Digital Program | Baryshnikov Arts Presents: “IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE: NEW ARRANGEMENTS”

ABOUT

This program presents four dances, one on film and three performed live. Each is an arrangement of material drawn from larger works choreographed by Merce Cunningham, offering an opportunity to revisit and reimagine iconic work spanning five decades. This is the third in a series of “In Conversation” programs co-produced by Baryshnikov Arts and the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Beach Birds: A New Arrangement is a film of an adaptation of Cunningham’s Beach Birds (1991) performed at Rockaway Beach in August 2023 as part of Sasha Okshteyn’s Beach Sessions Dance Series. Directed and edited by Alex Munro, the film captures a cast of eleven dancers performing Cunningham’s iconic movement on the rocks and shoreline. The dancers wear costumes after the original design by Marsha Skinner. Arranged and staged by Patricia Lent and Rashaun Mitchell, this work was developed in part during a residency at Baryshnikov Arts.

Signals with Loops, arranged and staged by Jean Freebury and Patricia Lent, combines two solos from Signals (1970) with excerpts from Loops (1971), a solo Cunningham described as “an Event for one.” Sienna Blaw performs the Signals solo originally danced by Cunningham, and Chaery Moon performs the Signals solo originally danced by Susana Hayman-Chaffey. The original music for Signals, entitled First Week of June, was a collaborative work by John Cage, Gordon Mumma, and David Tudor. The recordings used for this performance were made in 1994 for White Oak Dance Project’s production of Signals. For that production, Mikhail Baryshnikov danced Merce Cunningham’s solo.

XOVER: Duet for Six is a new arrangement of the central duet from XOVER (2007), the final Cage/Cunningham/Rauschenberg collaboration. The duet, originally danced by Jules Cunningham & Daniel Madoff, and Emma Desjardins & Brandon Collwes, is performed here by six dancers in a new arrangement by Collwes. Anaïs Maviel performs an original composition entitled No: XOVER edit. The costumes reference the white unitards designed by Rauschenberg. XOVER: Duet for Six was developed in part during an artist residency at Baryshnikov Arts.

Suite for Two (1958) is an arrangement of three solos and one duet from the dance Suite for Five (1956). Cunningham made this arrangement for Carolyn Brown and himself for a concert at the University of Pittsburgh in 1958. Suite for Two was subsequently performed on two European tours made by Cunningham, Brown, John Cage, and David Tudor in 1958 and 1960. Chalvar Monteiro dances two solos entitled “At Random” and “Stillness,” Jacquelin Harris dances “A Meander,” a new solo made for Carolyn Brown for the 1958 arrangement. The dance concludes with a duet entitled “Extended Moment.” Renowned pianist Adam Tendler plays John Cage’s Music for Piano. The costumes were designed by Robert Rauschenberg. Suite for Two was staged for Harris & Monteiro by Andrea Weber.

All details are subject to change.

CREDITS

Beach Birds: A New Arrangement

Choreography: Merce Cunningham

Costumes: After the design by Marsha Skinner

Arranged and staged by: Patricia Lent & Rashaun Mitchell

Additional staging and coaching by: Kimberly Bartosik, Michael Cole, Alan Good, David Kulick, Carol Teitelbaum

Dancers: Christian Allen, Sienna Blaw, Sarah Cecilia Bukowski, Marc Crousillat, Arielle François, Morgan Griffin, Claude “CJ” Johnson, Nyah Malone, Chaery Moon, Ryan Pliss, Hannah Straney

Artistic Director, Producer: Sasha Okshteyn

Co-Producer: Morgan Griffin

Film Director, Editor: Alex Munro

Camera: Romke Hoogwaerts, Alex Munro, John Ward

Beach Birds: A New Arrangement was performed and filmed at Rockaway Beach in 2023 as part of Beach Sessions Dance Series. Founded by Sasha Okshteyn in 2015, this performance series commissions, produces and presents site-responsive choreographic work on the shoreline of Rockaway Beach. This adaptation of Beach Birds was presented along with a response by choreographer Sarah Michelson.

Merce Cunningham’s Beach Birds (1991) was a collaboration with composer John Cage and visual artist Marsha Skinner. It was first performed on June 20, 1991 in Zurich, Switzerland as part of a citywide James Joyce/John Cage Festival. In December 1991, Elliot Caplan and Cunningham adapted the dance for film. Beach Birds for Camera was first screened in Paris, on November 15, 1993. 

Beach Sessions 2023 is made possible by lead support from 7G Group with major funding provided by The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and The Merce Cunningham Trust. Additional support from the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy and Saks Fifth Avenue, with in-kind support from The Rockaway Hotel & Spa, NYC Ferry, Rockaway Retreat House and Caracas Rockaway. Special thanks to NYC Parks, Rockaway Film Festival, The Supply Shop, Something Special Studios, and Alex Munro.

