Guggenheim Museum Programming

Works & Process Live and On Line

By: Guggenheim - Apr 22, 2021

 

The performing arts series Works & Process announces the addition of 6pm performances at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as a part of New York state’s “Safely Bringing Back the Arts” pilot program. Since March 19, under the guidance of the Department of Health, two concurrent series of performances produced by Works & Process are taking place in the Guggenheim’s iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. These reduced-capacity events are among the first indoor performances the state has permitted since it closed venues due to the pandemic a year ago, reaching a milestone in the recovery of the city’s cultural sector.

Works & Process bubble residencies and Works & Process reopening performances are made possible through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Stephen Kroll Reidy.

 The first day of spring, March 20, marked the beginning of 12 one-night-only Works & Process commissions developed in its bubble residencies. This series premiered with Rhapsody in Blue by Caleb Teicher and Conrad Tao, artists long supported by Works & Process. Tickets for each evening go on sale 72 hours prior to each capacity-reduced performance; more information is available here. 

This group of new commissions by New York-based artists amplify underrepresented voices and performing arts cultures. They have been incubated inside two-week-long Works & Process bubble residencies in upstate New York, making it possible for artists to safely create and rehearse together. On the last day of each residency, the artists will travel together to the museum and present a thirty-minute live performance in the rotunda.  

Several of these Works & Process pieces will be presented in matinee performances at Restart Stages, a cultural and civic initiative to jump start the performing arts sector in New York City; part of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative, a collaboration that reimagines and reactivates public space for a new era. More information is available here. Select Works & Process projects will also be featured as part of NY PopsUp, an expansive festival featuring hundreds of pop-up performances throughout New York City.

Between March 19 and April 19, Works & Process presented a succession of surprise daytime performances at the Guggenheim. These unannounced events will offer visitors a joyful, live, and safe experience. Performers from organizations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and more have been invited to participate. Select artists featured as part of Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions will also perform. 

With the return of live events, the Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions series will conclude. This initiative was launched in March 2020 and has provided $150,000 in financial support to artists during the most uncertain of times. A total of 85 WPA Virtual Commissions will have premiered, providing a platform and compensation for over three hundred artists.

About Works & Process Bubble Performances

Evening performances will take place at 6 pm and 8 pm at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

Select projects will be featured in matinee performances at Restart Stages, made possible by Jody and John Arnhold, Arnhold Dance Innovation Fund and First Republic Bank. Restart Stages at Lincoln Center is made possible by Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative. Major support provided by First Republic Bank.

NY PopsUp is committed to the safe re-opening of New York venues with the protocols that have been established by the New York State Department of Health (DOH). 

UPCOMING:

• New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles, performed by Les Ballet Afrik – May 4
• The Jazz Continuum with LaTasha Barnes – May 19 
• Unveiling by Sonya Hashem Tayeh, with music by Moses Sumney – June 1
• UnderScored by Ephrat Asherie Dance, in collaboration with New York City’s club legends – June 2
• Rose: You Are Who You Eat by John Jarboe of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret – June 20

New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles, performed by Les Ballet Afrik

May 4 at 6pm and 8pm

Since its release in 1990, the documentary Paris Is Burning has received critical acclaim for its depiction of the New York drag ball scene and of voguing as a powerful expression of personal pride in the face of racism, homophobia, and the stigma of the AIDS crisis. To honor the film’s thirtieth anniversary, Works & Process commissioned Omari Wiles, founding father of the House of Oricci and a legend within the ballroom community, to produce New York Is Burning. With its premiere at the Guggenheim postponed due to the pandemic, the project was supported with a summer 2020 Works & Process bubble residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, where Wiles continued to develop the commission for his company, Les Ballet Afrik. That residency culminated in a filmed performance at Lincoln Center, serving as an affirmation of love, acceptance, and joy.

Just as Paris Is Burning did for New York in 1980s, New York Is Burning reflects the aspirations, desires, and yearnings of a diverse group of dancers in a city beset by health, race, and financial crises. Wiles’s new work centers on the dancers for whom the dance company serves as a surrogate family including Kya Azeen, Eva Bust A’ Move, Algin Ford-Sterling, Alora Martinez, Shireen Rahimi, Milerka Rodriguez, Kameron N. Saunders, Karma Stylz, and Yuki Sukezane. In preparation for its official premiere, New York Is Burning will receive a second bubble residency. When it premieres, the piece will bring ballroom to the Guggenheim in a work featuring Wiles’s AfrikFusion, a style that combines traditional African dances and Afrobeat with house dance and vogue.

