Born locally, Slater Penney grew up watching the Pickle Family Circus and reading his dad’s underground comix. In school his excellence in art, science and mathematics led him to UC Santa Cruz, where he gave it all up to study Yoga, Dance and Indonesian art. His big break senior year was both elbows, right at the radial heads, prompting him to learn how to fall better at the San Francisco Circus Center.
After winning an Emmy Award for motion capture work with TechTV in 2000, his travels took him first to Portland, then to the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Humboldt County, where his love of tango bloomed. He now quilts employment together by performing, choreographing, teaching and modeling.