by DPS, Samuel French, and Routledge. She’s a proud member of the Writer’s Guild of America and the Dramatist Guild.
Frédéric
Deslias
Founder of
Le Clair Obscur
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Frédéric Deslias founded the company Le Clair Obscur at the university with Nathalie Catteau, to which he devoted himself entirely from 2009. Trained at IRCAM, he expanded his practice to the fields of code, image, light, interactive installations, synesthesia and even therapy. His work deeply questions forms and contents, exploring the territories of digital, immersive, prospective arts, and science fiction, at the crossroads of arts, sciences and technologies. He is an associate and resident artist at Cube (Garges-lès-Gonesse)and La Scène Nationale 61, andhas been hosted by numerous institutions such as La Scène de Recherche (ENS Paris-Saclay), La FolieNumérique (Parc de la Villette), Atelier Arts/Sciences (Grenoble), L'Hexagone Scène Nationale, LaComédie de Reims, La Comédie de Caen, etc. His works—shows and installations—are recognized in France and internationally, presented innumerous theater, digital arts or XR festivals: Biennale NéMO (Le 104), Chroniques (Aix-Marseille),]Interstice[ (Caen), EFEST (Tunis), SVSN (Avignon), Novembre Numérique (network of French Institutes), Experimenta (Grenoble), as well as in the National Drama Centers, National Scenes, theaters, third places, Micro-Folies...His work has been recognized by several awards: HERMSELF (Grand Prix Danse/Arts Numériques–LesBains Numériques 2011), Sleeping Beautyn (Arts and Mobility Awards–Transcultures, Belgium, 2013), and MOA–My Own Assistant, an augmented reality application adapted from Alain Damasio'sFurtifs, GrandPrix XR at the NewImages Festival 2023, in collaboration with Charles Ayats and the Red Corner studio.
Natasha
Tsakos
Show Maker
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Natasha Tsakos is a showmaker at the intersection of theatrical adventures, technology, and space. Known for pioneering immersive performances that blend cinematic techniques, cutting-edge tech, and narrative impact, her work has spanned stages from TED and the Super Bowl with Cirque du Soleil to the G20 Summit, Discovery Channel, Climate Reality Project, and Tribeca Film Festival. She frequently speaks at events like Google and the United Nations General Assembly, championing the transformative power of the arts in shaping our future.
Recent projects include HUMANODE, an interactive reality experience inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals; CARABOOM, a Knight Foundation-awarded production voted #1 Best Attraction in Miami; and OPUS 9, a planetary tribute presented at the Frontiers Planet Prize Awards.
With a moonshot to create shows for space, Natasha is leading PARABOLES, the first-ever multimedia performance in microgravity, developed in collaboration with MIT Space Exploration Initiative and Zero-G. She has undergone astronautical training, including the Lunar-G Impedance Study at NASA Johnson Space Center, Neutral Buoyancy training at NASA Ames, MIT’s New Space Economy program, and the NASA L’SPACE Academy, and was awarded NASA seed funding for space innovation. She is currently training at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).
Natasha Tsakos has electrified audiences from Miami to Montreux, reaching millions across six continents, with a singular mission: to redefine the limits of live performance, from Earth to the edge of possibility. NatashaTsakos.com
Lauren Storr
senior producer
at punchdrunk
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Lauren is the Senior Producer at Punchdrunk. She first worked with Punchdrunk in 2012 on Sleep No More in New York and has been full-time with the company since 2019. Prior to this, she collaborated with a variety of companies in the US and UK, including Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center Festival, and AEG in New York, as well as spending several years programming for Assembly at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Join Lauren Storr for a 60-minute session exploring the craft of producing large-scale immersive experiences. Drawing on her experience across productions including Sleep No More and Viola’s Room, Lauren will share practical insights into the evolution of Punchdrunk’s approach to world-building, audience engagement, and creative collaboration. Ideal for producers and project managers, this session will offer tangible takeaways on managing complex immersive projects and responding to evolving audience demands.
Learn from the best.
Don’t just be inspired—get in the room where it happens. Secure your spot at the Miami Immersive Intensive and train alongside the artists who are reshaping the future of live performance.