Dancers

RAINBOW

Rainbow is the Choreographer, and a founding member of the Can Can Castaways. She is also the co-artistic director of The Offshore Project. After earning her B.F.A. in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts, Rainbow danced for Donald Byrd in Spectrum Dance Theater. Rainbow also studied Taekwondo and received her Black Belt Certification prior to attending college. Her choreography for The Offshore Project, “Karyotype 46/XY” and “The Buffoon”, were both presented in Northwest New Works Festival at On The Boards. “The Buffoon” was a finalist in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2011. Rainbow was mentioned on the Theater Shortlist for the Stranger’s Genius Awards. She has performed with the Castaways across the northwest including Bumbershoot, headliner in the Seattle International Cabaret Festival, annual performances at The Triple Door, and as the opening act for Amy O/tinyrage in “The Lowdown” at The Moore Theater in 2011. Also in 2011, Rainbow was invited to choreograph “Refined Slang” for dance department students in Cornish Dance Theater. She also is a dancer with Vockah Redu & Cru. Rainbow has directed, choreographed, and performed in over a dozen shows with the Castaways, including their newest work, “Tune In Tokyo”, and performs in an average of five shows a week at Can Can. . 



JONNY BOY

Jonathan Betchtel is the Production Manager and a performer for the Can Can Castaways, the in house dance company for the Can Can Kithchen and Cabaret.  Jonathan has been a performer in dance, music, and theater from a young age. In tandem with performance he also had success in a variety of athletics including both wrestling and football. Jonathan completed college and earned his B.F.A. from Cornish College of the Arts in the spring of 2006.  While attending Cornish he had the privilege of dancing in the restaging of Martha Graham’s “Diversion of Angels”, as well as pieces created by esteemed choreographers Donald Byrd, Wade Madsen, Deborah Wolf, and Gerard Theroet.  Since graduation Jonathan has performed in a variety of pieces created by Rainbow Fletcher both on and off the Can Can stage.  Combing a love of acrobatics, apparatus design, and dance, Jonathan is at home performing 5 shows a week with the Can Can Castaways.



BENIHANA

Benjamin Meersman grew up in Tacoma WA and received the core of his dance training at The Evergreen City Ballet as well as a summer working with Salzburg Ballet.  Before becoming a Can Can Castaway he danced with companies such as DASS Dance, Maika Misumi Movement Troupe, Selfic Ng-Simancas, Seattle Opera, Donald Byrd and Olympic Ballet Theater to name a few.  Ben is also a full-time student pursuing a degree in biology.



TOTALLY JK

Jess Klein studied at Reed College and the London Contemporary Dance School before graduating from Cornish College of the Arts. In addition to dancing with the Castaways she has worked with Mark Haim, Scott Powell Performance, LeGendre Performance, Crispin Spaeth Dance Group, The Seattle Opera, the Heavenly Spies, Deborah Wolf, Karn Junkinsmith, Reggie Watts and more. In addition to dancing, Jess spends much of her time practicing yoga and wearing fanny packs at the beach.





TORY TIARA

Tory grew up in Ashland, Oregon where she studied under Sylvia Bolton. She spent summers on scholarship with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet and Northwest Professional Dance Project. She spent 3 years with St. Louis Ballet before coming to Seattle and joining Spectrum Dance Theater in 2008. There she was promoted to Principal Artist in 2010. Tory currently teaches ballet around Seattle and works as a freelance artist.




NEON KEON

Keon Price grew up dancing mostly hip hop in the Seattle/ Tacoma area. Dancing with crews like Identity and Daniel Cruz’s Cruz Control. Furthering his dance training while attending college he got to explore technical side of dance, working with choreographers like Kraig “bopi” Patterson, Sylvain Lafortune from the Lar Lubovitch Dance company. Now back home Seattle/Tacoma he has worked with artist Vodka Redu and is residency dancer at The CanCan with the Castaways.



BABY KATE

Kate Chamberlin was born and raised in Seattle by a family of performing artists. She trained in the Preparatory Dance division of Cornish College of the Arts and spent summers at LINES Ballet and North Carolina School of the Arts intensives. In 2010, she graduated from the Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University BFA program in New York. Since graduating, Kate has spent a season with ARC Dance, performed with Eva Stone’s Stone Dance Collective, and studied on scholarship at Spectrum Dance Theater. In addition to joining the Castaways this year, Kate will appear again in ChopShop: Bodies of Work and in Seattle Opera’s production of Orpheus and Euridice.