New York Premiere of GRASS IS GREEN to Open New York Harkness Dance Center's 2022/23 Mainstage Series

The 92nd Street Y, New York Harkness Dance Center's 2022/23 Mainstage Series opens on Thursday, September 22 with UNA Productions, and the New York premiere of Grass is Green, an evening-length work for seven dancers and drag queen/live cellist/live pianist Rose Nylons, choreographed by Chuck Wilt in collaboration with the performers.

Grass is Green considers cycles of destruction and rebirth both within humanity and the land we are a part of. The work embodies a cycle of rebirth, representations of Queer intimacy, and moments of communal joy, grief and connectivity. The work embodies the connections between the shared reality of our Queer history - including the AIDS crisis of the 80s/90s- and the ongoing reality of wildfires throughout the world. These particular devastations are considered within Grass is Green in order to further understand what connects us to each other and the land we are a part of, as well as how to honor the continuous cycles of rebirth.

"In 2019, I visited a site in California that had been recently destroyed by wildfire," comments Chuck Wilt, UNA Productions Artistic Director and Choreographer. "Despite the many blackened trees, and obliterated structures, there was already new green growth coming through from beneath the charred trees. Witnessing the earth's amazing ability and wisdom to continue on, and restart (time and time again), is what inspired the early research of Grass is Green in 2019. The themes within the work have only become increasingly poignant over the last three years. Additionally, a root component of Grass is Green, and something that I don't see depicted enough of within dance, is representation of Queer intimacy. Drag as an element of UNA's work, represents a quintessential and integral component of the Queer community. Throughout the work's arc, Rose acts as a facilitator of change and bringer of life."

Wilt continues, "in 2018/2019, UNA was an Artist in Residence at 92NY. It was the first time as a company we felt like we had a home in NYC to get to invest in our creative process on a regular basis and cultivate our sense of community. It's an honor to return and be a part of the Harkness Mainstage series amongst incredible artists!"

Program Information

Choreographed by Chuck Wilt

in collaboration with the performers

Performed by Kira Fargas, Tushrik Fredericks, Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim, Rebecca Margolick, Hadassah Perry, Chuck Wilt

Drag queen & live cellist/pianist: Rose Nylons

Rehearsal Directors: Jennifer Payán and Rebecca Margolick

Music by Donna Summer, Sylvester, DJ Koze/Nils Frahm, Julia Wolfe/Matthew Welch, Rose Nylons, Michael Nyman

Costumes by Caitlin Taylor, Idel Dorleans and Rose Nylons

Lighting Co-Designed by Amith Chandrashaker / Abigail Hoke-Brady

For artist bios, please click here: https://www.92ny.org/event/grass-is-green

The Mainstage Series continues

YURIKO, A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

In Person - Thu, Oct 27, 7:30 pm, FREE

Yuriko Kikuchi, known as a dancer, choreographer and performing artist under the single name Yuriko, will be celebrated for the trailblazing path she created over her 102 years of life. As a natural dancer from birth, Yuriko began performing at the age of ten but gained wide recognition and prominence as the first Asian American dancer in a major company during her years with Martha Graham between 1944 to 1967. Yuriko headlined her first solo choreographic concert on the Kaufmann Concert Hall stage at the 92nd Street Y in 1946 where her company later returned to perform almost every year between 1964 and 1971. In originating the role of Eliza in Roger's and Hammerstein's The King and I she once again broke barriers not only as a performer on stage and in a major motion picture, but as director for a long-running revival of the musical. A program of historic footage, spoken tributes and performances from artists including members of the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrate this iconic artist.

SETH PARKER WOODS & RODERICK GEORGE

Difficult Grace

A World Premiere in Collaboration with 92NY Tisch Music

Seth Parker Woods, cello & Roderick George choreographer/dancer

In Person - Sat, Nov 19, 7:30 pm, from $25

Online - from 7:30 pm Sat, Nov 19 - 7:30 Tue, Nov 22, from $25

A breathtaking multimedia work centered on the Great Migration from the astonishing Seth Parker Woods in the triple role of cellist, narrator and movement artist. First performed in Seattle in 2020, Difficult Grace has now expanded to a collaboration with acclaimed choreographer-dancer Roderick George. This performance marks its world premiere. Difficult Grace features film, visual art, the poetry of Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randall, and music written for and with Woods by Freida Abtan, Monty Adkins, Fredrick Gifford, Michael Gordon, Nathalie Joachim, and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. This production also includes newly commissioned music by Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes, a.k.a. Blood Orange. An evocative, theatrical, genre-bending production reflecting on immigration, displacement and the marginalized, Difficult Grace is a riveting new work from two of today's most remarkable young artists.

