Carnival of the Animals

Crossroad Series

CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS

April 6 | 8 p.m.

WORLD PREMIERE

A SOZO Production

Conceived and written by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper

Performed by 
Wendy Whelan, dance
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, spoken word 

Michael Jinsoo Lim, violin
Christine Lee, cello
Christina Siemens, piano
Laure Struber, piano

Composer: Sugar Vendil
Lighting Designer: John E.D. Bass
Costume Designer: Elias Gurrola
Dramaturg: Michael John Garcés
Associate Director, Creative Producer: Chisa Yamaguchi
Choreographic Assistant: Tim Stickney
Music Consultant: Inon Barnatan
Producer: Ichun Yeh
Executive Producer: Rika Iino 

Developed and produced by SOZO

There will be no intermission.

Commissioned by Meany Center for the Performing Arts, and co-commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society, Lincoln Center, Chicago Harris Theater, Stanford University, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Wharton Center for Performing Arts, with funding from the Harkness Foundation for Dance and The MAP Fund supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. The poetry by Marc Bamuthi Joseph for Carnival of the Animals, in part, was originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Art.

About the Artist

An evening length interdisciplinary work of dance, spoken word and music, Carnival of the Animals is an intentional response to the January 6 insurrection, navigating the reality of the political jungle by embodying shifting societal values and our relationship to democracy. Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper and anchored in the words of poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the transcendent movement of legendary dancer Wendy Whelan, Carnival of the Animals re-frames Camille Saint-Saëns’ classic work as an intricate, interwoven series of contemplations, rooted in the artists’ distinct ability to capture the pulse of our culture.

A reimagining of Saint-Saëns’ original animals and creation of new animals in the political ecosystem 100 years after the publication of the original Carnival of the Animals, this work locates the classical in the present context. Each animal is tethered between order and disorder across a landscape of natural and socio-political arrangement. Harper utilizes Joseph’s writing of these new animals, including free birds, goat and elephant, to create physical poetry, giving life and breadth to the dynamic visions for hope, examples of resiliency as well as the polarizing experiences of race and gender, and different takes on political people and moments in our recent history. 

Weaving Harper’s choreography and Joseph’s text is a dynamic sound world created by composer Sugar Vendil, using a blend of original music, sound design and arrangements of Saint-Saëns’ composition. Harper and Joseph have also collaborated with dramaturg Michael John Garcés to construct a narrative arc, a departure from a concert setting comprising abstract vignettes, to a story that traverses the world of the poet walking through the Capitol Rotunda on January 6th, and the world of the animals in the political jungle. Developed by the renowned producing house SOZO, and led by a diverse assembly of artists, Carnival aims to “hack” the classical, choreographically, dramaturgically, and musically, to probe the questions: What happens after democracy? What is a new future we must collectively imagine? 

Wendy Whelan (Performer) is widely considered one of the world’s leading dancers. She spent 30 years at New York City Ballet, performing virtually all the major Balanchine roles, working closely with Jerome Robbins on many of his ballets, and appearing internationally as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet and the Kirov Ballet among others. Whelan has been nominated for an Olivier Award and a Critics Circle Award, and has received the Jerome Robbins Award, a Bessie for Sustained Achievement in Performance, the Dance Magazine Award, and a Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa, from Bellarmine University. She has performed on four continents and has worked with countless other dance legends including Christopher Wheeldon, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Jorma Elo, Shen Wei and Wayne MacGregor. A documentary, Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan, won the Chita Rivera Award for Best Dance Documentary, and speaks to her commitment to nullifying the stigma of aging and to focus instead on empowering women. The film is available on Netflix.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Writer, Performer) is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In the spring of 2022, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Bamuthi is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD. He has lectured in 25 different countries and his TED talk “You Have the Rite” has been viewed more than five million times. Bamuthi has most recently completed commissions for Yale University, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. His new opera “Watch Night” with music by Tamar-kali and direction by Bill T. Jones premiered at PAC NYC in 2023, and his collaboration with NYC Ballet Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan “Carnival of the Animals” will tour in 2024 and 2025. An emergent onscreen talent, he is among the featured performers in HBO’s screen adaptation of “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates. He currently serves as the Vice President of Social Impact and Artistic Director of Cultural Strategy at The Kennedy Center. A proud alumnus of Morehouse College, Bamuthi received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts in the spring of 2022 and was the recipient of a second Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College in the spring of 2023. Bamuthi is represented by SOZO.

