Spurred by George Balanchine’s brief yet pivotal 1933 touchdown in Hartford, Connecticut, dancer, writer, and choreographer Emily Coates gathered artifacts of his lingering presence in archives throughout the region. Drawing on her background as a former member of New York City Ballet, and working in collaboration with Ain Gordon (director), Derek Lucci (performer), Charles Burnham (violinist, composer), Melvin Chen (pianist), and Krista Smith (lighting design), Coates and her team create an alternative portrait of a choreographic legacy by collaging far-flung remains: unanswered letters, lost ballets, old photographs, early muses, and more. Filled with hidden movements and quieted voices, Tell Me Where It Comes From meditates on the spark that propels art into existence.
Emily Coates’s new work will premiere at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in Fall 2025. The work is commissioned by Works & Process. The iterative development has included a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church (2025) in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave, followed by a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York. Additional developmental support is provided by the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund. The new work was created in part during a residency at the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow. With additional support from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.
In this intimate performance experience, the audience will be seated on stage with the artists.
Emily Coates (dancer, writer, choreographer) has performed internationally to critical acclaim with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp, and Yvonne Rainer. A recipient of the School of American Ballet’s Mae L. Wein Award, her career highlights include three duets with Baryshnikov, in works by Erick Hawkins, Mark Morris, and Karole Armitage. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented by Danspace Project (NYT Critic’s Pick 2017, NYT Fall Dance to Watch 2018), Performa (NYT Best Dance 2019, with Rainer), Baryshnikov Arts Center, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, and Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth, among others. A fellow at Center for Ballet and the Arts and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in 2023 she was a featured artist in the exhibition Hard Return at the Neuberger Museum. She is Professor in the Practice and the founding Director of Dance Studies at Yale University (2006-2025). She co-authored Physics and Dance with physicist Sarah Demers (2019), and co-edited Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019 with Yvonne Rainer (2023).
Friday | 7:30 p.m.
September 26, 2025
Thursday and Friday | 7:30 p.m.
October 9-10, 2025