TONI & SARAH
A Letter from the Leading Ladies
Grape Culture is a 3 tragic-comedy that has birthed a podcast, a movement, a dear friendship and a dangerously delicious collaboration sweeping the nation
Sarah found Toni’s work in 2020 and immediately was like, oh my goddess, who the fuck is this genius interpretive dancing and channeling her face off about the predatory nature of capitalism, corporate entities and making quantum level connections around who runs the world ??!?! Sarah was OBSESSEDDDUHHHH. And as a Capricorn, we don’t do obsession. But then Sarah found out that Toni is also a Capricorn and it all made sense.
Sarah and Toni meet in the flesh at a festival in 2022. Toni was performing and Sarah went up to her afterwards to say hi because they were both wearing leopard print. This was her in.
Then, in 2023 they both performed solo pieces and taught somatic dance workshops at the same festival. Toni offered an early rendition of her one-woman comedy show, Men Come Inside of Me, during which she embodies all the men that have come inside of her, both metaphorically and literally, and connects to them on a heart, soul, and genital level. Her effort to uncover these men is entwined with her desire to understand them; as well as herself.
Sarah offered a dance piece straight from the underworld, an homage to the Goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. Think burlesque, meets ballet, meets an initiation and devotion to the Goddess Within, Without, Above and Below that you got to watch, because she let you.
Discovering their mutual, feral-level, blood dripping from the mouth and down their legs, free-bleeding, hairy armpit, hunger for making work about rape culture, sexual assault, the patriarchy, capitalism, systems of oppression, autonomy, sovereignty and healing…Grape Culture was born.
Grape Culture is a tragic comedy stripping back the cultural bondage of domination without consent. It is currently touring the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals Summer of 2024.
It’s now become a podcast, a movement and a dear, devout, friendship.
Read more about Toni and Sarah and what brought them to this moment on their individual and collective journey below.
Read reviews and interviews about the show here.
We’re Impressive
Here’s our bios ;)
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Toni Nagy is a stand-up comedian and content creator most known for her viral videos where she interpretive dances her philosophies while pontificating, gyrating, and questioning culture. She has 600,000 followers across her social media platforms, not that she's counting or anything. Her comedy is quasi–radical, pseudo-philosophical, somewhat-existential, and mostly funny. Observing Toni’s work is like micro-dosing shrooms, but then an hour later wondering, "wait... was that actually a macro-dose!?"
She's directed and acted in numerous films and written multiple award-winning screenplays and is the founder of Cavelight Productions. Nagy has performed stand up at the Comedy Store in LA, Flappers LA, Elysian Theater LA, Greenwich Village Comedy Club NY, the Improv Boston, Laugh Boston, Next Stage Theater Vermont, the Palm Springs Comedy Festival, and the infamous "Sweet" show at the Chelsea Music Hall in NYC. The Broadway Comedy NYC club twice voted her “Best New Comedian.”
She is currently on a national tour performing a two-person multi-disciplinary comedy show with her 13-year old daughter entitled “Go To Your Womb!” It’s like a PG-13 acid trip you’ll later want to process with your therapist. She is also on tour with her one-person show “Men, Come Inside of Me,” a comedy show during which she embodies all the men that have come inside of her, both metaphorically and literally.
Toni relates to the men that have come inside of her, and connects to them on a heart, soul, and genital level. Her effort to uncover these men is entwined with her desire to understand them, as well as herself.
Lastly, Toni is bringing her newest show “Grape Culture,” - a tragic-comedy revealing grape culture that undresses the consciousness of domination without consent, while stripping back the predatory and pervasive programming that is choking us all - to the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals!
She is the proud owner of the movement space and creative incubator - SideStream Studio - in Brattleboro, VT. Toni has been teaching movement classes for over a decade at her studio, and created a series entitled “Gyration Nation,” where she workshopped and developed her somatic syllabus. Toni's work is often driven by messages of social consciousness and activism. Toni graduated from Sarah Lawrence college where she majored in philosophy and dance
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Sarah Buckner is a performance and visual artist exploring themes of the body, spirituality, witchcraft, feminism and self-realization.
Sarah started classical ballet training at age 3, and by middle school she was performing with pre-professional theater companies across the southeast including Children's Theatre of Charlotte.
Sarah received a scholarship to study Performing Arts, Dance and Photography at Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated Summa Cum Laude and was named a top Graduate by American Photo Magazine on Campus.
Sarah then completed her Master of Fine Arts at Duke University with a concentration in feminist theory and her thesis work was collected into the Duke Documentary Archives. Sarah has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally including the Louvre in France, PH21 Gallery in Budapest and SCAD Hong Kong. Sarah was a finalist in the Lucie Awards at Carnegie Hall for her Documentary Series, 310 East Gaston Street, and was accepted into the one of the most prestigious portfolio reviews in the country, Review Santa Fe for her Documentary series on breastfeeding, Milk.
After graduating from Duke Sarah was hired to be the Studio Manager for the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim, Bruce Davidson, and oversaw multimillion dollar museum acquisitions, curated internationally gallery exhibitions and managed a 50+ year archive.
In 2018 Sarah started her business Blood, Bone and Honey LLC, and began working as a professional artist, personal and professional development coach and spiritual and somatic practitioner. Her clients endearingly refer to her as their Higher Self Embodiment Doula. In addition to working with people 1:1 in sessions and private mentorship containers, Sarah also offers retreats, courses, masterclasses and runs an online global membership called The Blood, Bone and Honey Pot.