The Scattering
Work-in-Progress showing

The Quick Center for the Arts is dedicated to serving as a creative incubator – providing space for artists around the world to focus on the creation of new work, while simultaneously connecting those artists with our community. We are thrilled to welcome back dancer, choreographer, and writer Emily Coates as Quick Center Artist in Residence from March 7-13, 2025 as she continues her research and creation of The Scattering.

Emily shares, “My newest performance project draws on George 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 my background as a former member of New York City Ballet, my collaborators and I are collaging traces of Balanchine and related artists, discovered in archives. Source materials come from special collections (Wadsworth Atheneum, Houghton Library, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Jacob’s Pillow Archives), as well as the bodies of dancers who danced with him. Amplifying the quieted voices and neglected histories that lie on the outer orbit of a legacy, the project will result in an evening-length dance-theater piece for a multigenerational cast of performers and musicians.”

Coates' collaborators include theatre-maker Derek Lucci, Ain Gordon as dramaturg, and musicians Charles Burnham (violin) and Melvin Chen (piano).

Join us Wednesday, March 12 at 5:30 p.m. for a work-in-progress showing that offers insight to the work and the artist’s creative process. This event is free. RSVP required.