Emily Coates & Emmanuèle Phuon
WhAM
April 27 – May 7, 2027
Quick Center Residency
WhAM is a new duet by Emily Coates and Emmanuèle Phuon that will incorporate listening and translation structures drawn from Project CETI’s new Whale Acoustic Model (WhAM). The project builds on prior work with scientists and will result in an evening-length performance developed in dialogue with CETI and their cutting-edge research on interspecies communication.
This is early in the creative phase. The artists shared:
As dance artists, we’re inspired by the sights, sounds, and movements of the whales’ matriarchal communities—essentially, information not yet accounted for in the AI language model. Our performance, with live music by Thuthuka Sibisi, responds to the technology’s promises and gaps, the ethical questions around such deep listening, and the animal rights issues that CETI is on the vanguard of addressing.
Quick Center audiences will recognize each of these internationally acclaimed artists for their previous contributions to our Quick Center performance seasons including:
WE - Emily Coates & Emmanuèle Phuon
Tell Me Where it Comes From – Emily Coates
Broken Chord - Thuthuka Sibisi (composer)
Artist Biographies:
Emily Coates has performed internationally with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Twyla Tharp, and Yvonne Rainer, and developed her own choreography and writing at the intersection of art, science, and archives. Her work has been presented by the Baryshnikov Arts Center (Martha Duffy Fellowship), Quick Center for the Arts, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Danspace Project (NYT Critic’s Pick 2017, Fall Dance to Watch 2018), Performa, Kaatsbaan, and featured in Hard Return at Neuberger Museum, among others, with funding from NEA, NEFA, O’Donnell-Green, and Sloan Foundation, among others. Her recent Works & Process commission on early Balanchine archives premiered at the Guggenheim in 2025. A CBA fellow, she is a Professor in the Practice at Yale, where she created the dance curriculum. She co-authored Physics and Dance with particle physicist Sarah Demers (2019), and co-edited Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019 with Yvonne Rainer (2023).
Emmanuèle Phuon has performed internationally with the Elisa Monte Dance Company, Martha Clarke, White Oak Dance Project, Joaquim Schloemer, and Yvonne Rainer. Her work has been commissioned and presented at venues such as the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project, International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Spoleto Festival USA, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim, among others. Her piece "Khmeropedies III / Source: Primate," created with Amrita Performing Arts, received praise and support from HRH King Norodom Sihamoni. Phuon authored an issue of Dance Index (2022/23) on her work and contributed to Milestones in Dance in the USA (2022) and Nevertheless: A Choreographic Workbook with Yvonne Rainer (2025). She teaches at NYU Tisch, Montclair State University, and Yale University.
Thuthuka Sibisi (collaborator) is a multidisciplinary artist, performance maker and composer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sibisi’s practice critically interrogates the intersections of queer identity, colonial legacies and sonic resistance; creating spaces for radical reimagining through interdisciplinary performance, sound, and installation. A collaborator of William Kentridge, Gregory Maqoma, and Dada Masilo, he has toured Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas as a performer and creator. Sibisi’s recent publications include “Meandering in Postcolonial Echoes” in Esclavages & Post-esclavages (2024) and a forthcoming chapter Freedom as Erotic Practice in Queer (Im)possibilities in the Global South. Currently he is a visiting professor at Yale University.