**

Signals with Loops

Choreography: Merce Cunningham

Music: David Tudor, D’Arcy Phillip Gray, John D.S. Adams, Takehisa Kosugi, Second Week of January

Costumes: Jennifer Goggans

Lighting: Aaron Copp

Staged by: Jean Freebury & Patricia Lent

Dancers: Sienna Blaw & Chaery Moon

**

XOVER: Duet for Six

Choreography: Merce Cunningham

Music: Anaïs Maviel, No: XOVER edit

Costumes: Jennifer Goggans

Costume construction: Maile Okamura

Lighting: Aaron Copp

Arranged and staged by: Brandon Collwes

Dancers: Sienna Blaw, Sarah Cecilia Bukowski, Alexzander Larson, Justin Lynch, Chaery Moon, Hannah Straney

**

Suite for Two

Choreography: Merce Cunningham

Music: John Cage, Music for Piano

Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg

Lighting: Beverly Emmons

Staged by: Andrea Weber

Dancers: Jacquelin Harris & Chalvar Monteiro

Pianist: Adam Tendler

Solo: At Random

Solo: A Meander

Solo: Stillness

Duet: Extended Moment

**

Choreography by Merce Cunningham © Merce Cunningham Trust. All rights reserved

ARTISTS

CHOREOGRAPHER
Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) was a celebrated dancer and choreographer renowned for his groundbreaking work, his lifelong passion for innovation, and his profound influence on generations of dancemakers and artists. Born in Centralia, Washington, he attended the Cornish School in Seattle where he was introduced to the work of Martha Graham and met the composer John Cage who would become his closest collaborator and life partner. In 1939, Cunningham began a six-year tenure as a soloist in the Graham company, and soon began presenting his own choreography most notably on joint music and dance concerts with Cage. In the summer of 1953, during a teaching residency at Black Mountain College, Cunningham formed a dance company to explore his innovative ideas. Over the course of his 70-year career he choreographed 180 dances including such iconic works as Suite for Five, Summerspace, RainForest, Sounddance, Pictures, Beach Birds, BIPED, and Ocean. He also presented nearly 800 Events in museums, gymnasiums, outdoor stages and theaters, beginning in 1964 with the Museum Event No. 1 at the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts. Cunningham premiered his final work, Nearly Ninety, on his ninetieth birthday. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company remained in continuous operation until its closure in 2011, giving nearly three thousand performances in over forty countries.

In collaboration with John Cage, Cunningham proposed a series of radical ideas including the separation of music and dance, the use of chance operations, and novel ways to utilize film and technology. He collaborated with such renowned artists and composers as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, and Takehisa Kosugi. Cunningham earned some of the highest honors bestowed in the arts including a MacArthur Fellowship (1985), a Kennedy Center Honor (1985), a Laurence Olivier Award (1985), the National Medal of Arts (1990), and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale (2005). In 2004, he was named Officier of the Legion d’Honneur. Today Cunningham’s work continues to be performed by professional and student dancers worldwide, and Cunningham Technique® is taught in countless studios and educational institutions.

COMPOSERS/MUSICIANS

John Cage (1912–1992) was a singularly inventive and highly influential American composer, writer, philosopher, and visual artist. Throughout his career, he departed from the pragmatism of precise musical notation and circumscribed ways of performance. His principal contribution to the history of music is his systematic establishment of the principle of indeterminacy by adapting Zen Buddhist practices to composition and performance. His aesthetic of chance produced a unique body of “once-only” works, any two performances of which can never be quite the same.

Cage’s mature works did not originate in psychology, motive, drama, or literature, but, rather, were just sounds, free of judgments about their musicality, free of fixed relations, and free of memory and taste. His most enduring composition, influenced by Robert Rauschenberg’s all-black and all-white paintings, is the radically tacet 4’33” (1952), during which no sounds are intentionally produced.

Anaïs Maviel is a composer, artist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist dedicated to translating spiritual concepts to sensory experiences, using sound as medicine and alchemy. With traditional and experimental approaches, her works investigate the power of sound to shape reality, and emphasize the relevance of cultural hybridity. She navigates song, choral, instrumental, orchestral music, and staging with a strong connection to cosmologies of sound and speech rooted in oral traditions such as mantra and ring shout. She strives to bridge the gaps between genres and to create a diverse, inclusive, yet sacred musical experience. Highlights in her music collaborations include Alarm Will Sound, The Rhythm Method, Chiquita Magic, Craig Taborn, Nicole Mitchell, Aruán Ortiz, Meshell Ndegeocello and William Parker. Equally impactful have been many of her collaborations with dance, including Contra-Tiempo, Urban Bush Women, Merce Cunningham Trust, Okwui Okpokwasili, Melanie Maar and the Commons Choir. Visual arts collaborators include Nene Humphrey, Sean Webley of Primitive Collective, Steffani Jemison & Shana Moulton. Maviel writes, performs and facilitates vocal liberation online, in New York, throughout the Americas and Europe with a special attention to the body, its environmental, archetypal and cosmic resonances.

