With Violets in Her Lap
Company:
Julian Donahue
With Violets in Her Lap, a dance requiem for a lost generation returns to Brooklyn!
Choreographer Julian Donahue revisits his acclaimed solo work blending Mozart and disco icon Sylvester in a powerful meditation on queer loss, lineage, and survival
Following a sold-out premiere in 2025, choreographer and performer Julian Donahue brings his critically noted solo work With Violets in Her Lap to the Center for Performance Research for two performances only, May 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Set to Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor alongside music by queer disco legend Sylvester, the 90-minute performance is a physically rigorous and emotionally charged meditation on the generation of queer lives lost to the AIDS crisis—and the enduring search for connection to cultural ancestors. Drawing on ballet, Baroque, and contemporary movement, Donahue’s work bridges past and present through a deeply personal exploration of memory, absence, and resilience.
“With Violets in Her Lap is certainly a powerful lament for the LGBTQ people we have lost in the 1980s–90s, but it is also about something beyond,” wrote Brendan McCall of Thinking Dance. “Through rigor and pleasure, from high art to pop, Donahue offers us a balm for whatever ails us… a reminder to dance—to dance, baby, and never ever stop.”
“As a Gen Z queer artist, I feel the absence of a generation I never got to know,” says Donahue. “This work is my attempt to reach across that gap—to search for lineage, to honor what was lost, and to recognize that the crisis is not over. It lives on in the ongoing fight for care, visibility, and survival.”
The evening features choreography and performance by Donahue, with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Sylvester; set design by Rubeen Salem; and costume design by Reid Bartelme.
Photo by Matthew Morrocco
