Psychic Wormhole
Psychic Wormhole (Stacy Lynn Smith + Alex Romania) is a NYC duo making live performance and experimental film.
photo by Jeremiah Cumberbatch
The duo excavates trauma and somatic memory as a means to reclaim embodiment. Their works are hyper saturated, creating heart-forward "chaos meditations" as exercises in collective resilience and catharsis. Material is filtered through a genre-mashing process that combines elements of Horror, Sci-Fi, Afro-futurism, Arthouse and Camp in the creation of operatic acts of psychedelic mundanity, heroic pathos and time-traveling somatics. Embracing multidisciplinarity, Smith and Romania approach creations collaboratively, informed by dance improvisation, somatics and butoh, alongside performance art, theater and music with experimental visual design and object creations.
Their work has been called “both delightful and horrifying” by The Brooklyn Rail. Works include: Face Eaters (The Chocolate Factory Theater); an epic multimedia performance processing global grief and political insanity alongside the loss of Romania's brother. fame hOle (La Mama) examines the role of public space in free speech through meta-theatrical voyages as two “influencers” in a gold “Cyber Truck” journey into a black hole in an attempt to save humanity. RECKONING (in post-production); a film memoir grappling with Smith’s survivorship of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and the lifelong effects of Complex-PTSD. Psychic Wormhole has held residencies with MacDowell (Interdisciplinary), Djerassi (Choreography), The Wexner Center Film / Video Studio (ongoing) and were recipients of the inaugural Artists Supporting Artists Program (ASAP) grant from Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili + Peter Born). Romania was a 2018-2020 Movement Research AIR and 2024-2025 Franklin Furnace Awardee. Smith was a 2022-2024 Movement Research AIR and 2025 Dance and Process (DAP) AIR at The Kitchen. They began dancing and working together in Kathy Westwater’s Bessie nominated “Rambler” (NYLA, ‘19).
Psychic Wormhole Is
Alex Romania
Stacy Lynn Smith
photo by Jeremiah Cumberbatch
ALEX ROMANIA is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and filmmaker. Romania is a current Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, 2024 Djerassi resident artist, 2022 and 2025 MacDowell fellow, 2023 Center for Performance Research AIR, and 2018-2020 Movement Research AIR. Romania has presented internationally at venues Sub Rosa (Athens, Greece), Abrons Arts Center (NYC), The Chocolate Factory Theater (NYC), Grace Exhibition Space (NYC) Brooklyn Studios for Dance (NYC), Glasshouse ArtLifeLab (NY), Rosekill (NY), Panoply Performance Laboratory, ABC No Rio (NYC), Huerto Roma Verde (DF, Mexico), Casa Viva (DF, Mexico), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Encuentro (Lima, Peru), UV Estudios (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and the Pillsbury House (Minneapolis) and more. Some of Romania’s current projects include co-directing the film 'RECKONING' with Stacy Lynn Smith, the multidisciplinary opera ‘Face Eaters’, co-directorship of the experimental documentary 'Patch the Sky with Five Colored Stones' conceived by choreographer Daria Faïn, a collaborative short entitled ‘Mira, Mira, Mira!’ with Daniela Fabrizi and the Re Hecho community in the LES. Romania performed in works by Kathy Westwater from 2013 to 2023, and in works by Simone Forti, Éva Mag, Eddie Peake, Andy de Groat, and Catherine Galasso. Romania has designed video within several works by Antonio Ramos, and worked on films with Marin Media Labs, TAAMAS / Sarah Riggs, Trixie Films / Therese Shechter, Christopher Unpezverde Nuñez, Martita Abril, and Sarah White-Ayòn. Romania is grateful for the wealth of creativity over a decade of experimentation in live performance has brought them and looks forward to continuing this research through developing performances, films, plays, and punk operas, including a memoir, a sci-fi suspense feature, a compilation of poetry and the ever evolving album.
photo by Jeremiah Cumberbatch
STACY LYNN SMITH is a neurodivergent, Black mixed-race interdisciplinary dance artist and improviser, choreographer, director, filmmaker and Green Circle Keeper at Hidden Water. Smith creates, devises, improvises and performs across disciplines and genres with an array of talented artists including: DeForrest Brown Jr., Anna Homler, Karen Bernard, Thaddeus O’Neil, Rakia Seaborn, Vangeline Theater, Saints of an Unnamed Country, Salome Asega, GENG, Donna Costello, Bradley Bailey, Michele Beck, Jasmine Hearn, mayfield brooks, Josephine Decker, Kathy Westwater, Jill Sigman, Emily Johnson, Joan Jonas, Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili. Smith was a 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, 2024 Djerassi AIR, their work PORTALS was featured in the 2024 season of Black Aesthetics (curated by Malcolmx Betts and Arien Wilkerson at Judson Church), is a 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2025 Dance and Process (DAP) AIR at The Kitchen. As Psychic Wormhole (with Alex Romania), work includes Face Eaters (The Chocolate Factory Theater) and fame hOle (Grace Exhibition Space, La Mama). Psychic Wormhole is working towards completing their debut film, RECKONING, a visceral experimental memoir grappling with Smith's experiences as a survivor of CSA and Complex-PTSD, which received the inaugural Artists Supporting Artists Program (ASAP) grant from Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili + Peter Born) and was shortlisted for ‘25 Creative Capital in Film / Video.