IMPRESSIONS: Monica Bill Barnes & Company in "Lunch Dances" at The New York Public Library

Choreographers: Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri

Writer: Robbie Saenz de Viteri

Performers: John Bennett, Clarence Brooks, Andy Chapman, Rachel Harris, Chelsea Enjer Hecht, Birgit Huppuch, Kim Ima, Madison Johnson, Indah Mariana, Luis Moreno, Mykel Marai Nairne

March 23, 2026, 11:30 am 

Tickets to Upcoming "Lunch Dances": https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2026/03/23/lunch-dances

"I've been walkin' these streets so long. Singin' the same old song. I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway." As Glen Campbell wails Rhinestone Cowboy, the twenty-five people honored to follow Lunch Dances take in the vulnerability of Birgit Huppuch, playing a researcher sitting alone at the end of a long table in The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. Two fingers skip and stumble across a map, treasuring its every line. Campbell's song couldn't be more fitting for this moment.  

Emotional gestures, released with the insistence of steam heat, infuse Monica Bill Barnes' dance. The hand pressing the head around the ear, the smile that is almost too wide, the flick of an arm —they all hint at inner turmoil—we imagine a lion wanting to roar out of every library mouse.  At the top of this hour, commissioned by NYPL, the audience encounters Barnes standing with her hands behind her back (like a soldier snapped to attention by her sergeant) along with Robbie Saenz de Viteri, who congenially narrates while pushing a rolling cart with a console of knobs and buttons. 

Robbie Saenz de Viteri and Monica Bill Barnes in Lunch Dances; Photo: Paula Lobo

Dressed in a white shirt rolled up to the elbow, black tie, black long pants, and sneakers, Barnes lifts her right arm high so that we can follow her as she delivers materials to “researchers” around the Library. From the get-go, the brisk classical music and narration, courtesy of NYPL wireless headphones, have the audience stepping lively to keep up.

What an excellent balance of spoken word, dance, history, architecture, and humanity! After an acclaimed sold-out run last year, the free, hourlong lunchtime show brings to life fictionalized patrons interacting with the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's research collections. The show ran from March 16th, continues through the 28th of this month and will resume twice daily, from April 13th through the 25th, at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm. Make your reservation now! 

"The NYPL is home to so many treasures, creating big discoveries or small personal insights. Lunch Dances captures this alchemy between the Library and those who walk through our doors. I want all visitors to experience the delights of the Library that are so wonderfully captured in this performance," said Brent Reidy, Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries at NYPL.

Monica Bill Barnes & Company in Lunch Dances; Photo: Paula Lobo

While she always stays in character as a library page, Barnes has the precision and intensity of a virtuoso.Every gesture lands on an invisible mark, with an inaudible hiss. In each room that the Lunch Dances visits, five pages dressed in the same uniform join Barnes to perform with the earthbound, quick moves of a boxer. Barnes started her company in 1997 doing relatable work with a subversive sense of humor,  Since 2013, MBB&CO has been co-led by Monica in partnership with Robbie Saenz de Viteri where the mission evolved to "bringing dance where it doesn't belong." Her Workout in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in the Bowling Green public fountain, brought her new prominence. 

The pacing and tone of Saenz de Viteri's narration are so right for the Lunch Dances, which draws its title from Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, written during lunch breaks from his job at the Museum of Modern Art. The comradely tone of Saenz de Viteri's narration is similar to that of O'Hara (1926-1966), who wrote with rhythmic clarity and brevity.

Besides the stop in the awe-inspiring Map Division, the smoking history of the Allen Room, 228E, delivered in the hallway outside the room was my second favorite moment. For those of us who grew up with smokers posing with their cigarettes, gazing through smoke, Barnes' minimalist dance is brought to a delightful height by Luis Moreno, an imposing actor with an indelible presence. 

Monica Bill Barnes & Company in Lunch Dances; Photo: Paula Lobo

Much to our surprise, we were invited to take off our headsets as we reached the Reading Room. John Bennett, aka Butterscotch, closed this perfect show by belting out the song "People Who Need People Are the Luckiest People in the World." All the researchers featured in the choreography joined Barnes and the five pages to dance. Woefully, we, the audience, were not invited to join in. Oh well, can't have everything, I suppose.

What a treat it was!