Francesca Harper (Choreographer, Director) has choreographed works for both of the Ailey professional companies, Dance Theater of Harlem, Hubbard Street II and La Bale Da Cidade, among others. She has also choreographed works commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and her own company, The Francesca Harper Project. Ms. Harper has been a principal dancer with Frankfurt Ballet and a featured performer in Broadway shows. Sought after for her expertise and experience as a consultant for major film and stage productions, Ms. Harper is currently engaged as Executive Producer with Sony Pictures on a series in development. Francesca is the newly appointed artistic director of Ailey II.

Born into a multicultural family, Chisa Yamaguchi (Associate Director, Creative Producer) simultaneously celebrates her passion for tradition and innovation. Her desire to discover, collaborate and deepen her connection with people, place and planet has taken her to six continents, embarking on community service projects, undertaking family pilgrimages and gracing historic stages and theaters as a professional dancer for over a decade. Driven by intuitive nurturing and a zealous need to contribute joy to the world, she avidly advocates for interdisciplinary art and collaborative practices as means to dissolve perceived barriers to open emotional and physical pathways to truth, justice and love. Fervently on a mission to align her personal power with her professional values, Chisa brings her caring presence, grounded discipline and deep listening to everything she undertakes and creates. She most recently celebrated her stage directorial debut with Lincoln Center’s 2021 Restart Stages Series and continues her role as creative producer on several location-aware app experiences across the U.S. in partnership with Sozo artist The Holladay Brothers. Chisa also closely collaborates with GRAMMY-winning music and media artists Alphabet Rockers as a creative producer and strategic partner centering impact and community.

Rika Iino (Executive Producer), founder of contemporary arts agency and incubator SOZO, embodies two decades of purpose-driven work at the intersection of social impact, innovation and the arts. As a creative producer and manager, her dedication to artists as change agents has shaped global projects. Deeply engaged in independent artist advocacy and leadership development, Rika serves as a coach, mentor and speaker at institutions like Stanford, Yale and UC Berkeley. Co-creator of the systemic allyship program HEALING FORWARD and co-chair of Building Ethical and Equitable Partnership, a national initiative on equitable contracting in the arts, Rika made history in 2021 as the first woman of color to receive the Patrick Hayes Award for transformative leadership from the International Society for the Performing Arts. In 2023 she earned the Mentoring Award from Western Arts Alliance and the CALI Catalyst Award from the Center for Cultural Innovation, acknowledging her extraordinary efforts in realizing greater inclusion and equity in the cultural sector. She serves on the board of Association for the Performing Arts Professionals. 

Sugar Vendil (Composer) is a composer, pianist and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn, NY. A late bloomer, she began making her own work in her mid-30s, after over a decade of primarily performing as a pianist with her chamber ensemble The Nouveau Classical Project (2008-2021) and started dancing in 2020. Her compositions span acoustic and electronic music, and her interdisciplinary practice integrates sound and movement. Vendil’s works germinate from a kinesthetic and improvisatory approach. Vendil was awarded a 2022 NPN Creation Fund grant and 2021 MAP Fund grant to support “Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia,” a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood, co-commissioned by Living Arts Tulsa, High Concept Labs and National Sawdust. Commissions include “Simple Tasks 2” on Jennifer Koh’s Grammy-award winning album Alone Together, a Chamber Music America commission, and Homebaked 2019 for “Unsacred Geometry,” an ACF | Create commission, and a solo piano work for Han Chen’s 2023 Ligeti Etudes-inspired project. She recently scored a short film by Jih-E Peng for Amanda Phingbodipakkiya’s May We Know Our Own Strength and is dancing in choreographer Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s “Being Future Being.” Residencies include BRIC, Crosstown Arts, High Concept Labs, Mabou Mines, Marble House Project, National Sawdust (Summer Labs), Avaloch Farm, Arts Letters & Numbers and Yaddo. Her album, May We Know Our Own Strength, which includes the soundtrack for the Peng/Phingbodhipakkiya film and other acoustic and electronic works, is out on Gold Bolus Recordings.

