Antonietta "Ballerina Goddess" Alfano is a nationally renowned aerial circus performer, professional dancer and entertainer. After professionally dancing for 20+ years, Antonietta started BallerinaGoddess Entertainment as a soloist who provides unique performance art without the use of words but the power of energy, spirituality, visual art and emotion. As the only Deaf Rope Artist/Aerialist in the world, With this very unique art she provides for the audience, she inspires others with freedom of expression, tears and laughter in her audiences through interpretative dance, aerials and rope presentations.

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Beautiful the Artist was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. At the tender age of four, her mother was told by her pediatrician at Scottish Rite Hospital that she was deaf and that she was born that way. This was devastating news to most of her family but not to her mother. She was amazed that she could talk with her, her family, friends, and teachers for four years and she did not know that she was deaf. Her mother was the only person who did not cry or exhibit any pity toward her. She instead told her that being deaf was a "Beautiful" thing and that she was created in the image of God and that all things are possible for her and she also told her that she was her "Beautiful" blessed baby girl who can be and do all things through Christ Who strengthens her. That's where her stage name "Beautiful" comes from. The name was inspired by her mother's encouraging words and support and since then, she has lived by those words every day. Her mother formed a children's gospel group called "Dear Children" where she taught children to sing, dance, and the Word of God. She assisted in the choreography of some of our performance routines. "Dear Children" was a local children's gospel singing group that performed throughout Georgia. This is where music, dancing, and performing became a strong passion of hers. She began writing her own music and even recorded her music in the studio. There was a time when she was the only deaf student in her class and she was severely picked on and bullied. This inspired her to prove that just because she was deaf did not mean she could not succeed or that being deaf was ugly. She studied, over articulated, and accepted being deaf so that she or other deaf children would not be overlooked and misunderstood. She was a straight "A" honor student, an Honor Society member, a cheerleader captain, and on the Dance/Step Team. she earned a full academic scholarship and earned a BA degree in Government/Law from Gallaudet University. She was crowned Miss Black Deaf America 2009-2011 and she uses her platform to advocate for her "Beautiful" deaf culture. She has been blessed with the opportunity to travel to several states to perform for DeafNation Expo events, Apollo in NYC, National Black Advocates Banquet and much more. She wants the world to know about the deaf community and to learn sign language so that we all can be included in every conversation and activities as well. This is how the birth of her company Signdance was formed. In 2018, she formed a dance company called Signdance with the motto that states "Let's Groove to the Beat and Learn Sign Language." It's through her music and her dance company that she continues to spread awareness about the deaf community as well as bridge any gaps between the hearing and deaf community as well.

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Hula Bella is from Los Angeles and is easy to recognize with her bright green hair! She has been hula hooping for 11 years and fire dancing for 9 years. She has performed in Europe, Canada and US for different music festivals, deaf events, private parties, a Haunted Ship, Holiday events and more! Her biggest performance took place at Coachella this year! Her inspiration comes from the love of being happy and doing things that allow for honoring one’s talents. She also loves to roller skate on her free time! She loves teaching kids to believe in themselves and to remind them that they can go places they never imagined traveling to!

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ORL B THA CODA is a Father, a partner, a CODA, a musician and a sneaker-head. He’s a Mexican-American California native and a certified ASL interpreter with 15 years of experience. He has a passion for making and signing music with the goal of changing the industry to be more visual and accessible.

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Savannah Dahan is a native American Sign Language signer who was born Deaf to Deaf parents. She started performing to music at a very early age, which became a family activity.

When Savannah was eight years old, her parents posted a video of her performing to Carrie Underwood’s "The Champion." This video immediately went viral, amassing over 10 million views within a week. This led to appearances on "Little Big Shots," various media outlets on all the major channels, including "Good Morning America."

Since then, Savannah booked roles in various commercials including one for Hallmark, television, and films.

Savannah, now 12, uses her social media platform to educate the community about various topics, including accessibility especially at live entertainment venues, marine environment awareness, and American Sign Language/Deaf culture.

During her downtime, Savannah enjoys acting, swimming, reading all the books she can get her hands on, traveling and learning about the world, creating new videos, and learning all the new dance moves.

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Hannah Dowd has loved the arts since a very young age. Although she is a skilled visual artist, her passion is for music. She has surrounded herself with music of all kinds since early childhood and was in the marching band at Anderson County High School in Lawrenceburg, KY for four years. She started band playing an instrument but moved on to being in the Color Guard and also held the honored position of Field Commander. Hannah loves playing and conducting music but singing is what makes her most happy. "The Greatest Showman" is one of her favorite movies so she is thrilled to make her DeaFestival debut performing the song, "This is Me" along with Savannah Dahan.

