Photo by Agustin Hernandez
“It was hard to tell whether the crush of people around me were crying or praying or exulting or all three at once … the show was like going to church” — GQ on Perfume Genius
“Peculiarly hypnotic … has the power of a cryptic ritual”— The Seattle Times on Wallich’s work
The Sun Still Burns Here is an evening-length dance and music work created by Seattle-based choreographer Kate Wallich, her company The YC, and musician/composer Mike Hadreas of the band Perfume Genius. Combining Hadreas’s musical textures and landscapes, Wallich’s choreographic narratives, and Amiya Brown’s production design, The Sun Still Burns Here unravels themes of deterioration, catharsis, and transcendence from the body. Wallich and Hadreas unite a team of musicians, dancers, and designers to create a stunning and emotionally complex performance that radically integrates indie rock with contemporary dance.
Note: Theatrical haze and strobe lighting will be used throughout the performance of The Sun Still Burns Here.
Preview the performance program.
About Kate Wallich
Kate Wallich is a Seattle-based choreographer, director, and educator, named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. She has left a significant mark in the Pacific Northwest with commissions and presentations from leading institutions including On the Boards, Seattle Theater Group, Velocity Dance Center, Seattle Art Museum, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Whim W’Him and Northwest Dance Project; nationally at The Joyce with RawDance, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Newfields/IMA; internationally at Springboard Danse and SPOTLIGHT: USA in Bulgaria. She has created four evening-length works and three large-scale site-specific works with her company The YC since 2010. In 2010 she founded an all-abilities, community-focused class called Dance Church™ which has 550+ attendees per week and is taught by professional dance artists in NYC, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, and LA, and has popped up in cities worldwide. Dance Church has partnered with local and national nonprofit organizations including Gibney, Mark Morris Dance Center, LA Dance Project, Newfields/IMA, BodyVox, Velocity, On the Boards, The Sweat Spot, and Design Week Portland, among others. In 2016 she founded Studio Kate Wallich, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to cultivating a community of artists and the public through dance-based, design-forward experiences. Through the support of the Studio, Kate founded YC2, a platform for emerging dance professionals, in 2016. Kate was a 2013 and 2015 Rauschenberg Residency Fellow and a 2018 Ucross Foundation Fellow, and has received awards and grants from 4Culture, Artist Trust, The Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation, MANA Contemporary, and Seattle Magazine. She has been a Visiting Artist at the National Choreographic Center at University of Akron, University of Washington, University of Oregon, and University of Utah, as well as Cornish College of the Arts and Beloit College.
About Perfume Genius
Perfume Genius is the nom de poster-wraith of American pop-star Mike Hadreas, whose 2014 breakout album Too Bright marked a musical and performative leap that sounds unlike anything before or since. With the songs on his wildly acclaimed, Blake Mills–produced, GRAMMY nominated 2017 album No Shape, he’s gone even further, merging church music, makeout music, R&B, art pop, krautrock, and queer soul into his take on stadium anthems. This is church music the same way Prince’s Black Album is — too dirty. And it is femme art pop the way Kate Bush’s The Dreaming is — too scary — its emotions arranged all along the slippery continuum from rage to irony to love. Perfume Genius has graced the stages of late night television shows (Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), prominent venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley, and Forest Hills Stadium in New York, among many others. They have been featured in publications including GQ, New York Times, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Vogue, and the cover of The FADER.
Production Credits
Co-directed by Kate Wallich and Mike Hadreas Performed by Kate Wallich, Mike Hadreas, Lavinia Vago, Thomas House, David Harvey, Andrew Bartee, and Alan Wyffels Choreographer Kate Wallich Composer Mike Hadreas Production Designer Amiya Brown Art Director Andrew J.S. Costumes cuniform
ICA admission is included with all ICA performance tickets. Note that timed tickets to enter Yayoi Kusama: LOVE IS CALLING are required and SOLD OUT during these performance dates. See more for information on ticketing.
Accessibility
The ICA is committed to making its events accessible to all visitors. See our Accessibility page for a list of regularly available resources, including assistive-listening devices, accessible seating, and large-print programs. Need more information or a different resource, such as ASL or captioning? Contact accessibility@icaboston.org with questions and requests. (Two weeks lead time recommended.)
Kate Wallich + The YC x Perfume Genius The Sun Still Burns Here, is commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and was commissioned and created, in part, with the support of The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Artist Residency Center, made possible by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
First Republic Bank is proud to sponsor the 2019–2020 ICA Live Performance Season.
Additional support is generously provided by Edward Berman and Kathleen McDonough and Robert Davoli and Eileen McDonagh.
Access for Boston’s Dance Community is supported by the Pratt-Hall Fund.
