“The behavior of people in extreme circumstances fascinates me, and panic is an extreme circumstance.  Different from legitimate fear, panic responds to no logical stimulus, and it is however a very real fear.  Sequenced like a rock concert playlist, the piece takes the form of a surrealistic lecture. Intense dance, obscure confessions, the presence of the devil, and a chainsaw, people enclosed in boxes, performances are in real time. The Panic Show explores the cultural and physical phenomena of panic in all its forms.” Dan Safer

Witness Relocation combines dance and theater with the energy of a rock show, exploding contemporary culture into intensely physical, outrageous, poetic, and sometimes brutal performances in order to question the assumptions of the modern day experience.
The Company formed in 2000 and is led by director/choreographer Dan Safer. They have created over ten original productions, engaged in a two year residency at the renowned Patravadi Theatre in Bangkok, Thailand, and performed in theaters, nightclubs, rock videos, and on a Thai TV Soap Opera. They are based in New York City, and work internationally. Their work has been described as, “magnificent” (The New Yorker) and, “like going to your first punk rock show in the 1980’s. It was raw, it was racy. The company has been compared to Pina Bausch, Richard Foreman, and the Wooster Group, but Witness Relocation’s mobilization of the element of uncertainty, the sheer physical vitality of the performers, and the mixture of genres puts them more in line with Andre Serban, Jan Fabre, Frank Castorf and David Bowie.” (Performing Arts Journal). The company’s production Dancing Vs. the Rat Experiment won three NY Innovative Theater Awards (Best Production, Sound, Choreography) and was nominated for three others (Best Ensemble, Lights, Costumes).


Dan Safer originally hails from the wild suburbs of New Jersey, and has directed / choreographed / adapted every WR show. His work has been presented all over, including Off-Broadway, La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop (four consecutive seasons), The Ontological Theater, Patravadi Theatre (Bangkok), Theater Krudttonden (Denmark), the 2007 CUNY Prelude Festival, Dixon Place, Danspace Project; he has choreographed operas, rock videos and fashion shows, and wrote a seven episode serial play with Pulitzer winner David Lindsay-Abaire. Performer with Ridge Theater, Jane Comfort, John Moran, Mabou Mines, the Blacklips Performance Cult, Hong Kong choreographer Dick Wong, and others. He founded and directed the Bangkok Performance Boot Camp, is faculty at NYU, and teaches workshops across the US and Internationally. He was a 2007- 9 recipient of the Six Points Fellowship (Performance) from the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the winner of two NY Innovative Theater Awards. Artforum Magazine called him “pure expressionistic danger”. He used to be a go-go dancer, and once choreographed the Queen of Thailand’s Birthday Party.

Laura Berlin Stinger (performer) most recent solo piece was called Keeping It Down, an exploration of self-made new-age internet gurus, fasting, and fame. (PS122, Edinburgh Fringe, Dixon Place)  She is currently developing After Collapsing, a piece about Anna Nicole Smith, Deep Trance Channeling, and the new Antarctic space station.  She is a co-creator of the live-lesbian soap opera Room For Cream.  She is honored to work with theater companies Witness Relocation, Theater of a Two-Headed Calf, and Mitu.  She had the terrible pleasure of acting in Sybil Kempson's latest play, Potatoes of August at Dixon Place in NYC.

Wil Petre (performer) has been with the WR for In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus, Blue Bird, Five Days in March, and Haggadah.  He's worked with Les Freres Corbusier in Hell House and Dance Dance Revolution, and TR Warszawa with their Macbeth at St. Ann's Warehouse.  He's traveled to Scotland with John Clancy and Co. for the Edinburgh International Festival, and worked with the MCC Youth Company. BFA from NYU Tisch.

Orion Taraban (performer) has worked with WR in Pyrrhus, Blue Bird, Haggadah, and now The Panic Show. He is a graduate of NYU and has studied Butoh with Sankai Juku in Japan.

Sean Donovan (performer) is a New York based actor, dancer, and writer.  Along with Witness Relocation he is a member of the Bessie Award winning Jane Comfort and Company. In New York, he has performed at such places as The Kitchen, PS122, The Duke, The Ontological Hysterical Theatre, The Ohio Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, La MaMa ETC, Theatre for the New City, Galapagos Arts Space, and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange.  He received his BFA in Acting from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing.  
He has trained and performed internationally in France, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Holland, Panama, Romania, Canada, and Japan working with the highly acclaimed Patravadi Theatre of Thailand and Sankai Juku Butoh company of Japan.

Mike Mikos (performer) with Witness Relocation has performed Vicious Dogs on Premises, The Blue Bird, Dancing vs. the Rat Experiment, Dancing vs. Blood on the Cat’s Neck, In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus, Mr. Kolpert, Roberto Zucco, and Katzelmacher. Mike is also member of the Obie award winning Theatre of a Two-headed Calf, with whom he has performed in Major Barbara, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, and The Drum of the Waves of Horikawa. He is a graduate of the Experimental Theatre Wing of NYU.

Jay Ryan (lights) has worked with Dan Safer for over 12 years. Originally from Richmond, Va. where he designed lights and sets for many plays and musicals. After designing one too many Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals he moved to NYC. Jay was Technical Director/Resident Lighting Designer/Director of Technology at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) for 10 years. While at DTW he designed lights for 100’s of dance pieces and developed the Dance and Technology initiative. Currently he is pursuing his MFA in Costume/Set/ Lighting Design and CUNY Brooklyn. In NY He has had the pleasure to work with many wonderful people; Daniel Safer/Witness Relocation, Anne B. Parsons/Big Dance Theater, H.T. Chen, Chris Aiken, Karl Anderson, Safer/Secrest, Fiona Marcotty, Nami Yamamoto, Jeanine Durning, Sally Silvers, American Spanish Dance Theater, John Jaspers, David Parker/The Bang Group, The Elementals and many others. He has designed lights at many theater spaces around the world.

Kaz Phillips (Projection Designer) is a Brooklyn-based writer/director, graphic designer and video designer with her company, Cat Bird Pictures (www.catbirdpictures.com).  In 2008, she wrote and directed her first short film, Fugue, which investigated the phenomenon of sleepwalking through the eyes of an ex-alcoholic having trouble separating dreams from reality.  Fugue premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in April 2009 and continues to make the rounds on the festival circuit.  In March 2009, Kaz Phillips was one of eight women selected to participate in the 2009/10 cycle of the American Film Institute’s prestigious Directing Workshop for Women where she made her latest short film, Megafauna. Kaz is the resident video designer for critically acclaimed NYC-based dance theater company, Witness Relocation.  Her work with WR has been presented in Denmark, France,Poland, Russia and across the United States.