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Born in Hawaii and raised in the West coast, Renca believes that it’s not about where you go, but who you meet that shapes who you are. Growing up, Renca lived in nine states, attended seven schools, and has moved over thirty times in her life. She has experienced living in different-sized homes, on a farm, in a busy city, and even on a commercial fishing boat. Renca attended Gallaudet University, where she earned three bachelor’s degrees: English, Education, and Communication Studies. She went to American University, where she received her master's degree in International Communication, specializing in Cross-Culture and Education. After graduating, she joined Youth With A Mission, a missionary organization in DC, which led her to move to Iowa for a job opportunity with Deaf Missions. In 2020, Renca began a new chapter in her life as a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is currently going on as a 3rd-year student studying in the Interpersonal, Family, and Health Communication field.

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Paul Dymoke hails from good ole Minnesota! Born Deaf, still Deaf today and will die Deaf all the way! Graduated from Minnesota School for the Deaf (now MSAD), went to Gallaudet for Theater Arts.

Became clown inspired by an article in Life magazine. 34 years in Barber career as well as being clown! Currently I work at Great Clips in Monticello, Mn.

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Tamara “Tammy” Ellis is a nationally known Deaf entertainer. She first made her debut at various US schools for the Deaf and performed for audiences at Gallaudet University, Deaf Awareness functions and several Deaf Festivals across the country. Her performance captivates children and adults with mimic dialogue and improvisational skits that warm the hearts of every audience. She has built a reputation in the Deaf community with her performances and has worked with many renowned Deaf entertainers such as Peter Cook, Linda Bove, Chuck Baird, Bill Carwile, Phyllis Frelich, and C.J. Jones.

Tammy has performed at DeaFestival off and on since 1998 and we welcome her back in 2022 as she appears in the Children’s program.

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Sean Forbes is a deaf hip-hop artist and producer from Detroit, MI. Born into a musical family, Sean has been passionate about music his entire life. In 2006, Sean co-founded DPAN, Deaf Professional Arts Network, to make music and music culture accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing community. In 2010 he released his self penned song and music video for "I'm Deaf" and started a journey of creating his own music. Sean immediately followed up with "Let's Mambo" and a music video featuring Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin. In 2012 he released his debut album Perfect Imperfection and toured the world promoting and performing. In February of 2020, Sean Made history by becoming the first deaf artist to chart on several music charts including Billboard, iTunes, and Amazon music with the release of his 2nd album "Little Victories". Sean, along with his longtime friend Warren "Wawa" Snipe, performed in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show doing the ASL performance for Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J Blige, and 50 cent. Sean resides in the Metro Detroit area with his college sweetheart JoJo and their 2 children. This will be Sean's seventh appearance at Deafestival Kentucky.

www.deafandloud.com

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Matthew 'Magic' Morgan has had a long, storied career that started when he was six years old. After learning a coin trick from his grandfather'who had worked during a carnival at one time'Matthew began performing and hosted his first show, charging neighborhood kids 25 cents. He began learning tricks and studying magic. When he was 11, he got paid to perform at a church ' his first paid magic performance. He, of course, used this money to buy more magic supplies.

Matthew did his first out-of-state performance in 1993. Since then, he has performed in all 50 states and 32 countries, winning awards everywhere he goes. He has served as the president of the U.S. Deaf Magicians Society and also of World Deaf Magicians. Also He owner 'The Little MAGIC Theatre' in the heart of beautiful downtown Lake Geneva. The Little MAGIC Theatre is an intimate 60-seat theater, bringing the finest magicians and variety acts from all over the world all year long! More Information about Theatre : www.littlemagictheatre.com

Liliana, born in Russia, has been delighting audiences throughout Europe for more than a decade. Her appearances on stage incorporate Russian culture and dance. She started learning Magic when she was 20's years old and now teaches Russian Sign Language. It was at one of Matthew's performances in Russia that she met, and eventually married, Matthew. And Beautiful Two Children.

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Mindy Moore is widely considered a deaf multi-talented lady. The passion of theater has always been in her blood. Mindy has flourished all the way through the years in her performing arts calling since TSD, Gallaudet University and producer for ASL FILMS. She also starred in Forget Me Not and Wrong Game and created her own DVDS. Mindy passed the experience she had acquired from her youth to students at Texas School for the Deaf. She works there as Art instructor there for children in elementary department. Presently, she performs variety of shows, does tie dye clothes, give theatre/art workshops to adults and children.

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Justin Perez was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He was a student at Texas School for the Deaf. He has always been fascinated by American Sign Language (ASL) performance art and storytelling styles. Throughout his teenage years, he had incredibly deep bonds with several of his close friends who also enjoy sharing a variety of ASL stories, and that was where he defined numerous storytelling techniques along with sign language expressions. The more he shared his stories with the public; the more people have asked him to continue sharing his stories.

That was the fuel to his creativity and innovative persona in pushing new ASL performance boundaries and art. He quickly realized this type of work is something he is passionate about, particularly the field of ASL. Justin started receiving offers and opportunities all over the world, including being a Visual Vernacular (VV) teacher at Texas School for the Deaf, ASL tutor at National Technical Institute of the Deaf, ASL model and expert with TRUE+WAY ASL curriculum, and many more.

