ABOUT
Baryshnikov Arts Fellowship at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park grants space and resources to Baryshnikov Arts artists.
Inaugurated in 2023, the Fellowship takes place at KCP's idyllic 153-acre property in Tivoli, New York, providing 24/7 access to studio space for up to two weeks, roundtrip travel, lodging, and opportunities to engage with the Hudson Valley community.
2024 Fellows
The 2024 Baryshnikov Arts Fellows are Baye + Asa, Kyle Marshall, and John Kelly.
Baye + Asa
The work 4 | 2 | 3 focuses on the generational impacts of climate change using the “Riddle of the Sphinx” as an allegorical structure. The piece is divided into three sections for three generations of performers, examining the intergenerational cooperation necessary to acknowledge this moment of existential crisis. Just as the Riddle asks us to look at the cycle of one life, 4 | 2 | 3 gives us the structure to speak about the life cycle of an entire species. Reflecting on humanity’s industrial history, we build new worlds on foundations that are less oppressive, less extractive, and more sustainable.
Kyle Marshall
Kyle Marshall of Kyle Marshall Choreography is developing the Julius Eastman Trilogy, a trio of dances embodying the visionary music, full life and legacy of singular composer Julius Eastman (1940–1990). For the residency showing, an excerpt of one of the dances, Femenine, is set to a recording of Eastman’s minimalist composition “Femenine” (1974). With woodwinds, marimba, voice, vibraphone, piano, bass, and an ocean of bells, the pulsating, emotional journey of the score is a counterpoint to Eastman’s sometimes dark life. The dance seeks to celebrate the joys of queerness without ignoring the injustices and societal frustrations we face.
Photo by Grace Kathryn Landerfeld
John Kelly
John Kelly is a performance and visual artist. His character-driven dance theatre works stem from autobiographical, cultural, and political issues, the challenges faced by social outsiders, and the nature of creative genius. These works have been performed at MET Live Arts, The Kitchen, La MaMa, Lincoln Center, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, NY Live Arts, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, REDCAT, and London’s Tate Modern.
2023 Fellows
The inaugural 2023 Baryshnikov Arts Fellows are Jessica Hecht, Omar Román De Jesús, and Celia Rowlson-Hall.
Jessica HecHt
Actor Jessica Hecht is developing A Mother, a radical adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother. Focusing on the process of play-making as part of their subject matter, Hecht and company grapple with time, memory, racism, protest, and collective history as they create a new theatrical work.
Omar Román De Jesús
Omar Román De Jesús, Boca Tuya’s director and choreographer, is developing Everything will kill you so pick something fun, a multimedia performance inspired by dance and memory. Román De Jesús utilizes signature dreamscapes, rhythmic structures, and absurdist characters to explore how memories, versus our lived experience, are unbound by time.
Celia Rowlson-Hall
Celia Rowlson-Hall is a multidisciplinary artist who blends narrative storytelling, modern dance, and film—creating a genre all her own. Her most recent work, the film installation First Snow, was selected by Times Square Arts for their December 2022 Midnight Moment, the largest digital art installation in the world. Every night of December, First Snow took over 90 plus screens in Times Square, immersing the audience, through movement and dance, in a magical snowstorm. Baryshnikov Arts has since commissioned Celia to create a new evening-length dance piece to be presented during their 2023–24 season.
