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Works & Process at the Guggenheim (LIVE): Masterz at Work Dance Family

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Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Works & Process at The Guggenheim presents a live performance of Masterz at Work Dance Family with Courtney ToPanga Washington at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on March 31, 2021 at 8pm ET. Tickets go on sale 72 hours prior to each capacity-reduced performance; more information is available here.

A legend within the ballroom community and founder of the Kiki House of Juicy Couture, leader of The House of Balenciaga, Black trans femme Creative Director of Masterz at Work Dance Family Courtney ToPanga Washington creates a new work fusing street dance, street jazz, ballroom, and hip-hop. Informed by her own experience being teased as a queer teenage personwho found refuge in dance, this new work conveys how her gender transition spurred transformative emotional, creative, and physical liberation. The dances she creates are a representation of resiliency, and through company outreach foster community and family in under-resourced areas of Brooklyn. This new commission will be the first time the company, traditionally self-funded, has received institutional support. Intended to uplift, inspire, and model positive behavior will feature Courtney Ashley, Lamell "Jay Parel" Clemons, Jai'Quin Coleman, DeAndre Cousley, Ulises "ChaCha" Estevez, Makeesha Hill, Rasheed "NewBorn" Lucas Jr., Dashaun "DayDay" Peals, Brian Starke, and Courtney ToPanga Washington with music by DJ Byrell The Great.

This Works & Process commission will be developed in a bubble residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.

The performance will be 30 minutes long, and the audience will be standing for the duration of the show. Viewing positions are from the museum spiral ramp. If you need an accommodation, please contact boxoffice@guggenheim.org prior to the performance.

The performing arts series Works & Process announces the return of live performance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as a part of New York state's "Safely Bringing Back the Arts" pilot program. Beginning on March 19, under the guidance of the Department of Health, two concurrent series of performances produced by Works & Process will take place in the Guggenheim's iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. These reduced-capacity events will be among the first indoor performances the state has permitted since it closed venues due to the pandemic a year ago, reaching a milestone in the recovery of the city's cultural sector. Works & Process bubble residencies and Works & Process reopening performances are made possible through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Stephen Kroll Reidy.

This group of new commissions by New York-based artists amplify underrepresented voices and performing arts cultures. They have been incubated inside two-week-long Works & Process bubble residencies in upstate New York, making it possible for artists to safely create and rehearse together. On the last day of each residency, the artists will travel together to the museum and present a thirty-minute live performance in the rotunda. Several of these Works & Process pieces will be presented in matinee performances at Restart Stages, a cultural and civic initiative to jump start the performing arts sector in New York City; part of the SNF-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative, a collaboration that reimagines and reactivates public space for a new era. More information is available here. Select Works & Process projects will also be featured as part of NY PopsUp, an expansive festival featuring hundreds of pop-up performances throughout New York City.

Between March 19 and April 19, Works & Process will present a succession of surprise daytime performances at the Guggenheim. These unannounced events will offer visitors a joyful, live, and safe experience. Performers from organizations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and more have been invited to participate. Select artists featured as part of Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions will also perform. 

With the return of live events, the Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions series will conclude. This initiative was launched in March 2020 and has provided $150,000 in financial support to artists during the most uncertain of times. A total of 85 WPA Virtual Commissions will have premiered, providing a platform and compensation for over three hundred artists.

 

About Works & Process Bubble Performances

Evening performances will take place at 8 pm at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Select projects will be featured in matinee performances at Restart Stages, made possible by Jody and John Arnhold, Arnhold Dance Innovation Fund and First Republic Bank. Restart Stages at Lincoln Center is made possible by Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center Agora Initiative. Major support provided by First Republic Bank.

Works & Process daytime performances will be presented under the umbrella of the NY PopsUp Festival on March 20, 30, and 31. NY PopsUp is committed to the safe re-opening of New York venues with the protocols that have been established by the New York State Department of Health (DOH). 

 

Rhapsody in Blue, a kaleidoscope of New York by Caleb Teicher & Company with Conrad Tao – March 20

The Missing Element with Chris Celiz and Anthony Rodriguez "Invertebrate" – March 30 

Masterz at Work Dance Family with Courtney ToPanga Washington – March 31 

The American Opera Company featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo – April 4

Trapped by Tatiana Desardouin, performed by Passion Fruit Dance Company – April 11

Dance Heginbotham – April 18

New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles, performed by Les Ballet Afrik – May 4

The Jazz Continuum with LaTasha Barnes – May 19 

Unveiling by Sonya Hashem Tayeh, with music by Moses Sumney – June 1

UnderScored by Ephrat Asherie Dance, in collaboration with New York City's club legends – June 2

Rose: You Are Who You Eat by John Jarboe of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret – June 20

 

Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Described by The New York Times as "an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process," for since 1984, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Traditionally, most performances took place in the Guggenheim's intimate Frank Lloyd Wright–designed 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020, Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created to financially support artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. To forge a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform during the pandemic, in summer 2020, Works & Process pioneered and produced a series of bubble residencies that will continue into 2021. Lead funding for the 2020–21 Works & Process season is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.