Ticket purchase to this Underground Uptown Dance Festival performance includes admission to the Rotunda Dance Party at 8:30 pm with LayeRhythm.

Discover two under-construction Works & Process commissions that explore George Balanchine and the intergenerational connections between West African and Afro-club culture. See excerpts from Emily Coates’s The Scattering (working title) and Djapo, by Marie Basse-Wiles and Omari Wiles. Then, take part in participatory play-based improv, led by LayeRhythm, that connects the audience with emcees, live musicians, and street and club dancers in the rotunda.

Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates returns to Works & Process with her new performance project The Scattering (working title). The work sources Balanchine’s brief history in New England to reflect on how the body and spirit of a choreographer scatters, living on in unexpected places. Drawing on her background as a former member of New York City Ballet—and working with Ain Gordon (direction and dramaturgy), Derek Lucci (performer), Charles Burnham (musician-composer), and Melvin Chen (pianist) —Coates collages the misplaced and overlooked archival traces and transmissions of Balanchine and related artists into a new whole. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Public Engagement and Programs Manager Adam Lenz moderates the discussion.

West African dance cultural icon Marie Basse-Wiles and her son, ballroom icon Omari Wiles, co-create Djapo. The work joins dancers from the Maimouna Keita School of African Dance (MKSAD), founded by Basse-Wiles, and Les Ballet Afrik, founded by Wiles. For thirty-two years MKSAD has brought together dancers from across the African diaspora in an annual conference. Basse-Wiles has trained scores of renowned artists whose impact resonates internationally, including through tours to Senegal, Mali, Gambia, and Guinea. Wiles has followed in his mother’s footsteps while walking to the beat of his own drum. He created AfrikFusion, informed by Afro-club culture, vogue, and West African dance. See excerpts from this new work, which is the continuation of a rich dance history.

Embodying the continuum of concert and social dance in the rotunda, LayeRhythm, led by Mai Lê Hô, interweaves a singular mix of freestyle dance, live music, and audience interaction to celebrate the vibrancy of street and club dance cultures. The evening will feature improvisations by musicians, dancers, and emcees, captivating the young and old, from theater- to clubgoers.

The Scattering (working title) is commissioned by Works & Process. This iterative presentation culminates a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church (2025) in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave. The project will continue to be supported with a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York where Jacques d’Amboise lived for seven decades. Additional developmental support is provided by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund. The Scattering was created in part during a residency at Jacob’s Pillow’s Pillow Lab.

Djapo is commissioned by Works & Process and has received Works & Process LaunchPAD residency support at Bethany Arts Community (2024) and Watermill Center (2025), and a music commission grant from The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

LayeRhythm has received Works & Process LaunchPAD residency support at The Church, Sag Harbor (2023), the Catskill Mountain Foundation (2024), and ArtYard (2025).

Left: Emily Coates and Derek Lucci. Photo: Courtesy the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; right: Marie Basse Wiles. Photo: John Dodge