Babatunji Johnson, dancer

Leading NYC cultural institution welcomes audiences to the Marshall Weinberg Classical Music Season

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents the The Living Earth Show and Post:ballet: Lyra, , co-presented by 92NY’s Tisch Music and Harkness Dance Center. Tickets start at $40 and are available at 92ny.org/event/the-living-earth-show-lyra.

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is reimagined in this provocative, hauntingly beautiful collaborative production from the experimental San Francisco-based guitar/percussion duo The Living Earth Show and contemporary dance company Post:ballet. thelivingearthshow.com.

Blending music by Samuel Adams, choreography by Vanessa Thiessen, film directed by Post:ballet Artistic Director Robin Dekkers, and cinematography by Benjamin Tarquin, Lyra explores themes of empathy, technology, and our relationship to the natural world in a stunning new realization of a timeless ancient story. The performance features the musicians live onstage with dance video projected, followed by a live solo by Babatunji Johnson to end the evening.

THE LIVING EARTH SHOW

Travis Andrews, guitars

Andy Meyerson, percussion

POST:BALLET

BABATUNJI JOHNSON, dancer

LYRA

Music by SAMUEL ADAMS

Choreography by VANESSA THIESSEN,

with significant contributions by the dance artists

Cinematography, Video Direction, and Editing by BENJAMIN TARQUIN

Cast

Atropos Emily Hansel

Orpheus Babatunji Johnson

Eurydice Moscelyne ParkeHarrison

Cerberus Mia J. Chong, Colleen Loverde, Anthony Pucci

Hades Cora Cliburn

Persephone Landes Dixon

Clotho Travis Andrews

Lachesis Andy Meyerson

Gods and Goddesses/

Underworld Beings Charmaine Butcher, Mia J. Chong, Caitlin Hicks, Colleen Loverde, Jenna Marie, Anthony Pucci, Christian Squires

Wedding Company

I. unison

II. ricochet

III. split

IV. multiply

V. rise

VI. fall

VII. unison

Interlude No. 1 Atropos

Field Orpheus, Eurydice, Atropos

Surface Down Orpheus, Eurydice

Interlude No. 2 Eurydice

Canopy Orpheus, Cerberus

Hades and Persephone Hades, Persophone

Ritornello Orpheus, Eurydice

Gymnopédie Hades, Persephone, Orpheus, Eurydice

River Company

Interlude No. 3 Hades, Orpheus, Eurydice

Surface Up Hades, Orpheus, Eurydice

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Deemed “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle), “transcendent” (Charleston City Paper), and one of the “22 for ‘22 performers to watch,” (The Washington Post), The Living Earth Show - guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson-represents the future of American contemporary and experimental chamber music.

The Living Earth Show exists to push the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition has often excluded. The organization uses the tools of experimental classical music to facilitate the creation of its collaborators’ most ambitious musical visions and create work that reflects and responds to our world.

Based in San Francisco, The Living Earth Show has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft compelling, immersive, California-centric productions.

Recent live highlights include productions at Rewire Festival in The Netherlands (Elemental View, a collaboration with Ellen Fullman), Transgress Fest (headlining first US festival foregrounding trans punk artists with COMMANDO, TLES’s queer and trans nü metal collective), Sutro Baths (Tremble Staves, a collaboration with the National Park Service), The Met Cloisters (Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman, a collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Spoleto Festival USA.

The Living Earth Show has released five recordings, several of which are available via Earthy Records, the organization’s in-house record label of innovative, virtuosic chamber music. The label’s inaugural year featured albums created with Danny Clay (Music for Hard Times) and Samuel Adams (Lyra), both released in collaboration with filmmakers and visual artists.

Committed to supporting the next generation of artistic thinkers, The Living Earth Show has been in residence at the University of Maryland (2021), the Music Department at Stanford University (2019), the University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies (2019, 2023), University of California, Davis (2022), and University of South Carolina (2018). For more information, visit thelivingearthshow.com.

