The Sun Still Burns Here

The Perfume Project (working title) is an evening-length dance/new music work made in collaboration by Seattle based choreographer Kate Wallich and her company the YC and musician/composer Mike Hadreas of the band Perfume Genius. This collaboration arose from Hadreas and Wallich’s shared desire to challenge and expand the aesthetic boundaries of their work through artistic practice and performance and to ultimately to inspire empathetic experiences for audiences. Through the performers interaction with Hadreas’ aural textures and landscapes, Wallich’s choreographic narratives, and Amiya Brown’s production design, they unravel themes of deterioration, catharsis, and transcendence from the body. The project unites a team of two musicians, five dancers, and four designers to create a three-dimensional performance that radically integrates an indie glam rock performance with contemporary dance.

The combination of Mike Hadreas and Perfume Genius’ “glorious, inventive, shape-shifting music“ (The Guardian) with the exacting craft of Kate Wallich whose work will “undeniably lure you and immerse you somewhere far from the workaday world“ (The Seattle Times) will create a spiritual unraveling of romantic decay. Wallich and Hadreas are joined on stage by YC dancers Lavinia Vago (RUBBERBANDance, Saint Genet, Sidra Bell), Thomas House (Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton & Artists), David Harvey (Alonzo King Lines Ballet) and Andrew Bartee (Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet BC) as well as longtime Perfume Genius member Alan Wyffels. Longtime YC collaborators/stylist duo cuniform will also work on the project, with art direction from Andrew J.S.

In considering the broader design of the work, Hadreas and Wallich began research into the familiar precepts of proscenium theater presentation. They seek to expose and subvert theatrical conventions through the relationship between utopian/dystopian themes and realities/fantasies of space and time. With these considerations, Hadreas and Wallich are practicing a site-specific approach in the creative process. The goal is to fashion a malleable design and allow for the architecture of each venue to function as both an inspiration and an actor in the work. Hadreas and Wallich hope to bring this work to various types of venues—such as traditional proscenium stages, black box theaters, galleries or a musical festivals—and to allow the work to constantly evolve in each venue.

While remaining sensitive to where this project is presented, the design team is aspiring to effectively prepare audiences to receive the work. Through consistent art direction for marketing materials—including trailers and other videographic elements, programs, images, posters and physical artifacts—the team will create an identity for the work to help contextualize experience for audiences.

This project is a co-commission between Seattle Theater Group (STG) and The Joyce Theater. Residencies for this work are confirmed by MASS Moca, STG, and The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Artist Residency Center. The work is premiering at Seattle’s historic Moore Theatre October 4-5, 2019 and later at New York City’s Joyce Theater November 12-17, 2019. The project will tour to The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in December 2019 and the ICA in Boston in January of 2020.