On the heels of the success of Potato Topos at the SF Fringe Festival, a group of artists (re)formed. They have had a lot of collaboration in the past and have solidified (again) into an entity with a new name. Formerly known as Andomifevin, Kismet Arts Tangent is working to create programming of fantastic performance art for the East Bay Arts Scene and the World.

Kismet Arts Tangent uses authentic movement to generate experimental performance art that relies on trust, autonomy, and openness.

Kismet Arts Tangent
Co-artists since 2017
Current members
Katarina Countiss, founder/project director
Fenner Merlick, intimacy director/ensemble director
Andrew Rose, collaborator/consultant
Kevin Corcoran, collaborator/composer
Dominique Nigro, collaborator/choreographer
Annikah Peabody, collaborator/performer

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021: Pluot Season, an outdoor performance art event at a residential backyard, Oakland, CA
2019: Chrysalis, a dance-theater piece/ visual arts gallery at DIRT, Oakland, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023: psychobotany, a dance-theater piece at Psychobotanikon Equinox Edition, New Mission Yoga, San Francisco, CA
2022: Potato Topos, a devised theater play at SF Fringe Festival, Exit Theatre, San Francisco, CA
2020: Obsolescent Woods, a dance-theater piece, at Fort Nite, Beauty Supply, Oakland, CA
2018: psychobotany, a dance-theater piece at Planthaus, Martial Arts, Oakland, CA
2017: psychobotany, a dance-theater piece at SF Fringe Festival, Exit Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Awards

2022: Best of Fringe, SF Fringe Festival, Exit Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Katarina Countiss is a multimedia artist, teaching artist, and project director. Katarina’s ongoing projects include the Kismet Arts Tangent productions, Kat’s Zine Club, and Wonder Wednesdays through the Oakland Creativity Meetup Group. She studied Communication at the University of Washington, Graphic Design at the Seattle Central Creative Academy, and Improv at Comedy Sportz, Seattle. Past projects include hosting a variety of community events: backyard shows, art nights, music jams, online workshops, and open mics. Her work also includes a large body of videos and blogs, placing an importance on documentation and reflection.

Fenner Merlick is based on Ohlone land, also called Oakland, and will complete Dell’ Arte Internationals Performer Training Program this summer (2022) in Wiyot / Humboldt county. They are an adventure artist, collaborating with place, community, and ensemble. Fenner biked across the USA in 2015 with Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theater. Past projects also include producing/directing Picasso’s fever dream play ‘Desire Caught By the Tale’ at the Lottie Rose Art House in 2016, producing ‘The Boy Who Cried Naked’ at the 2019 Above Ground Festival, directing Not Not But Also in 2019 at the Adeline Art Hangar, and ‘Pluot Season’ with Kat in June 2021. Fenner has performed with FoolsFURY, Ragged Wing Ensemble, We Players, Theater Of Yugen, Naked Empire Bouffon, and many more. Past awards and nomination have been TBA 2016 ‘best anthology’ (ensemble), ‘best of’ SF FRINGE 2013 (ensemble), 2020/21 Sf critics circle ‘best supporting actor in a comedy’ ‘best ensemble’ (Pip).

Andrew Rose is a performer and poet, who specializes in authentic movement. He currently focuses on cultural and
communication studies. Andrew lives in Oakland and is currently studying at SF State University in a graduate program focusing on communication. Andrew’s recent performance credits includes a role in two short films, Rose Motel (2021) and cinder ii (2021).

Kevin Corcoran works with percussion, field recordings and electronics with an open interest in sound as medium as it moves through contexts of music, art, communication and place. His work takes form primarily as performance, installation, fixed media and video while his sound practice informs writing, photography and works on paper as well. Based in San Francisco, California, he collaborates across disciplines and borders having performed throughout the United States and Europe and in Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan with musicians, dancers, filmmakers, writers and visual artists. Beyond his own work, he is a co-organizer of the concert series Re:Sound which takes place in an abandoned munitions magazine on Mare Island and operates under 23Five, a long running nonprofit dedicated to the increased awareness of sound in the arts.

Dominique Nigro is performer/improvised movement artist and a graduate of the SF State school of Music and Dance (2009). She has been an active member of the Bay Area dance/theater community for the past 15 years, both presenting her own improvised/choreographed work and performing professional repertoire based in devised theater, Butoh, contact improv and movement focused in modern/post modern dance modalities. She is inspired by creative processes grounded in authentic movement practice and Anna Halprin’s Tamalpa Life/Art Process. Professionally, she has enjoyed participating as a dancer in ODC’s Sandbox Series (2014, 2016) and as an improviser with SF Mime Troupe’s Emerging Artist-in-Residence program (2012, 2013) and collaborating/performing with dance artists such as Liz Boubion (Piñata Dance Collective 2011-Current), Antoine Hunter (Urban Jazz Dance Company 2009-2011), Hiroko Tamano (Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Company 2009-2012), Hannah Ayasse (2018-2019), Kristin Rulifson (2018-2021) and Ben Baker (Dynamism Dance Theater 2012-Current) at notable bay area venues such as Studio 210, SAFEhouse Arts, Dance Mission Theater, NOHSpace, BAMPFA, and CounterPULSE. Most recently she had the pleasure of performing as part of an diverse ensemble in “Pluot Season” (2021), a site-specific devised theater piece, co-directed by Katarina Countiss and Fenner.

Annikah Peabody is a budding multidisciplinary artist currently based in Oakland, California. She is most interested in creating immersive art experiences at the crossroads where performance art meets visual art and jumps into the laps of unsuspecting law abiding citizens who were minding their own business.  She has collaborated on performance art based platforms such as Psychobotany produced by Kat Countiss as well Bare Bones Butoh Theater produced by Bob Webb and Subterranean Art House with Hiroko Tamano as well as producing her own two shows. Her performance show “Soup” opened in 2016 and her most recent show, “Church of Light” debuted last month at an underground arthouse called Beauty Supply. She has collaborated in two plays, The Boy Who Cried Naked in 2019 and Something To Do With Trees in 2018, both of which premiered at Above Ground, a festival of new theater. She creates soundscapes, visual art and sculpture, costumes, and choreography.