The development of this Works & Process commission will be continued in a bubble residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation.

The Jazz Continuum with LaTasha Barnes

May 19 at 6pm and 8pm

According to dance educator and dancer LaTasha Barnes, one of the greatest disparities of the present-day dance canon is the one that exists between the African American dancer and authentic jazz dance. Barnes argues that despite the foundational role of jazz dance as a source of globally celebrated popular Black dance forms, there is a lack of contextual and performative knowledge of jazz in the African American artist, which does a disservice to the expressive purpose and possibility that is dance. With the focus and dedicated time afforded by a residency, Barnes aims to bridge the knowledge gap with a group of engaged and invested dancers who desire to embody jazz alongside the Black dance traditions they currently bear. The resulting work may manifest as a choreographed jazz dance performance or an “improvography”-centered exploration of jazz and its scions.

This Works & Process commission was developed in a bubble residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation.

Unveiling by choreographer Sonya Hashem Tayeh, with music by Moses Sumney

June 1 at 6pm and 8pm

Unveiling, by Tony- and Emmy-nominated choreographer Sonya Hashem Tayeh, navigates the search within oneself to shed, peeling off the layers one by one until there is a depth of rawness, and from within that rawness we seek anew. The exquisite sound of Moses Sumney leads the way and guides us on our journey. 

This Works & Process commission was developed in a bubble residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation.

UnderScored by Ephrat Asherie Dance, in collaboration with New York City’s club legends

June 2 at 6pm and 8pm

Beginning with the seminal parties at The Loft and the Paradise Garage, UnderScored is inspired by the intergenerational club-life memories of a cast ranging in age from 25 to 77. This dance work explores the ever-changing physical and musical landscape of New York City’s underground house dance and music scene. Legendary elders from NYC’s underground dance community including Archie Burnett, Brahms “Bravo” LaFortune, and Michele Saunders collaborate and perform with company members Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Manon Bal, Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn Jr., Teena Marie Custer, Val “Ms. Vee” Ho, and Matthew “Megawatt” West. In conjunction with this project, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will provide a fellowship for Asherie to collect and archive oral histories from elders who are part of the generation of dancers who helped create and usher in NYC’s underground dance and music scene in the 1970s and ’80s.

The development of this Works & Process commission will be continued in a bubble residency at Bridge Street Theatre.

Rose: You Are Who You Eat by John Jarboe of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret

June 20 at 8pm ONLY

Based on a true story, Rose is a series of performance pieces (songs, videos, and poems) dedicated to Bearded Ladies Cabaret founder John Jarboe’s twin, Rose, whom Jarboe “absorbed” or “consumed” in the womb. Jarboe uses the story of Rose and the metaphor of cannibalism to explore gender queerness, nature and nurture, and queer ancestry. This is a collaboration with filmmaker Christopher Ash, designer Rebecca Kanach, and a duo of musicians, as well as various queer composers including Pax Ressler, Emily Bate, and Daniel De Jesus.

The development of this Works & Process commission will be continued in a bubble residency at Bethany Arts Community.

Digital Offerings

For those unable to attend performances in person, Works & Process is presentiing free digital premieres coproduced with Lincoln Center, made possible by The Audrey and Martin Gruss Discovery Fund and The Jerome Robbins Dance Division at The New York Public Library. With Bridge Street Theatre, Catskill Mountain Foundation, and New Victory Theater. Works & Process will coproduce artists discussions and performance highlights from inside Works & Process bubble residencies. All of these offerings can be accessed on Works & Process’ YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/worksandprocess) for the public to watch from home.

