Damfino

03/24/2026

Arden Gonta performing Honeybee Blue at the Damfino Arts soft opening during Georgetown's Bites, Sites, and Sounds. One of our primary collaborators, Arden is an extremely talented singer, songwriter, musician, and master of many instruments! We are so extremely lucky to have had her play at our first show in our new location in Georgetown ♥︎

(Also, sorry that the first line of the song wasn't recording, I was too busy hopping up and down and cheering when I realized which song she was playing ♥︎)

Definitely go check her out on Bandcamp under Arden Gonta ♥︎

Arden Gonta
Arden Gonta Music

03/24/2026

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the Damfino Arts stage at Bites & Sites (& Sounds) on Saturday! It was our super soft opening, and we couldn't have ever dreamed of having a more talented and amazing group of musicians play our inaugural show. Big shout out to Waco Barrette, Lizzie Franks, Bob Lovelace, Arden Gonta, and Assigned Gay At Band ♥︎ We'll be posting pictures and videos of the event soon.

But first, an enormous round of applause to our stage and sound engineers, our hype people, and our set up and tear down crew ♥︎ We literally couldn't do it without you.

From left to right: Miles, Brendon, Iris, Sydney, Rylan, Arden, Cricket, and Christopher. Not pictured, Rebecca ♥︎

Thank you all so, so much! Best crew in town.

03/20/2026

01/25/2026

2026 from 2019: What a long way we've come! Seeing Damfino on the building blueprints reminded me of the very first time I saw our name on the stage plans for Wash of Gray at McCaw Hall! What a strange, meandering, and magical journey - from stage and art shows to a pandemic pivot to film, music, and education, and now... happily forward into a combination of everywhere we've been and everything we yet hope to achieve. Stage, film, shows, classes, workshops, and community events. Thank you for sticking with us; this has been an absolute dream come true, with years of hard work and community support to get us here. We're beyond grateful to each and every one of you ♥︎ Sydney

01/02/2026

Happy New Year! Damfino is ringing in this new year with some exciting news - we now have our very own space to host stage productions, community events, classes, and anything we can dream up! We're still about 3 to 6 months from opening our doors, but we're thrilled to announce that we'll be up and running soon. We're one block off Airport Way in Georgetown, so if you're in the area and see us outside working, stop by and say hi! We can't wait to see you in 2026!

Much Love,
Sydney Pertl & Miles Pertl,
Artistic Directors of Damfino Arts

05/06/2025

This is our first year on WA Gives Big! We're making our big push for start up funds for a permanent base for Damfino. If you want to support a local nonprofit, if your employer matches funds, if you're looking for ways to support your local arts community (or get a tax write off!), please consider checking out our page and donating! ♥︎

For the past five years, Damfino Arts has succeeded in connecting art lovers to new local works by representing local artists and developing art programming that amplifies and invests in our dynamic Seattle arts scene. Damfino Arts is proud to be taking the next leap,...

04/13/2025

Have you ever worked with us? We'd love to hear from you! We're looking for 2-3 sentences to show potential donors that our little organization has had big impacts! ♥︎ Thank you ♥︎

05/31/2023

We're back in the swing of things! Our first recording session with the incredibly talented Arden Gonta Arden Gonta Music is in the books for our newest video series, Project Marker! We had such an amazing time, and Arden brought us all to tears with her beautiful singing voice, skillful guitar playing, and brilliant compositions.

Project Marker is an upcoming video series showcasing the talented musicians, dancers, and artists in our area while documenting and drawing attention to the buildings, businesses, and social gathering spaces which are so quickly changing in our area. Using the throughline of Land Use Management signs and Malvina Reynold's lyrics from the 1960's and 70's (whose generational wisdom is as relevant today as it was then), we seek to celebrate and showcase the hidden corners of Seattle that have been forgotten and will soon no longer exist.

Submissions are open for musicians, dancers, and a very limited number of visual artists who feel this project speaks to them: email damfinoarts[@]gmail[.com] for more information or to submit links to your work!

Thank you so much to:
Arden Gonta
John & Anne Tangeman
Karate Garden Studios
Keith Sjoquist
& Rylan Cheeka !

Damfino Arts is under the artistic directorship of Miles Pertl and Sydney M. Pertl , and we would like to thank everyone under whose kind support projects like this flourish ♡

12/22/2021

❁Happy Solstice! HOORAY - It's all Spring from here!❁ In honor of the occasion, we're releasing our video Grow to Give, Give to Grow, a piece created with Pacific Northwest Ballet's professional division students at Queen Anne's beautiful UpGarden P-Patch. Take a deep breath, feel the sun on your skin, and imagine yourself in a garden...

