The Feast Of
DIONYSUS
A Ritual Cabaret of
Desire, Defiance, and Divine Rebellion
In a world that punishes authenticity & demands palatability, The Deal with Dionysus invites you to make a bold exchange: trade obedience for ecstasy —if you dare.
Guided by Dionysus, god of wine, chaos, transformation, and queer liberation, the audience is summoned to a sensual feast of performance, ritual, and revelation.
But this is no ordinary cabaret. It is a spell—cast through circus, drag, dance, burlesque, and immersive theater. Over the course of the evening, each act dares to embody the ecstatic, the erotic, the ungovernable.
As desires rise and inhibitions fall, the audience is offered a choice: to live out the self they’ve always longed to be. But every deal has a cost. The brighter one burns, the more visible they become to the forces of shame, control, and conformity. A comedic "authority" clown arrives to restore order—but even enforcers can’t escape the spell of freedom.
At its heart, The Deal with Dionysus is a queer myth retold for our time. It’s a rebellion against silence. A love letter to survival. A reminder that pleasure is power, and joy—unfiltered, unapologetic joy—is sacred.
Come hungry. Come holy. Come unholy.
And when you leave—leave committed.
To yourself, to liberation, and to queer joy.
A God of Ecstasy, Rebellion & Divine Madness
Dionysus is the god of wine, pleasure, transformation, & ecstatic liberation. Born twice—first from mortal fire, then fromthe thigh of Zeus—he embodies the wild duality of life & death, desire a& destruction, chaos & clarity. He is a queer god: soft & wild, glamorous & raw, both sacred & profane.
Feared by kings and loved by outcasts, Dionysus unravels social order through joy. His rites, once outlawed for beinguncontrollable, dissolve shame & ignite truth. He is the god of the misfit, the masked, the too-much & the not-enough. His followers—the Maenads and Satyrs—danced at the edge of taboo, drunk on freedom.
In a world of surveillance, Dionysus invites vanishing into ecstasy.
In a culture of shame, he teaches pride.
In a society that demands tidy boxes, he bursts through every frame.
Tonight, Dionysus returns—
not as myth, but as movement.
Not as story, but as spell.
Not to be worshipped,
but to awaken what’s already wild within you.
ACT one
The Invitation
Desire stirs in stillness. The audience is drawn into a world where longing has not yet been named, but already pulses beneath the surface.
Movement is slow, mysterious, and intimate. This act is a whisper to the hidden self — the version you’ve buried to survive.
ACT THREE
The Unleashing
Desire explodes into joy, parody, and provocation. Here, queer spectacle meets sacred chaos — bodies unbound, binaries shattered, permission granted.
These acts play with kink, comedy, and liberation. They ask: what happens when we finally stop hiding?
ACT Five
The Re-Ignition
What was suppressed now burns hotter. Even control begins to crack. These acts are wild, weird,
ecstatic — a reawakening of self through pleasure, contradiction, and full-body joy. Here, the spell spreads. One liberated soul gives others permission to break open too.
ACT two
The Deal
The veil lifts. A pact is made. Through ritual and symbolism, the audience is invited to name their desires and commit to transformation.
A communal toast seals the spell: to choose authenticity over safety. But every desire awakened also invites risk.
ACT Four
The Cage
But freedom is not without consequence. Visibility attracts control. Shame slinks in. These acts reflect the emotional cost of defiance — the surveillance,
the censorship, the fear of being too much. A figure of authority arrives to restore order. A cage is placed. The room holds its breath.
ACT Six
The Cage
The ritual is complete. What began in longing ends in eruption. Fire, laughter, wine, and motion close the night in celebration.
This is a finale of joyful reclamation — not an escape, but a return. You leave not as you came, but as something brighter, freer, and wholly your own.
The Cast
DIONYSUs
JEWELISSA
Jewelissa is a multi-hyphenate performer and producer based in South Jersey & Philadelphia, renowned for their theatrical burlesque, fusion belly dance, silk fan veil prowess and more. Notably, she’s performed at BeardFest, Afrotease, and was a featured performer at the 2024 RVA Burlesque Festival. She is an instructor and the Director of Community Engagement at the Philadelphia Burlesque Academy, teaching all levels burlesque technique, bellylesque, fan veil technique & choreography.
NOKOMIS LALUNA
Nokomis laLuna is an ethereal,
Afro-Indigenous burlesque artist whose performances embody sensuality, storytelling, and the sacred interconnectedness of the cosmos and our ancestors with ourselves.
A divine mix of softness and command, she casts spells onstage with fans, veils, and striking regalia.
LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF
Tempest & Nathaniel Johnstone are a dance-&-music duo that craft dynamic ritual experiences. Tempest is a world-renowned mythic dance artist and Witch focusing on sacred and darkly inspired movements that pull from her background in the traditions of North Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and beyond. Nathaniel is a multi-instrumentalist virtuoso whose music pulls from myth, fantasy, and folklore with a vibrant sound that crosses boundaries & borders. Together they create sound, myth, and movement that captivates and inspires.
GEMI DEMURE
Gemi Demure is a New Mexico native & adventurer at heart. Always diving into new vocations & hobbies, she has 3 degrees and is constantly taking classes & traveling to learn new things and have new experiences. While her size may be unassuming her personality is ten feet tall and she is fearless. She will enchant you with her smile and bewitch you with her moves, she is the darling of duality.
Lilith Aurelia
Lilith Aurelia is a dreamer of impossible worlds and a wielder of exquisite chaos. Her performances lure audiences into rituals of revelry, where the line between nonsense and divinity dissolves. Equal parts mischief and magic, she invites you to join her as she transforms chaos into art, making the absurd feel sacred and the sacred deliciously absurd.
Danielle Levsky
Danielle Levsky (they/she) is a West Philly–based transdisciplinary artist blending clowning, physical theatre, and embodied storytelling. Their works include War and Play (commissioned by National Queer Theater at Lincoln Center in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and The Crone Chronicles, an interactive exploration of Slavic folklore. Recent presentations include PhysFestNYC, Cannonball Festival, and FringeArts Scratch Nights.
As a community curator, Danielle hosts and co-produces events like Full Moon on Fire and Philly Clown Slam, linking performance with healing and social transformation. They also teach workshops in yoga, clown practice, and Jewish clown traditions.
Their performances break down barriers between stage and audience, using humor and vulnerability to explore how bodies carry complex histories and personal narratives.
FAE FATALE
Fae Fatale bends the very fabric of reality to her whim. A classically trained actor and aerialist of eight years, she defies gravity with mercurial grace and dares you to watch her fly. She conjures spaces where the eerie, the sensual, and the strange collide. Don't let her sweet disposition fool you - she can kill with a gaze and make you enjoy every moment of your demise. As suddenly as she appears she vanishes, off to toy with another unsuspecting mortal - leaving only the echoes of laughter in her wake.
kiss the Clown
Kiss is what happens when heartbreak puts on a clown face and starts a show, they invite you to let you of what you know & enter a world of discipline and play. Blink and you'll miss, pucker up and KISS....THE...CLOWN...
Ginger Puss
GingerPuss is your chaotic genderqueer Zaddy that will tantalize your mind and leave you purring for more!
They are one of the founders and co-producers of CirQueer Productions. A lover of aerials arts, clowning, and bringing out the kinky weirdo in everyone.
GingerPuss is a creative drag thing that will tell you a story and make you question what sexy can be.