Works & Process at Lincoln Center digital performances, 7:30 pm

April 4 – L’Orient by Kamala Sankaram and Preeti Vasudevan

April 11 – Ladies of Hip-Hop: Black Dancing Bodies Project × Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer

April 18 – A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time by Jamar Roberts and David Watson

Works & Process at Bridge Street Theatre digital excerpts and discussions, 7:30 pm

April 10 – Trapped by Tatiana Desardouin, performed by Passion Fruit Dance Company

June 1 – UnderScored by Ephrat Asherie Dance, in collaboration with New York City’s club legends

Works & Process at Catskill Mountain Foundation digital excerpts and discussions, 7:30 pm

April 18 – A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time by Jamar Roberts and David Watson 

April 25 – Rhapsody in Blue, a kaleidoscope of New York by Caleb Teicher & Company with Conrad Tao

June 6 – New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles, performed by Les Ballet Afrik

June 27 – The Jazz Continuum with LaTasha Barnes

July 11 – Unveiling by Sonya Hashem Tayeh, with music by Moses Sumney

Works & Process at New Victory Theater digital excerpts and discussions, 7:30 pm

June 14 – Witness by Christopher Rudd, performed by RudduR Dance

Watch Isolation to Creation Docuseries on WNET’s All Arts Channel to learn more about Works & Process Bubble Residencies

In summer of 2020 Works & Process, itself facing a shuttered theater, forged a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform together. Pioneering and producing bubble residencies that have since been widely replicated, Works & Process invited over fifty artists to enter eight bubble residencies in rural Hudson Valley after an unprecedented period of isolation. Under a health protocol developed with medical counsel Dr. Wendy Ziecheck, and ethical oversight provided by Dr. Robert Klitzman, artists isolated by the pandemic gathered in quarantine to work together. 

To capture this journey, Works & Process produced Isolation to Creation, a four-part docuseries by filmmaker Nic Petry of Dancing Camera, to provide audiences with a rare opportunity to look behind the scenes and experience the hope, joy, exhilarating physical struggle, and emotional challenges experienced by performers returning to the studio and stage. Watch for free on the All Arts app and allarts.org.

Lead support for Isolation to Creation was provided by the Works & Process Board of Directors and Anh-Tuyet Nguyen and Robert Pollock, with additional support from Jonna Mackin. The filming of Isolation to Creation was supported in part by the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. 

Find more information at worksandprocess.org.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for since 1984, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Traditionally, most performances took place in the Guggenheim’s intimate Frank Lloyd Wright–designed 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020, Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created to financially support artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. To forge a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform during the pandemic, in summer 2020, Works & Process pioneered and produced a series of bubble residencies that will continue into 2021.

Lead funding for the 2020–21 Works & Process season is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Restart Stages is a sweeping initiative that will create ten outdoor performance and rehearsal spaces—an outdoor performing arts center—as well as other outdoor civic venues to help kickstart the performing arts sector and contribute to the revival of New York City. The project is made possible by the generous support of the Lincoln Center Board of Directors and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative, a collaboration that reimagines and reactivates public space for a new era. As one of New York City’s leading arts institutions and an anchor of its cultural and public life, Lincoln Center is embarking on this effort as a symbol of its commitment to the city, and to an equitable revitalization which elevates all New Yorkers. Restart Stages is a major, public-facing component of its broader effort to provide resources in this moment not just to Lincoln Center’s resident companies, but to the performing arts community as a whole—helping get artists back to work and supporting institutions from Brooklyn to the Bronx to engage their communities in the elevating power of the arts. Designed with expert advice from medical and public health professionals, Restart Stages will create a safe, welcoming, accessible, and dynamic environment for arts and community organizations from across New York City, including Lincoln Center resident companies. Restart Stages is being developed in coordination with NY State PopsUp, part of Governor Cuomo’s New York Arts Revival, in a partnership to help extend reach of the initiative far beyond Lincoln Center’s campus.

NY PopsUp is an unprecedented and expansive festival featuring hundreds of pop-up performances (many of which are free of charge and all open to the public) that will intersect with the daily lives of New Yorkers, as announced by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. This series of events, intended to revitalize the spirit and emotional well-being of New York citizens with the energy of live performance while jumpstarting New York’s struggling live entertainment sector, is a private/public partnership overseen by producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal, in coordination with the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and Empire State Development (ESD). The programming for NY PopsUp is curated by the interdisciplinary artist Zack Winokur, in partnership with a hand-selected council of artistic advisors who represent the diversity of New York’s dynamic performing arts scene and artistic communities.