Adam Tendler, praised for his “adventurousness and muscular skill” (The New York Times), has been called “the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), “relentlessly adventurous” (Washington Post), a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times), an “intrepid… maverick pianist” (The New Yorker), and “one of contemporary classical music’s most intentional and daring pianists” (Seven Days). A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty states, going on to become one of classical music’s most celebrated artists, receiving Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, Sydney Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NJ Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and on the main-stages of Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House, BAM, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and other leading series and stages worldwide. His appearance on Wild Up’s Julius Eastman anthology earned a GRAMMY nomination, and his latest project, Inheritances, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick, writing of the album, “You will be moved, profoundly and intensely.” He is a Yamaha Artist, the author of two books, and serves on the piano faculty at NYU.

COSTUME & SET DESIGNERS

Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008), born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925, attended Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina and the Art Students League in New York where he developed creative relationships and methods that proved to be formative. His almost 60-year career was characterized by an irreverent and innovative approach to images, mediums, and disciplines and a love for artistic partnerships. Rauschenberg realized his first Combine in 1954, eschewing established artistic boundaries and hierarchies; he introduced the materials of everyday life while combining aspects of painting and sculpture. Collaborations with composer John Cage and dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham spurred Rauschenberg to add performance to his wide-ranging palette, including costume and set designs for the Cunningham and Paul Taylor dance companies. His affiliation with the Judson Dance Theater allowed Rauschenberg to choreograph his first performance, Pelican (1963), and it led to a lifelong collaboration with dancer/choreographer Trisha Brown for whose performances Rauschenberg designed costumes, lighting, sets, and on occasion, music.

Marsha Skinner is a Taos-based artist who paints upon the reflections she has within her home, surrounded by nature. Born in 1944 in Canon City, Colorado, the vast plateau country of Taos mimics her homeland and offers a welcomed return for the artist after her time spent traveling the Asian continent extensively. Her muse, the natural world, is prominent in her artwork, flowing as fluidly as calligraphy. Skinner studied her practice within the walls of Asian universities, including Delhi University in India and the China Institute in New York. The gentleness, focus, and the I Ching taught to her by mentors of a different culture are still foundational elements of her artwork today. Informed by this method of chance in her creative process, the roll of dice can dictate the artist’s decisions as to color, thickness, texture, tools, and time it takes to produce her finished works. Skinner has accomplished much in her life’s work, from her close relationship with the American avant-garde composer John Cage to her working relationship with the choreographer Merce Cunningham in the creation of costumes and lighting for Cunningham’s dances Beach Birds, Change of Address, Enter, and Ocean.

Jennifer Goggans danced for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and studied Fashion Design at FIT. She has created costumes for many NYC choreographers and is currently the Program Director for the Merce Cunningham Trust.

LIGHTING

Aaron Copp’s recent designs include a new Netflix special, The Good Life, by Mike Birbiglia, Broadway productions of The Old Man and the Pool and The New One, Rachel Bloom’s Death Let Me Do My Show at the Orpheum, Bernstein’s Mass at the Kennedy Center, Falling Out Of Time at Carnegie Hall, Red State Blue State for Colin Quinn at the Minetta Lane, Candide at Tanglewood Music Center, and One Line Drawn by Brian Brooks for Miami City Ballet. Music projects include designs for The Silk Road Ensemble, Natalie Merchant, Diamanda Galas, Maya Beiser and the Bang On A Can All-Stars. He has worked extensively in the dance world, and in 2008 received his second Bessie Award for Jonah Bokaer’s The Invention Of Minus One. He had a long association with Merce Cunningham, designing such pieces as Ground Level Overlay, Windows, and BIPED, for which he also won a Bessie.

Beverly Emmons has designed for Broadway, Off Broadway, Regional Theater, Dance and Opera. Her Broadway credits include Annie Get Your Gun, Jekyll & Hyde, The Heiress, Stephen Sondheim’s Passion and The Elephant Man. Her lighting of Amadeus won a Tony Award. She has worked at the Kennedy Center, the Guthrie, Arena Stage, and The Alley Theatre. Off Broadway worked with Joseph Chaikin and Meredith Monk. For Robert Wilson; Einstein on the Beach and others. Her designs for dance include works by Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Alvin Ailey and Merce Cunningham. She has been awarded seven Tony nominations, 1984 and 1986 Bessies, a 1980 Obie for Distinguished Lighting, and several Maharam/American Theater Wing Design Awards. She has curated TheLightingArchive.org making historical lighting documents accessible to students and scholars on the Internet.

FILM

Alex Munro is a director and cinematographer who works primarily with visual and performing artists. His practice is focused on exploring the relationship between live performance and image making. He works with a number of NY-based art institutions, such as MoMA, The Whitney, Pace Gallery, and Hauser & Wirth, collaborating with artists on performance pieces as well as documentary films.

Sasha Okshteyn is a creative producer with over twelve years’ experience and currently the Associate Director of Artist Programs at The Watermill Center, on the East End of Long Island. She specializes in live performance and art in public spaces. Past work includes institutional collaborations with Performa, MoMA, Pace Gallery, The MET, Pioneer Works, Art Basel, The Momentary, and many others. Okshteyn is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Beach Sessions Dance Series, a pioneering performance series in Rockaway Beach, Queens, NYC. Since 2015, Beach Sessions has commissioned artists such as Madeline Hollander, Moriah Evans, Sarah Michelson, and Faye Driscoll, as well as the Trisha Brown Dance Company and the Merce Cunningham Trust. Summer 2025 will be its 11th season. A native New Yorker, Okshteyn received her B.A. in Art History and Dance from George Washington University, DC and M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.

