Martha Graham Dance Company: Baye and Asa

Works & Process presents Martha Graham Dance Company: Baye & Asa at the Guggenheim’s Peter B. Lewis Theater.

See highlights from Baye & Asa’s Cortege, a new work commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company. Drawing inspiration from Martha Graham's 1967 Cortege of Eagles, Baye & Asa focus on Charon, the ferryman who shepherds souls to the underworld. In Graham's work, the Trojan Empire is crumbling, and Charon is the conductor of its inevitable fall. Baye & Asa’s Cortege removes this central figure of mythological predestination, and instead places the burden of fate on the ensemble. Together, they generate the cyclical momentum of war.

Martha Graham Dance Company members will perform excerpts of this work, and Baye & Asa will participate in a moderated discussion with Graham Company Artistic Director Janet Eilber. This evening culminates a weeklong Works & Process LaunchPAD technical residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation. Cortege is set to premiere in April 2025.

Baya & Asa (choreographers) is a company creating movement art projects directed and choreographed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington and Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt. They grew up together in New York City, and that shared educational history is the mother of their work. Hip Hop and African dance languages are the foundation of their technique. The rhythms of these techniques inform the way they energetically confront contemporary dance and theater. They have presented live work at The Joyce Theater, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Pioneer Works, the 92NY, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, DanceHouse Vancouver, Blacklight Summit, and Battery Dance Festival, and were selected as one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" for 2022.  They have created works for the Martha Graham Dance Company, BODYTRAFFIC, and Alvin Ailey II. Their film work has won numerous awards and has been presented internationally.

Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased at https://www.worksandprocess.org/calendar/works-and-process-at-the-guggenheim-marthagraham-baye-asa.