Post:ballet is a contemporary dance company based in Berkeley, California founded by Artistic Director Robin Dekkers. Dedicated to creating interdisciplinary works that push artistic boundaries and challenge social norms, Dekkers’ collaborative approach to dancemaking results in works that are “decidedly daring and always beautifully performed” (SF/Arts Monthly). Integrating the company’s versatile dancers with composers, musicians, animators, architects, cinematographers, designers, and sculptors, Post:ballet has collaborated with artists including Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Lavender Country, The Living Earth Show, and Star Amerasu since its inception in 2009.

Now in its 15th season, Post:ballet has proven its ability to successfully innovate through an ever-changing landscape for arts organizations, using constraints as a catalyst for creativity.

During the pandemic, Post:ballet produced several films including: Playing Changes, co-presented with the San Francisco Symphony, featuring choreography set to seven solos for violinist Helen Kim, including three original commissions; La Folia, presented by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, with music by Danny Clay; A Natural History of Vacant Lots, presented by San Francisco Trolley Dances; Shaker Loops, presented by the Berkeley Symphony; Been Lovin’ You, featured at the SF Dance Film Festival and recently highlighted at the entrance of the San Francisco Airport’s International Terminal; and Waltz of the Snowflakes, a short film of contemporary choreography set to Tchaikovsky’s score from The Nutcracker and filmed in an abandoned section of the Alameda, California waterfront, which has been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube since its November 2020 premiere.

In 2019, Post:ballet became the official company of Berkeley Ballet Theater, where Dekkers serves as artistic director. Founded in 1981 with a mission to ensure all interested dancers can pursue ballet training regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status, or body type, Berkeley Ballet Theater provides rigorous training in a nurturing, inclusive, and forward-thinking environment. Combined with Post:ballet’s continued commitment to equitable hiring practices and intentional collaboration with diverse and exceptional artists, the company and school are in a unique position to meaningfully ask “what’s next” for ballet, training tomorrow’s dancers and bringing together some of today’s most groundbreaking artists.

In 2023, Post:ballet named company dancer and resident choreographer Moscelyne ParkeHarrison as the company’s first associate artistic director. ParkeHarrison has created works for film and the stage in collaboration with the Post:ballet artists, and is currently building her first evening-length immersive dance theater work for Post:ballet at The Midway in San Francisco.

Babatunji Johnson is a dance artist, choreographer, and creative innovator based in San Francisco. Though never formally trained as a child, Johnson was always moving his body to the beat. At the age of 15, he discovered the art of hip-hop. Following this epiphany of love, he grew up through his teens breaking and popping on street corners in Hilo, Hawai’i. After being “discovered” by a local dance instructor, he began his formal training in various styles of dance, including ballet. This would eventually lead him to LINE Ballet’s Training Program, and from there, into the company.

For over a decade he has worked with one of the greatest American choreographers, Alonzo King. As a freelance dancer, Johnson has worked with Post:ballet, Ishida Dance Company, SFDanceworks, tinypistol, and Ballare Carmel. He has performed works by choreographers and artists including Adji Cissoko, Yue Yin, Danielle Rowe, Brett Conway, Rich and Tone Talauega, David Harvey, Mike Tyus, and Vân-Ánh Võ. Additionally, his work for film includes features in Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs’ Blindspotting on Starz, as well as Misty Copeland’s short art film Flower.

Over the past eight years, Johnson has developed a unique movement language, blending his background in ballet, contemporary, breaking, and hip hop. He has choreographed for Berkeley Ballet Theater, Boston Dance Theater, Post:ballet, Trolley Dance, SFDanceworks, and ZiRu Dance, among other Bay Area companies. As a solo artist, Johnson has performed internationally, collaborating with visual, sound, and technical artists of countless genres. His work has been seen at Museum of Dance, Lion’s Jaw performance + dance festival, København Danser, and SFJazz in collaboration with Terri Lyne Carrington. In 2015, he was awarded a Princess Grace Award, as well as a Chris Hellman Award for his outstanding achievements and promise in the world of dance.

Tickets from $40
Buttenwieser Hall at The Arnhold Center

In-Person Tickets