MICHIYAYA

Co-Artistic Directors of MICHIYAYA, Anya and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery, are reimagining The Rite of Spring, with its original score by Igor Stravinsky, through a degendered and nonbinary lens. Drawing on the work’s legacy of ritual and sacrifice, MICHIYAYA excavates the story to ask new questions about its historical narrative and weave it into conversations with the body of work featured in the 59th Carnegie International. Who comprises the “we” that determines a sacrifice, and what is the story behind that sacrifice and the decision-making process? By reinterpreting the original narratives of The Rite of Spring Anya and Mitsuko reach toward a “we” that holds contradiction, embraces empathy, refuses fixed identities, and remains open to change: a world in transition.

MICHIYAYA is engaging in a week-long public creative residency throughout the galleries of the Carnegie International. These showings connect visitors to the creative process of dance-making in relationship to both legacy-rich works and contemporary art.

Please note that the showing will take place in multiple galleries. Audiences are invited to follow the dancers’ pathway through the museum. Portable stools will be provided.

About MICHIYAYA

MICHIYAYA is a queer-led dance company that pushes boundaries and centers the divine feminine by creating space for multidisciplinary performances and programming.

Artistic Directors Anya and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery founded MICHIYAYA Dance in 2015 as a way to combine their voices as artists: Anya, a Black queer choreographer and dance artist from Brooklyn, and Mitsuko, a white and Japanese queer visual and performance artist from Manhattan. Together, they create multidisciplinary works that often recount or reveal contemporary engagements with queerness, resistance to systems of oppression and power, cultural constraints on the body and interpersonal relationships, and other revelatory themes.

MICHIYAYA is an evolving dance company based in Pittsburgh and New York City. Its performances have been presented nationally at venues and institutions such as Yale University, Brooklyn Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, Gibney, and the Theater at the 14th Street Y, among others. The company’s ensemble of femme voices has been featured in Artforum, i-D, VICE, THINX, Mask Magazine, and more. Anya and Mitsuko’s vision has been supported by Microsoft, CVS Health, Duolingo, New York State Council on the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opportunity Fund, Heinz Endowments, and others.