Dancer, writer, and choreographer Emily Coates presents the world premiere of Tell Me Where It Comes From, a performance project commissioned by Works & Process, on Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 7 PM at Guggenheim New York in the Peter B. Lewis Theater, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased here.

Spurred by George Balanchine’s brief but pivotal 1933 touchdown in Hartford, Connecticut, Coates gathered artifacts of his lingering presence in archives throughout the northeast United States. Drawing on her background as a former member of New York City Ballet, Coates creates an unexpected portrait of his choreographic legacy, working in collaboration with director Ain Gordon, performer and co-creator Derek Lucci, violinist and composer Charles Burnham, pianist Melvin Chen, lighting designer Krista Smith, and costume designers Reid Bartelme & Harriet Jung to collage far-flung remnants: unanswered letters, lost ballets, old photographs, music exercises, early muses, and more. Filled with hidden movements and quieted voices, Tell Me Where It Comes Frommeditates on the spark that propels art into existence.

Coates received the School of American Ballet’s Mae L. Wein Award for Outstanding Promise and went on to perform internationally to critical acclaim with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp, and Yvonne Rainer. Career highlights range from three duets with Baryshnikov, in works by Erick Hawkins, Mark Morris, and Karole Armitage, to a featured role in Joan Jonas’s MOMA installation To Touch Sound (2024). Widely commissioned and critically praised, her choreographic projects transform the marginalia of archival findings, collective memory, literature, and science into new forms. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented by Danspace Project (NYT Critic’s Pick 2017, NYT Fall Dance to Watch 2018), Performa (NYT Best Dance 2019, with Rainer), Baryshnikov Arts Center (Martha Duffy Memorial Fellowship 2009), Works & Process at the Guggenheim (NYT Dance Performances to See/Fall 2025), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Quick Center for the Arts, The Hop, and Ballet Memphis, among others. She was a featured artist in the exhibition Hard Return: nine experiments for this moment, at the Neuberger Museum (2023). A fellow at Center for Ballet and the Arts (2016) and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (2019), she is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University, where she served as founding Director of Dance Studies (2006-2025). She co-authored Physics and Dance with physicist Sarah Demers (2019), and co-edited Remembering a Dance: Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019 with Yvonne Rainer (2023). emilycoates.art

For this project, she assembled a cross-disciplinary team of exceptional artists: Ain Gordon, a three-time Obie Award and Guggenheim Award–winning writer, actor, and director; Derek Lucci, actor, writer, director, and founder of Open Sky Inc., an award winning, innovative, skills-based acting program aimed at successful reintegration without recidivism in the New Hampshire state prison system; Charles Burnham, a leading figure in the American musical scene for more than five decades; Dr. Melvin Chen, professor in the practice of piano at the Yale School of Music and director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival; Krista Smith, lighting designer and interdisciplinary artist, graduate of the Yale School of Drama, and company member of KrymovLab NYC; and Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme, who design costumes and sets for dance productions around the world.

Continue the conversation at a post-performance reception in the rotunda.

Tell Me Where It Comes From is commissioned by Works & Process. Its development included a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at The Church in Sag Harbor, home to George Balanchine’s grave, followed by a Works & Process LaunchPAD residency at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, New York. Additional support was provided by the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Fund. The work was created in part during a residency at the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow. Additional support was provided by the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

Works & Process Lead Donors

Lead funding provided by Adam and Abigail Flatto, Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Caroline M. Sharp, The Evelyn Sharp Foundation, The SHS Foundation, and Eugene and Jean Stark.

Additional support provided by Jody and John Arnhold, Jeff and Susan Campbell, Cate Caruso, Stuart H. Coleman and Meryl Rosofsky, Paul Cronson, Duke Dang and Charles E. Rosen, Lucy and Philip Dobrin, Elizabeth Sharp Edens and Wes Edens, The Fanwood Foundation, Bart Friedman and Wendy Stein, Agnes Gund, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Barbara Ritchin, Denise and Andrew Saul, and Randall Sharp.

Works & Process is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About Works & Process

Championing performing artists and their creative process at each step from studio to stage, Works & Process produces fully funded residencies and presents events that go behind the scenes, blending artist discussion and performance highlights. Works & Process events transcend the proscenium, encouraging audiences to spectate and participate beyond the stage, and culminate in receptions in the Guggenheim rotunda to continue the conversation.

Works & Process produces over 25 creative residencies annually. Expanding from our bubble residency program created during the COVID-19 pandemic, Works & Process now has a network of over a dozen partners in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. In over 100 Works & Process residencies, supporting over 1,000 artists, incubated works have been recognized with awards and grants, and have toured nationally—and internationally with the U.S. State Department. These out-of-town residencies provide 24/7 studio access, on-site housing, access to health insurance enrollment, industry-leading artist fees, and a transportation stipend to facilitate uninterrupted creative process.

Beyond the Guggenheim, we also partner with organizations across New York, including 92NY and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. During the summer, we curate and present free outdoor dance programs with Manhattan West and City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage.

Works and Process, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Tax ID: 13-3592291

Stay connected: @worksandprocess

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