DANCERS

Christian Allen grew up in Cambridge, MA, where he began dancing at the age of five with JAM’NASTICS INC., a local hip-hop company. His formal dance training began in high school where he studied ballet, modern, and improvisation. While pursuing his BFA at SUNY Purchase, and since his graduation in 2015, he has performed the work of Jodi Melnick, NØA Dance, GREYZONE NYC, Gregory Dolbashian, Adam Barruch, Gabrielle Lamb, Shannon Gillen, Roy Assaf, Aszure Barton, Kyle Abraham, Brian Brooks, Emily Molnar, Bill T. Jones, and Kimberly Bartosik. He has worked extensively with the Merce Cunningham Trust, including performing in Night of 100 Solos in 2019, receiving his Cunningham teacher certification in 2022, and participating in the groundbreaking restaging of Cunningham’s Beach Birds as part of Beach Sessions Dance Series 2023. He was a member of Trisha Brown Dance Company for seasons 2022–2024.

Sienna Blaw is a queer dance artist from Austin, TX. Since graduating from SUNY Purchase in 2017, Blaw has performed the works of Pam Tanowitz, Merce Cunningham, Doug Varone, and Hannah Garner, and they have performed Contact Improvisation scores at MoMA and Park Avenue Armory. Blaw is a co-founder of A-Y/dancers, and a collaborator with BIRDHOUSE, POGO Dance Projects, Indah Walsh, and Julia Antinozzi. Blaw leads Dance Church classes in NYC and is an authorized teacher of Cunningham Technique® through the Merce Cunningham Trust. They most recently performed in Punchdrunk’s award-winning immersive theater production of Sleep No More, and at the Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy exhibit at The Shed.

Sarah Cecilia Bukowski is a New York–based dancer, writer, and activist. She currently performs with the Metropolitan Opera in addition to workshops and projects with the Merce Cunningham Trust and former Cunningham dancer Ellen Cornfield. Her performing career encompasses a diverse repertory of ballet and modern dance works as well as performance art and film collaborations in the New York City and San Francisco Bay Area dance communities. Bukowski is an editor and regular contributor to The Dance Enthusiast and a freelance arts writer of criticism, features, essays, and poetry. As a labor activist and community organizer, Bukowski serves on the Board of Governors of the American Guild of Musical Artists.

Marc Crousillat has performed in works by Pam Tanowitz, Tere O’Connor, Netta Yerushalmy, John Jasperse, and others. He danced in the Merce Cunningham Trust’s Night of 100 Solos at BAM and Beach Birds: A New Arrangement. He debuted on Broadway in West Side Story, directed by Ivo van Hove and choreographed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. For his work with the Trisha Brown Dance Company (2014–2022), he received a Princess Grace Award and a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Performer in the revival of Watermotor. He made his acting debut in Burrow (2023) at Tribeca Film Festival and recently choreographed Clairo’s Terrapin music video, directed by Ayo Edebiri.

Arielle François is a dancer and multimedia artist originally from Florida with a BFA in Dance Performance from New World School of the Arts. She has performed works by Brigid Baker Whole Project, Robert Battle, Ron Brown, Darshaun Sign Buller, Merce Cunningham, Peter London, Paul Taylor, and Tina Santos. She has created with artists Carlotta Guerrero and Monica Lopez De Victoria, and collaborated in films by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Cara Stricker, and Love the Everglades Movement.

Morgan Griffin is a New York–based dancer, choreographer, producer, curator and teacher. She holds both an MFA in Dance and an MA in Dance Education from NYU, and has recently performed works by Merce Cunningham, Madeline Hollander, Daniel Nagrin, and Robert Whitman, as well as performed her own work at The Jewish Museum and La MaMa Experimental Theater.

Jacquelin Harris, fromCharlotte, NC began her dance training at Dance Productions Studios under the direction of Lori Long with the guidance of Denise Britz-Clark. Harris received a silver ARTS award from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and was a Presidential Scholar in the Arts semifinalist. She graduated with honors from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance. In 2016 Harris was named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. She received a 2017 dance fellowship from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. Harris was a member of Ailey II and has performed as a guest artist with Twyla Tharp, the Merce Cunningham Trust, and Roderick George while being a dance artist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Claude “CJ” Johnson, a Chicago native based in Brooklyn, NY, is a dancer, choreographer, and movement director. He studied at The Chicago Academy for the Arts and SUNY Purchase, where he received the Adopt-A-Dancer Scholarship. From 2017 to 2022, he was a full-time company dancer with A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham and was nominated for the Princess Grace Award in 2021. Johnson has performed with renowned companies and artists such as Trisha Brown Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Keerati Jinakunwiphat, while also developing his own choreographic work through residencies at Baryshnikov Arts Center and The Joyce Theater. As a Black queer artist, Johnson creates work rooted in human connection, social justice, and the power of dance to inspire collective understanding and change.