Michael John Garcés (Dramaturg) is the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, a community-engaged ensemble in Los Angeles where he recently directed Urban Rez by Larissa FastHorse. Other productions at Cornerstone include California: The Tempest by Alison Carey, Plumas Negras by Juliette Carillo and Café Vida by Lisa Loomer. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., where his directing credits include Lights Rise on Grace by Chad Bekim and The Convert by Danai Gurira. Other recent productions include The Box by Sarah Shourd at Z Space and District Merchants at The Folger Theatre. Other credits include, BAM, The Atlantic, The Cherry Lane, INTAR and Repertorio Español in New York; and, regionally, South Coast Repertory, A Contemporary Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Huntington Theatre and The Children’s Theatre. Garcés is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Director Award, the Princess Grace Statue Award, a TCG New Generations Grant, the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors Grant, a Van Lier Directing Fellowship and a Drama League Director’s Residency. He serves as vice president of the executive board of SDC, the theatrical union for stage directors and choreographers.

John E.D. Bass (Lighting Designer) has been lighting the performing arts and architecture in Los Angeles and around the world for over three decades. His last project with Sozo was Love Heals All Wounds with Jon Boogz and Lil Buck. John has designed for and toured with L.A. dance companies Diavolo, Invertigo and Not Man Apart. Design highlights include Paradise Lost (Stage Raw Award), and Diavolo’s Fearful Symmetries & Foreign Bodies with the L.A. Philharmonic Hollywood Bowl. Architectural credits include design team for the Eastern Columbia building in downtown L.A. and Spring, a Claes Oldenburg sculpture in Seoul, Korea. Past tour design highlights include Lilly Singh AT2UI and as Tom Ruzika’s associate on Peter Pan & Camelot. Current tours design credits include Diavolo Architecture in Motion, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood for Fred Rogers Co. and Foolers for Pen and Teller. With TheatreDNA John consults architects like Frank Gehry on lighting performance spaces. He is a proud graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television.

Elias Gurrola (Costume Designer) was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where he gained an early interest in the arts. Being the son of a farmer, Elias spent much of his time in open agricultural fields where he was often influenced by nature. Studies at Central St. Martins in London and Parsons New York School for Design exposed him to many opportunities and amazing experiences. In spring 2013, he created a line of custom garments for Henri Bendel’s national campaign featuring that season’s accessory collection. That summer, he went to Beijing to compete in Izzue X Tsinghua’s First Annual Fashion Design Award. In fall 2013, he won the “Technology Award” from Louis Vuitton for his team’s dance costumes in a performance during New York Fashion Week. After graduating from Parsons in 2014, Elias was asked to show his thesis collection at Pacific Fashion Week in Vladivostok, Russia, where he was interviewed and featured in Russian publications. In 2017 he created costumes for Francesca Harper’s piece “System” which was performed by The Dance Theatre of Harlem nationwide. He has worked in the fashion industry designing for several brands including Anna Sui, Jones New York and Calvin Klein. He is currently working on a line of intimate apparel for men in Philadelphia. 

Tim Stickney (Choreographic Assistant) began his dance training at the age of 3 and furthered his training at The Gold School in Massachusetts. He continued his education at the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A Program, where he earned his B.F.A in 2014. Tim supplemented his education with summers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and The Equus Project in Sweden. In 2012, he became a member of the Francesca Harper Project and in 2013 participated in visual artist Nick Cave’s HEARD NY Installation at Grand Central Station. Tim continues to work with both Francesca Harper and Nick Cave, most recently in 2018 for Cave’s Bessie-Award winning production of The Let Go at the Park Avenue Armory. He has performed the works of choreographers Alvin Ailey, Dwight Rhoden, Ronald K. Brown, Bob Fosse and Alejandro Cerrudo, to name a few. He has taught a variety of master classes for professional and pre-professional programs across the U.S. and Canada, including Washington University of St. Louis, Drexel University and Appalachian State University, among others. Tim was a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet from 2014 to 2022 and continues on as a rehearsal assistant with the company. He is also currently a project manager and artist with FHP Collective based in NYC, with notable performances at the Guggenheim and Lincoln Center in 2023.

About SOZO

Founded by first generation immigrant Rika Iino and led by BIPOC women, SOZO is a contemporary arts agency and incubator working at the intersection of social impact, innovation and the arts, with a global portfolio of projects spanning live and digital artistic projects, artist coaching and allyship training for organizations. SOZO’s dynamic suite of offerings as creative producers and cultural strategists aims to elevate the role of artists as leaders in society and drive systemic change. Visit www.sozomedia.com. 

Creative Process Conversation with Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Marc Bamuthi Joseph talks with arts leader Vivian Phillips about Carnival of the Animals

To watch this video and explore the collection of artists discussing their experience with the creative process, visit: meanycenter.org/engage/ creative-process-videos

April/May 2024

April/May 2024 Events at Meany Center

Encore+Meany Center for the Performing Arts