In 2007, he won the ASL Elements national ASL competition with his fan favorite, a Super Mario Kart story. He ultimately aims to bring his Visual Vernacular performance art to the World. Justin is available for presentations, workshops, modeling, performing and potential contractual work. Interested? Please feel free to contact him!

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Mervin Primeaux-OBryant a native of Lafayette, Louisiana. He has traveled all over showcasing his work through dance and music at festivals, conferences, and local/main events. He also manages his company, MPO Foundation, and serves on the board as co-founder of Def Lens Media. Honored with a Wavy Award.

SEVERAL CREDITS INCLUDE: Quest Visual Theatre (Assistant Director), Gladys Knight & The Pips’ Midnight Train to Georgia, featured in Times Square on electronic billboards (Lead).

REGIONAL: Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN (Maude Dunlap/Cast), Quest Visual Theatre (Assistant Director)

VOCA: ISM (Ensemble).

VIRTUAL PRODUCTIONS: Deaf Austin Theatre: A Better Place (The Operator); Disconnected: The Musical (Andie/Ensemble) and Deaf Broadway: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Dr. Frank N Furter).

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: MPO Foundations & Def Lens Media: Hidden Gem (Lead)

EDUCATION: AA in Dance Performance & Choreography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

@mervinpobryant IG, Mervin Primeaux-OBryant FB, Mervinprimeaux1 Twitter, and Mpofoundation IG.

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Sebi’Art is a word that is a combination of the artist’s first name, Sébastien, and the word ‘artist’.

Sébastien Ianno is a Belgian native and he is currently living in Indiana with his wife and daughter. As an artist, he is passionate about a wide-variety of visual arts such as juggling, fire performing, circus arts, theatre, Visual Vernacular, storytelling, and more.

Most of his performing skills were self-taught. He was able to discover and develop his identity as an artist after traveling alone in Asia for 15 months in 2013. Thanks to traveling, Sebi’Art was founded as a company in order to be able to artistically and visually entertaining for his audience.

He also made international appearances, especially in Europe.

One of his favorite juggling instruments is the Poï. Prepare to be mesmerized!

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Sho'Roc the emerging artist is a hard of hearing (H.O.H) recording artist that sings, raps, dances and uses American Sign Language when he performs. Sho'Roc hails from Wilmington, Delaware. He later moved to Washington D.C. where he began his journey, and was inspired to become a recording artist after meeting another deaf rapper named Prinz-D at Gallaudet University. Sho'Roc and Prinz-D formed the first deaf Hip-Hop group called "Helix Boyz" in 2006, and they completed two Hip-Hop albums.

Later in 2013, Sho'Roc decided to focus on becoming an R&B and Pop singer. He spent hours, weeks, months, and years singing and writing to sharpen his skills with some added flava of Hip-Hop to his music. Sho'Roc has collaborated with WaWa's World and DJ Nicar on various projects such as "We No Hear" and "Random Thoughts," just to name a few. Sho'Roc has performed in New York, DC, PA, New Jersey, Florida and Osaka, Japan for various deaf and hearing organizations.

He has recently released his first solo album called "Triple Threat" in 2021 with the popular single, "Go Higher" produced by DJ Nicar, where the song shares his life story and current events. He was inspired by Michelle Obama's quote "When they go low, we go higher" and wants to continue spreading positivity and love throughout the community.

Sho'Roc is known for his smooth, melodic singing style, catchy hooks, irresistible charm, and his dance moves while using ASL is what makes him unique in this music world. As he continues to develop his craft as an artist, performer, and songwriter, his passion for music runs deep. He will often say, "You got it! Let's continue to persevere and Go Higher."

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Nicar is a music producer and DJ born in the Philippines and now residing in Northern California. He is a father to 3 small children and a dedicated ally to the Deaf community. Nicar attended Gallaudet University from 2008 to 2011 where he discovered a unique world where Sign Language and music intersect. Shortly after in 2012, Nicar met Wawa and formed a group called "Wawa's World". Since then, they've been performing around the world inspiring the first generation of Deaf rappers. Nicar's past credits & collaborations include but not limited to: NPR, NBC, MTV, MTV2, MTV3, Convo, ZVRS, Purple, CSD, LEAD-K, Harold Foxx, SignMark, Sean Forbes, Mandy Harvey, DPAN, DeafNation, NAD, Gallaudet Theater.

Say hi to Nicar on instagram @DJNicar.

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Matt Thompson

Born in Fairfax, VA
Grew up in Virginia/Maryland
Graduated at Maryland school for the deaf 1989
Graduated at Gallaudet University 1995 In PE and Tv, Film, and Photography
Graduated at McDaniel College - 1997 as deaf education
Teacher - will be my 26th year at Texas School for the deaf
Coach - football basketball tennis volleyball baseball

Skit experience:

High school - two years skit
One of committee for few Gally TV shows at Gallaudet
Wacky Show for two years plus tour in Texas
Director for Deaf Night Live for class of 2001 and 2005 for eight years
Juggling at various events

Grew up watching circus and always went there every year. I always looked up to clown and the juggling parts. That’s what got me into this talent.

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