Alexzander Larson is a Portland, Oregon native who holds a BFA in Dance (2022) from The Hartt School. While at Hartt he had the privilege of performing works by Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Lar Lubovitch, Gabrielle Lamb, Jaclyn Buglisi, and Sir Richard Alston. In 2022, Larson was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Merce Cunningham Trust’s Barbara Ensley Award. He has had the pleasure of dancing with companies including Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Des Moines Metropolitan Opera (choreographed by Issac Martin Lerner), Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, and Cornfield Dance. He is currently a dancer with The Met Opera Ballet.

Justin Lynch is from Kingston, Jamaica. In addition to working with the Merce Cunningham Trust, he has performed for the Bang Group, Molissa Fenley, the Metropolitan Opera, Elisa Monte, Christopher Williams, and others. Since 2015 he has collaborated regularly with Third Rail Projects, performing in and co-creating several of its productions. Lynch studied piano at the Royal College of Music in London and Boston University, graduating with a degree in music before earning a law degree at Columbia University. When not dancing, he is an immigration and business attorney for creative people, and a collaborative pianist at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

Nyah Malone is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. A native of Akron, Ohio, they began dancing when they were 3 years old. In 2015, they relocated to Natick, Massachusetts to attend Walnut Hill School for the Arts, graduating with honors in 2019. They went on to receive a BFA in Dance from the LINES Ballet program at Dominican University of California. There, they were privileged to work with esteemed choreographers such as Gregory Dawson, Maurya Kerr, and Dexandro Montalvo. They also graduated with a BA in English with a creative writing concentration, receiving the Sister Nicholas Maltman award for Excellence in English upon completion of their thesis. They were honored to be a recipient of the 2023 Merce Cunningham Trust Barbara Ensley Award. They have had the privilege of performing as a guest artist with tinypistol, FACT/SF, the Merce Cunningham Trust, and Vashti Dance Theatre. Their original work has been shown at Dixon Place, The Tank, and Riverside Theatre. They currently work with Limón2, Jody Oberfelder Projects, Kaleid Dance Collective, and Ballez/Katy Pyle, among other freelance projects.

Chalvar Monteiro hails from Montclair, NJ and received his BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. He has worked with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Elisa Monte Dance, Keigwin+Company, BODYTRAFFIC, GALLIM, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Ailey II, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 2019, Monteiro was selected to participate in Merce Cunningham Trust’s Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. Monteiro joined the faculty at Tisch School of the Arts in 2020 and his choreography has been presented on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Fire Island Dance Festival, Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, and other festivals and institutions across the United States.

Chaery Moon embarked on her dance journey with the Korean National Ballet and the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts, earning early recognition by winning the Tanzolymp in Berlin. She received her BFA at The Juilliard School and later joined Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon. Upon returning to the U.S., Moon pursued an MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since then, she has been creating works that merge physical movement with the intricacies of human experience through collaboration with artists from various disciplines. Her creations have garnered recognition and support from NYFA, the Korean government, the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Downtown Brooklyn, and the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation. Her writing has been published in Dance and People and Dance magazine in South Korea. She is a certified Cunningham Technique® instructor and frequently participates in projects affiliated with the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Ryan Pliss is a dance artist based in France originally from Ithaca, New York. He trained at De Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and received a BFA in Dance Performance from the Conservatory of Dance (COD) at SUNY Purchase. Pliss has had the pleasure to tour across North America and throughout Europe performing the works of renowned choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton, Nelly van Bommel, Julie Bour, Johannes Wieland, and Marie Chouinard. Pliss is a Cunningham Technique® teacher recognized by The Merce Cunningham Trust and has taught on their behalf as well as at Cornell University and at the COD at SUNY Purchase. He performed with Kimberly Bartosik/Daela from 2020–2022 and has been a member of the Stephen Petronio Company since 2017. 

Hannah Straney, born and raised in New York, is a freelance dancer, filmmaker and arts programmer. She earned a BFA in Dance Performance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and has received additional training from TNUA in Taipei, Taiwan. While studying, Straney performed works by Shannon Gillen, Sidra Bell, Tom Weinberger, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin and others. Upon graduating Straney toured nationally with Dirty Dancing, and was then invited to join Company XIV, where she spent four years as a singer, dancer, and actor. Straney served as the associate choreographer for NYC’s immersive experience, The Stranger, assisting Tislarm Bouie, and originating a role in the show. She frequently works with the Merce Cunningham Trust, and most recently performed in the 2023 Beach Sessions Dance Series restaging of Beach Birds on Rockaway Beach. Straney was a swing at Life and Trust and is currently dancing with Skyla Schreter Dance, Kimberly Bartosik, Liz Gerring and Cornfield Dance. 

