This presentation is SOLD OUT, only ADA seating available. To be added to the waitlist, please email boxoffice@baryshnikovarts.org.
See The Lesson before opening night. BAC Members of all levels get exclusive access to a special dress rehearsal, included as a member benefit. Not a BAC Member yet? Join today to receive your member code and reserve your seat. Space is extremely limited.
Directors: Mike Hadreas, Kate Wallich
Choreographer: Kate Wallich
Composers: Mike Hadreas, Alan Wyffles
Performers: Mike Hadreas, Tate Justus, Kate Wallich, Alan Wyffles
Scenographer: Amiya Brown
“This might be how the music of Perfume Genius is meant to be experienced” —Pitchfork
Musician Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) and choreographer Kate Wallich return to the stage with a new collaboration.
Combining Perfume Genius’ experimental pop with Wallich’s choreographic lens, The Lesson is a raw, uncompromising performance work inspired by The Piano Teacher, the notorious novel by Elfriede Jelinek, famously adapted for film by Michael Haneke.
The Lesson examines what happens when desire has nowhere to go, and what we’re rehearsing when we practice “good behavior.” The work moves through repression, longing, authority, and submission in unstable scenes where roles shift, and the unsaid becomes manically physical.
Following their acclaimed 2019 performance collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here, Hadreas reunites with Wallich alongside his husband and musical partner Alan Wyffels, and longtime collaborator Tate Justus.
All details subject to change.
Perfume Genius is the moniker of artist Mike Hadreas. Since releasing his debut album, Learning, in 2010 via longtime label home Matador Records, Hadreas has become one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices in contemporary music, known for emotionally vulnerable songwriting, nuanced vocals, and boundary-pushing performances. His celebrated body of work includes Put Your Back N 2 It; Too Bright, featuring the breakthrough single “Queen,” which became a queer anthem and powerful statement of identity; the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, which brought mainstream recognition to his work; Set My Heart On Fire Immediately; Ugly Season; and his most recent GRAMMY-nominated album, Glory (2025). Spanning music, live performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Hadreas continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary artistic practice.
Kate Wallich is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and founder whose work spans contemporary performance, public practice, and creative entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Dance Church, the all-levels movement practice that offers weekly classes in more than 12 markets across the United States, supports over 50 professional dance artists through ongoing employment as teachers, and has engaged hundreds of thousands of community members since its founding in 2010. Her choreographic works have been commissioned and presented by organizations including The Joyce Theater, MASS MoCA, Walker Art Center, On the Boards, and ICA Boston. In 2019, she collaborated with musician Perfume Genius on the critically acclaimed performance work The Sun Still Burns Here. Wallich is also the founder of Studio Kate Wallich, a nonprofit arts organization that houses her choreographic practice, public programming initiatives such as WIP LA, and artist development projects. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Photo by Alexandra Kacha.