Harkness Dance Center Artists in Residence

MUSIC FROM THE SOLE - LEONARDO SANDOVAL & GREGORY RICHARDSON

Partido (2021)

In Person - Thu, Dec 22, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online -from noon Fri, Dec 23 - noon Mon, Dec 26, from $20

Partido is an evening-length work of tap dance, body percussion, and live music, that explores the convergence of percussive dance with contemporary urban dance and music in the US and Brazil. Developed for Music From The Sole, and initially spurred by Leonardo Sandoval's experience as an Afro-Brazilian immigrant in the United States, the piece celebrates and highlights the deep connections between Afro-rooted culture in both countries, connecting tap with styles like samba and house dance through shared rhythms and footwork.

Music From the Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap's Afro-diasporic roots, particularly its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music, and its lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk). Led by Brazilian dancer/choreographer and 2022/23 Harkness Dance Center Artists in Residence Leonardo Sandoval (2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise) and composer Gregory Richardson, their work embraces tap's unique nature as a blend of sound and movement, incorporating wide-ranging influences like samba, passinho, Afro-Cuban, jazz, and house.

PETER CHU

In Person - Thu, Jan 19, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online - noon Fri, Jan 20 - noon Mon, Jan 23, from $20

Peter Chu, whose storied career as a performing artist, educator and choreographer has received accolades and honors both nationally and internationally, will be creating a brand-new work which will have its world premiere on our Kaufmann Concert Hall stage.

JOHNNIE CRUISE MERCER

Revival 2023: 'to those who have seed in the ground'

In Person - Thu, Feb 2, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online - noon Fri, Feb 3 - noon Mon, Feb 6, from $20

Choreographer, educator, and producer Johnnie Cruise Mercer brings together two generations of artists with the intention of calling upon (and embodying) collective inner will.

Inspired by William McDowell's 2016 album, Sounds of Revival, 'to those who have seed in the ground' propels itself conceptually from the weight of yesterday, guiding an ensemble of movement artists through a series of meta-physical practices rooted in black spiritual tradition, and movement history.

'to those who have seed in the ground' marks Johnnie Cruise Mercer's third year producing, choreographing, and directing TheREDprojectNYC's Revival, an annual event curated around communal breath, ephebism, and generational revitalization.

MAURYA KERR / tinypistol

black calls to dark calls to deep underneath

World Premiere

In Person - Thu, Mar 9, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online - noon Fri, Mar 10 - noon Mon, Mar 13, from $20

Maurya Kerr, Bay Area-based choreographer, poet, performer, educator, and the artistic director of tinypistol brings a world premiere to the 92nd Street Y. Much of Maurya's work-across the disciplines of movement, language, and film-is focused on black and brown people reclaiming their birthright to both wonderment and the quotidian.

FLOCK & ARTISTS

Somewhere Between

New York Premiere

In Person - Thu, Apr 20, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online - noon Fri, Apr 21 - noon Mon, Apr 24, from $20

FLOCK returns to perform again at 92NY after kicking off our inaugural Harkness Mainstage Series in September 2021 for the New York premiere of their brand-new touring show Somewhere Between featuring a cast of world-renowned dance artists.

Maleek Washington

In Person - Thu, Jun 8, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student

Online - noon Fri, Jun 9 - noon Mon, Jun 12, from $20

Maleek Washington, a 2021 New York Live Arts Fresh Track grantee, who was also nominated for a Bessie as an "Outstanding Breakout Choreographer" in the same year will be closing out our Mainstage Season by bringing his compelling creative voice to the 92nd Street Y, New York stage for the first time.