STAGERS

Brandon Collwes joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in January 2006, where he danced until the close of the Company in 2011 in the final Legacy World Tour. He has been a member of the Liz Gerring Dance Company since 2012 and is currently rehearsal director. He also has performed with Sally Silvers Dance and the Stephen Petronio Dance Company. Collwes has staged MCTrust “MinEvents” for the Student Company of the Mark Morris Dance Center (2019), Connecticut College (2019), the Greater Hartford Academy Of The Arts (2019) and at Northwestern State University of Louisiana (2024). He also co-staged Changing Steps at the University of Arts in Philadelphia (2023), staged the central duet from XOVER (2024) and currently teaches Cunningham Technique at DeWitt Clinton High School. Since April 2020, he has collaborated as a choreographer/dancer with composer John King on “Sonic Gatherings,” which began during the pandemic as a weekly live music and dance performance on Zoom, and has since been presented in-person in NYC by CultureHub, Roulette Intermedium and the Coffey Street Studio. Additionally, his choreography has been presented via augmented reality by Unstumm in Berlin and by Korda Art In Motion in Stigsbo, Sweden. He is also an abstract painter.

Jean Freebury danced for The Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1992–2003. She received her training at Alberta Ballet School, London Contemporary Dance School and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has also performed with Pam Tanowitz, Douglas Dunn, and Kota Yamazaki among others. She has taught Cunningham Technique® and repertory since 1996 and is currently on the faculty at The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, The Juilliard School and The Merce Cunningham Trust. She has been staging Merce Cunningham’s work since 2010 and is a five-time Merce Cunningham Fellow. Cunningham stagings include Change of Address for Purchase College, Sounddance for the Juilliard School, Night Wandering for John Scott Dance, Associate Stager for Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event (New York City) and Summerspace for New York City Ballet.

Patricia Lent danced for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1984–1993, performing in over forty complete works, including Pictures, Fabrications, August Pace, and CRWDSPCR. As a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (1994–1996) she danced work by Hanya Holm, Mark Morris, Tere O’Connor, and others. After earning a master’s degree from Bank Street College of Education, she taught second and third grade at P.S. 234 (1998–2007). In 2009, she was named a trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust and currently serves as Co-Director. Lent began teaching Cunningham technique and repertory in the 1980s. She has staged Cunningham’s work for numerous institutions, including Fabrications for MCDC and Ballet de Lorraine, Duets for American Ballet Theatre, Exchange for Lyon Opera Ballet, Beach Birds and Change of Address for UNC School of the Arts, and Roaratorio for MCDC’s Legacy Tour. Lent collaborated with Jean Freebury on the staging of Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event presented at Brooklyn Academy of Music on the 100th anniversary of Cunningham’s birth. In 2023, she collaborated on an arrangement of Beach Birds for Beach Sessions Dance Series at Rockaway Beach. She has done extensive research into Cunningham’s notes and choreographic methods, and welcomes opportunities to share her discoveries with dancers, educators, and other inquiring minds.

Rashaun Mitchell is a Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessies) for “Outstanding Emerging Choreographer.” His choreographic work with ongoing collaborator, Silas Riener, involves the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction. Since 2010 they have created over 25 multidisciplinary dance works including site-responsive installations, gallery performances, dances for film, and proscenium dances in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Centre, and The Walker Arts Center. Mitchell has received several Princess Grace Awards, a Foundation for Contemporary Art “Grant to Artist,” and a Bessie Award for “Sustained achievement in the work of Merce Cunningham 2004–2012.” He is the Co-Director of the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Andrea Weber danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 2004–2011, performing roles in over 25 works. Weber began teaching Cunningham technique and repertory in 2007. She has staged Duets for Wiener Staatsballett, Exchange, Scenario and BIPED for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Pond Way for Ballett am Rhein and Ballet Vlaanderen, Suite for Five for the CNSMD in Lyon, RainForest for the Stephen Petronio Company, Travelogue and Sounddance at UNCSA, How To Pass, Kick, Fall and Run for Boston Conservatory and the American Dance Festival and the Skidmore Event in the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. In 2017, she arranged and staged the Events for the Merce Cunningham: Common Time exhibit at both the Walker Arts Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. For Merce Cunningham’s Centennial, Weber was the primary stager for Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event, presented at CAP UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. This Event brought together 26 dancers from all over North America to dance solos that spanned six decades of Merce’s work. Since 2012, she has been awarded ten Merce Cunningham Trust Fellowships, reconstructing dances including Nearly Ninety, Ocean, CRWDSPCR, and Second Hand. Andrea has a BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School.

ABOUT BARYSHNIKOV ARTS

Baryshnikov Arts, founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is rooted in the belief that artists hold irreplaceable roles in our world by shaping perspectives, offering new approaches, and initiating crucial conversations in complex social, political, and cultural environments. Our mission supports artistic freedom, providing multidisciplinary artists with opportunities for creative exploration and unique artistic expression, and allowing audiences to view the world in new ways. We offer performance and commissioning opportunities, artist residencies, rentals, and more. baryshnikovarts.org

ABOUT THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM TRUST

The Merce Cunningham Trust, established in 2000, preserves, enhances, and maintains the integrity of Merce Cunningham’s artistic work and processes, and makes his works available to the public. The Trust looks toward a vital future, facilitates access to and experience of Cunningham’s work, trains dancers in his technique, provides stagers with vital resources to develop their craft, supports the development of audiences for his work, and fosters creativity connected to this legacy.

