DANCE OUT EAST: Works & Process at the Guggenheim in partnership with The Church in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and The Watermill Center

from Emily MT

Kick off the New Year with dance and be the first to see three new performances commissioned by Works & Process on Long Island’s East End at The Church in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and The Watermill Center. The inaugural Dance Out East culminates week-long creative residencies, provides unique insight into the process and preparation of new choreographed works that will sequence into the Works & Process Underground Uptown Dance Festival at the Guggenheim Museum.
Event Tickets $25/$20 members
Visit: www.danceouteast.org

Dance Out East: The Scattering by Emily Coates
The Church in Sag Harbor with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Thursday, January 9, 6 pm
Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates’s new performance project sources George Balanchine's brief history beyond the metropolis to reflect on how the body and spirit of a choreographer scatters, living on in unexpected places, starting with his arrival in America in 1933. Coates draws upon on her background as a former member of New York City Ballet, and working with Ain Gordon (direction and dramaturgy), Derek Lucci (performer), Charles Burnham (musician-composer), and Melvin Chen (pianist), she and her collaborators collage misplaced and overlooked archival traces and transmissions of Balanchine and related artists into a new whole.

The poignancy of Coates’ residency at The Church responds to the art center’s own embrace of Balanchine’s history. Upon the windows of the building is a likeness of the famed choreographer, featured among a series of portraits known as ‘The Saints of Sag Harbor’ – replacing the stained-glass windows of churches with a series of etchings by artist and The Church co-founder Eric Fischl. These portraits pay homage to icons from Sag Harbor’s vast history of artists and makers who have inspired people the world over -- including Balanchine, whose grave is located in the storied village.

The Scattering is commissioned by Works & Process. This iterative presentation culminates a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church (2025) in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave. The project will continue to be supported with a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York where Jacques d’Amboise lived for seven decades. Additional developmental support is provided by Jacob’s Pillow, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund.

Dance Out East: Music From The Sole’s House Is Open, Going Dark (working title)
Guild Hall of East Hampton with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Friday, January 10, 7 pm
Blurring the line between concert, dance, and music performance, Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap’s roots in the African diaspora. Co-founders composer and bassist Gregory Richardson and Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and composer, draw from Afro-Brazilian, jazz, soul, house, rock, and Afro-Cuban styles. After multiple residencies through the Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artists-in-Residence program, and opening the newly renovation Hillarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater at Guild Hall this past summer, see a preview of their newest work, House Is Open, Going Dark* culminating the company’s technical residency at Guild Hall.

Co-Commissioned by Works & Process, Music From The Sole’s new work has been developed in a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (2024) and Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence (2023 and 2025). This new work is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Works & Process, the Joyce Theater Foundation, The Yard, Guild Hall, Dance Place, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and NPN. More information:
npnweb.org. Additional support was provided by the Harkness Dance Foundation, a 2023 Alan M. Kriegsman Creative Residency at Dance Place, and a 2024 Pillow Lab.
 
Learn More: Music From The Sole’s 2023 Guild Hall William P Rayner Artist-in-Residence

Dance Out East: Djapo by Marie Basse Wiles and Omari Wiles
The Watermill Center with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Saturday, January 11, 2 pm 
West African dance cultural icon Marie Basse-Wiles and her son, Ballroom Icon Omari Wiles (CATS: The Jellicle Ball) co-create Djapo bringing together dancers from the Maimouna Keita School of African Dance (MKSAD), founded by Basse-Wiles, and Les Ballet Afrik, founded by Wiles. For 32 years MKSAD has brought together the African diaspora in an annual conference and Basse-Wiles has trained generations of renown artists whose impact continues to resonate the world over, including tours to Senegal, Mali, Gambia, and Guinea. Her son Omari Wiles has followed in her footsteps while walking to the beat of his own drum, creating AfrikFusion informed by Afro Club Culture, Vogue, and West African dance. See excerpts from this new work that is the continuation of a rich dance history.

Djapo is commissioned by Works & Process and has received Works & Process LaunchPAD residency support at Bethany Arts Community (2024) and The Watermill Center (2025). Djapo is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

DANCE OUT EAST
Dance Out East celebrates dance on the East End of Long Island, builds partnerships to support artists and their creative process, and illuminates for the public how works are created. The inaugural 2025 Dance Out East is a collaboration with Works & Process in partnership with The Church in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and The Watermill Center.

WORKS & PROCESS
A non-profit performing arts organization without walls, Works & Process champions performing artists and their creative process each step from studio to stage. Works & Process platforms artists from the world’s largest organizations and amplifies underrecognized performing arts cultures by providing rare, longitudinal, and fully-funded creative residencies, and commissioning support. Works & Process presents at the Guggenheim Museum, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Each summer Works & Process curates and presents free dance programs with Manhattan West and City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage and NYC Parks. Works & Process LaunchPAD “Process as Destination” provides artists multi-week residencies with 24/7 studio availability, on-site housing, health insurance enrollment access, industry-leading fees, and transportation to residency partners spanning Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.

Stay connected: @worksandprocess
worksandprocess.org

THE CHURCH
The Church was established in 2019 by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Housed in a deconsecrated 19th-century church, its doors were opened in April 2021. Our mission is to foster creativity and to honor the living history of Sag Harbor as a maker village. The East End represents an exceptional artistic legacy, spanning the practices of indigenous art of several centuries ago, Abstract Expressionists of the mid-20th Century, and the many celebrated writers, makers, musicians, and visual artists of the recent past and current moment. Core programming includes visual art exhibitions, concerts and events, educational programming, workshops, lectures, and an artist’s residency.

Stay connected: @thechurchsagharbor
thechurchsagharbor.org

GUILD HALL OF EAST HAMPTON
Guild Hall is the cultural heart of the East End: a museum, performing arts, and education center, founded in 1931. We invite everyone to experience the endless possibilities of the arts: to open minds to what art can be; inspire creativity and conversation; and have fun. 

Guild Hall presents more than 200 programs and hosts 60,000 visitors each year. The Museum holds six to eight exhibitions, ranging from the historical to the contemporary, and focuses on artists who have an affiliation with the Hamptons. The Theater produces more than 100 programs―including plays, concerts, dance, screenings, simulcasts, and literary readings―from the classics to new works. In addition to these endeavors, Guild Hall supports the next generation of artists with in-school and on-site Learning + New Works programs.
Stay connected: @guild_hall
guildhall.org

THE WATERMILL CENTER
Founded in 1992 by avant-garde visionary Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities situated on ten acres of Shinnecock ancestral territory on Long Island’s East End. With an emphasis on creativity and collaboration, Watermill offers year-round artist residencies and education programs, providing a global community with the time, space, and freedom to create and inspire. Watermill’s rural campus combines multifunctional studios with ten acres of manicured grounds and gardens, housing a carefully curated art collection, expansive research library, and archives illustrating the life and work of Artistic Director, Robert Wilson. Watermill’s facilities enable Artists-in-Residence to integrate resources from the humanities and research from the sciences into contemporary artistic practice. Through year-round public programs, Watermill demystifies the artistic process by facilitating unique insight into the creative process of a rotating roster of national and international artists.

Stay connected: @watermillcenter
watermillcenter.org (from )

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