This piece is all about the process - we grew together through lessons in movement, creativity, awareness, improvisation, teamwork, deep listening, and even community service! We learned how to express ourselves through our movements, how to hear the bass drum beat of the world, and how to create something genuine with each other.

The video begins with a spoken word piece created from poetry and musings on the world through our eyes. On our filming days, we cleared and weeded 'The Giving Garden,' a plot which grows food for those in need, and infused the soil with our creativity and joy. We channeled the essence of the flowers and basked in the sunshine. On our final day in front of the camera, the garden plot that we had so carefully prepared had grown up lush and green with the fruits of our labor, and we danced among the verdant leaves.

This project is about growing, in more ways than one, and we are thrilled to share this journey with you. Just like the community garden plot, we grow to give, but we must also give in order to grow.

This project was created in collaboration with: Damfino Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Up-Garden P-Patch, the Center for Deep Listening, and Once Upon a Dance.

If you like what you see and would like to support our upcoming video projects, please consider donating to Damfino Arts either through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/damfinoarts ) or by contacting us directly at [email protected] . We are a registered 501c3!

❁Happy Solstice! It's all Spring from here!❁ In honor of the occasion, we're releasing our video Grow to Give, Give to Grow, a piece created with ...

10/08/2021

Our film, The Only Thing You See Now, has just been chosen as an official selection at the Portland Film Festival! Additionally, our dear friend Jason Webley's music (which he composed specifically for the piece) will be featured in promotions for the festival! What an incredible honor ♡ Thank you so much, Portland Film Festival !

For tickets and for more information on Portland Film Festival, visit https://pdxff21.eventive.org/films/the-only-thing-you-see-now-614ceab91d3c30005527a091

"The Only Thing You See Now"

Directors: (formerly known as SeaPertl Productions): Sydney M. Pertl & Miles Pertl .pertl

Videography: Henry Wurtz

Dancers: Leah Terada & Miles Pertl .pertl

Music by: Jason Webley

Produced by: Seattle Dance Collective Seattle Dance Collective

05/12/2021

Damfino Arts is passionate about bringing together as many local artists of all kinds! Here's a clip highlighting our most recent collaborators, the incredible artists Joe Panzetta (guitar and vocals) and Rebeka Kuzma (vocals) from Saint Ophelia with Dianne Krause (clarinet) and Annie Roberts (cello).

Here's how it all came about:

Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) team members Ronly Blau and Crissy Baker connected the Damfino Arts team with Joe Panzetta (Marketing Director, VCA) who is a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist for this project. At their initial meeting, he introduced the song ‘Saving Grace’ as a possibility. Both Miles and Sydney loved it immediately.

“This song came about in ways both typical and unique. I came upon the chord progression and melody line all at once last fall. This is how all my songs happen, starting with the melody and some inclination of theme or meaning and then a period of work and play ensues that can take hours or months to finish … The next stage of songwriting for me is an interesting combination of holding space as it gestates,” Panzetta mused.

Panzetta also invited local musicians cellist Annie Roberts, clarinetist Dianne Krouse and singer Rebeka Kuzma to join him. The musicians were able to rehearse together Wednesday, and filming started the next day. The audio was recorded live with 2 external mics to enhance the beautiful sounds of the incredible musicians and singer as Sydney swayed along the dancers while they moved throughout the space.

“I feel very lucky to have been a part of such a wonderful project … ‘Saving Grace’ feels complete but still malleable in some way. It will take on a new life when Saint Ophelia starts playing … but it will forever have the spirit of this dance, this exhibit and this moment woven into its fabric.” Panzetta said.

Saint Ophelia is an alt folk rock band based on Vashon Island. Composed of a 5 piece ensemble set featuring Rebeka Kuzma (vocalist + guitarist), Joe Panzetta (singer + songwriter), Dan Tyack (pedal steel), Wesley Peterson (drums) and Chuck Keller (bass). With respect to COVID protocols, and the vaccine rollout, it was also a time for a part of the Saint Ophelia crew (all who are fully vaccinated) to celebrate their exciting return to the Vashon Island music community. They have 3 shows this summer! Please visit their website at saintophelia.com or on their page to learn more.