The Trust undertakes projects with leading dance companies and educational institutions, and partners with a range of cultural organizations to celebrate and share Cunningham’s artistic work. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is the repository of decades of Cunningham’s manuscripts and records, choreographic notes, films and videotapes. The Walker Art Center is home to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s costumes, theatrical objects, and décor. The Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Baryshnikov Arts have aligned with the Trust in offering awards in Merce Cunningham’s name in support of contemporary artists.

TRUSTEES OF THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM TRUST

Laurence Getford, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Laura Kuhn, Patricia Lent, Rashaun Mitchell, Jeff Seroy, Allan G. Sperling, Robert Swinston

BARYSHNIKOV ARTS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dave Hattem, Chairman
R. Jarrett Lilien, Treasurer
Steven C. Dupré, Secretary
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Jamie Bishton
Sandy Choi
Frank Cordasco
Carlo Di Dio
William James Earle
Sandra Foschi
Jennifer Frautschi
Slavka B. Glaser
Rebecca Goldring
Sonja Kostich
Darryl Pinckney
Shelley Washington

BARYSHNIKOV ARTS STAFF

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Founder and Artistic Director
Sonja Kostich, President and Executive Director

ADMINISTRATION
Nicole Proto, Business Administration Manager

PROGRAMMING
Sam Black, Artistic Associate
Pedja Muzijevic, Artistic Administrator

DEVELOPMENT
Chani Sebazco, Development Manager

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Lydia Murray, Marketing and Communications Manager
Victoria Zdunkiewicz, Box Office and Digital Marketing Manager

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS
Tyler Benware, Director of Production and Operations
Natasha Bruno, Technical and Operations Manager
Jesse Campbell, Lighting Director

CONSULTANTS
Andrew Julia, Director of Finance, AJulia Consulting, LLC
Stephen Viksjo, Graphic Designer
Eric Wolfram, Web Developer
Sean Regan, Perfect Balance Bookkeeping, Inc., Bookkeeper

PRODUCTION OVERHIRE CREW FOR IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE

Isaac Grivett, Wardrobe Supervisor

Leo Mendoza, Head Audio-Video/Sound Board Operator (A1)

Robin Reed, Production Associate (Baryshnikov Arts Intern)

FRONT-OF-HOUSE STAFF FOR IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE: New Arrangements
Jennifer Rico, House Manager

Box Office Assistants/Ushers:
Felicia Avalos

Gina Bonati

Ernesto Brisita

Khadijah Danielian

Kymber Dodd

Rachel Ford

Jason Guy

Rebecca Kaye

Katie Kirk

Peter McGarry

Iris Morales

Tanelya Neal

Hannah Oren

Melanie Raush

Nelson Rivera

Annie Sauerburger

Julia Schemmer

Berd Vaval

Dominique Victor

Yua Watanabe

CONSULTANTS FOR IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE: New Arrangements
Mike Miccio, Piano Tuner

Special thanks to our production crew, front-of-house staff, and volunteers.

BARYSHNIKOV ARTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Baryshnikov Arts is grateful for the contributions of its generous supporters.

