Dante Ingram is a musician, aerialist, and puppeteer. In her early performance life she stood very still as Mark “the Knife” Faje’s assistant in a knife throwing act. During that time, she also performed music and fan dances in burlesque shows in New York, Amsterdam, and Chicago. With her first band, “Dante’s Voodoo Cabaret”, she released “Songs for Saints and Sinners”.
In her later performance life, she began aerial training at Aerial Dance Chicago under Chloe Jenkins and continued at Aloft with Hayley Larson. She then incorporated puppetry into her performances with her skeleton, Frank. She studied puppetry under the mentorship of Steven Widerman and Steven Ritz-Barr. Dante built and performed with the “Queen of Blades” marionette which is featured in a 15 minute music/performance art/aerial piece called “Ecdysiast”. “Claws for Breakfast” by Sideshow Villains is her latest musical project, released in 2023. She performs songs from this EP in semi-annual live performances incorporating all three disciplines including a full band and a compendium of circus and variety performers. She recently worked with aerial mentor Lee Clayden at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival to develop a new act as a giant raven on silks. This was incorporated with a new raven marionette in the latest Sideshow Villains Deviant Cabaret performance.
When she isn’t dreaming up new acts and/or performing them she hangs out with her wife & two kids or walks her fluffy dog in the forest.