Individual

John H. Abeles

Abington Family

Charles & Deborah Adelman

Paul Aferiat

Jane L. Algus

Michelle A. Auerbach

George Baier

Joanne Barak

Marion Barion

Peter Barrett

Mikhail Baryshnikov & Lisa Rinehart

Peter Baryshnikov

Sofia Baryshnikov & Theodore Bergman

Douglas Baxter

Kent Becker & Rachel Miller

Martha Bedrosian

Ariel Bengio

Doris Bergman

Sophia Betcher

Leo Biagini

Jill C. Birinyi

Jamie Bishton & Christian Kraus

Christine Bonde

Philip Boroff & Michelle Kaske

Antonina Bouis

Judith Bowman

Harlan Bratcher

Janice Brand

Kermitt Brooks & Barton Warner

Amanda M. Burden

Johanna Butow

Andrew Cantor

James Carlson

Margo Cates

Sandra Cavanagh

Pamela Ceglinski

Jesse Chin

Sandy Choi

Anya & Peter Cole

Amy Collins

Frank A. Cordasco

Richard Corton

Theresa Cosmas

Margo Crespin

Rupert de Laszlo

Allison Derusha

Jennie L. DeScherer

Elizabeth DeVita

Janet A. Dewan

Allan Dinkoff

Mary Donovan

Robert Dorf

Steven C. Dupré

Magda Dvir

William James Earle

Detric Elliott

Sofia Elizalde

Jane Epstein

Charlie Ernst

Augie Fabela

Joseph Faber

Debra Farmer

Barbara G. Fleischman

Gustave Fleury

Jennifer Fortner

Jennifer Fraustchi

Eve France

Karen Freedman & Roger Weisberg

Jenia & Alex Fridlyand

Norman Friedland

Andrea Frodema

Nancy Fuchs

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

Peter Gallagher

Bruce Garetz

Paul Ghiz

Sue Gibbons

Jane Gladstone

Slavka B. Glaser

Gabrielle Goedecke

Andrew Goffe & Jeffrey Levin

Rebecca Goldring

Daniel Goleman

Sara Golomb

Sharon Gonen

Linda Gooden

Tatiana Gordon

Jerry S. Goren & Julia S. Coley

Kevin & Hilary Greene

Nicholas Hare 

Dave & Rita Hattem

Gary Hattem & Fraiser Holloway

Andrée Hayum

Frederick Hecker

Gayle Heller

Huong M. Hoang

Rodney Hobbs

Joan Hooker

Brody Howatt

Kelly Hubble

Jamie & Jeff Hurd

Munib Islam & Kamila Islam

Edward Jackson

Robert Jetmundsen

Carine Joannu

Cathy Kadets

Steven Katz

Nunally Kersh 

Oona Keating

Leo & Nadine Keegan

Madison Keesler

Nunally Kersh

Jensen Ko

Karen Kochevar

Marion Koltun

Sonja Kostich

Olga Kovalishina

Larry Krantz 

Miodrag Kukrika

Tebby Kwok

Nick & Holly Lane

Linda Larson

Windy Lawrence 

Patricia Lent

Anton LeRoy 

Gideon Lester

Leonard Levie 

Margo Levy

Jarrett & Maritess Lilien

Lois Lipton 

Nick & Cass Ludington

Kay Lustberg-Goldbeck

Katherin Lydon

Rhae Lynn

Cynthia Mackay

Alyssa Maher

Pamela Marron

Carol Massee

Blythe Masters 

Karen McLaughlin & Mark Schubin

Catherine & Bill Miller

LeConte Moore 

Mark Morris 

Linda Murray

Yefim Natis

Fred Nazem & Susie Gharib

Marty Nealon 

Franci Neely

David Neumann

Helen Ng

Vicky Nicholas

Katherine Nicholls

Nicholas Obolensky 

Ciaran O’Connor

Adam J. Oestreich

Brian O’Leary

Brian S. O’Neil

Marylin Ornati

Jeffrey & Meredith Oppenheim 

Zaza Pachulia 

Amy Sherman-Palladino & Daniel Palladino

Lorenza Panero

Estelle Parsons

Steven M. Pesner

Robert Petrizack

Liz Piccoli 

Darryl & James Pinckney 

Joseph Plocek 

Aidan & Elizabeth Quinn 

Caren Rabbino

Kevin Rabinovich

Kirk Radke & Liz Gerring 

Dianna Raedle 

Christopher Rao

Jennifer Rawe

John Redpath

Douglas P. Reetz

Laila Robins

Ellen Robinson

Denise Roberts

John Rockwell

James Roe & Gemsel Hernandez

Jade Roth

Abby Rothchild

Eve and Jon Rounds

Gerrit Ruetzel

Howard & Vesna Sacks

John Sansone

Laura Schoen 

Karen Scott

Marty Secada

Mark Seliger 

Nancy Seltzer, Jr. 

Joel Shapiro & Ellen Phelan

Mitchell Shapiro

Beth Shabto

Wallace Shawn 

Lois Sherwin

Alexandra Shiva

Robert Shulman

Anna Shuster

Sondra Siegel

Gary Silber

Mark Silber

Sheree Silvey

Sylvia Skratek

Leslie Smolan 

Ellen Sorrin

Svetlana Sosnitskaya

Genevieve Springer 

Matthew Steimel 

Christina Sterner

Glenn Stevens 

Angèle Surault 

Donald Sutton

Sarah Taylor

Michael Tersigni & David Palachek

Phoung Tranvan

Pamela Urueta

Julie C. Van Camp 

Reggie Van Lee 

Illiana van Meeteren 

Louis Venturelli

Marc Waldor 

Robert Wallace

Daniel Walsh

Nicola Walter 

Deborah Ward

Shelley Washington

Maggie Waterhouse

Michael Wehman

Suanne Weil

Steven Weissman 

Jedediah Wheeler 

David N. White

Lana Wilson

Bernice Witkovsky

Vicente Wolf

Matthew Yee

John Yonover

Janet Young & Jeremy Kramer

Andrew Zobler

As of June 2025.

Institutional

Leadership support for Baryshnikov Arts has been provided by:

Alphadyne Foundation

Apotheosis Events

Arnhold Foundation

KK Auchincloss Creativity Fund

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Norris and Debra Bishton Foundation

Brooklyn Fare

Cyrus Capital Partners

Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Enoch Foundation 

The Marshall Frankel Foundation

Frieze

Gartner

Global Atlantic 

Princess Grace Foundation- USA

Howard Gilman Foundation

Goldring Family Foundation

The Harkness Foundation for Dance

The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust

William Talbott Hillman Foundation

Hudson Yards/Related

Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance

Alex Katz Foundation

Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation

Lanvin

Andrew Mellon Foundation

Mertz Gilmore Foundation

New York State Council on the Arts

Omega Systems

Paula Cooper Gallery

Muriel Pollia Foundation

The Jerome Robbins Foundation

The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

The Shubert Foundation

The Thompson Family Foundation

Weber Shandwick

As of June 2025.

Baryshnikov Arts programming made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature

Yamaha is the official piano of Baryshnikov Arts.