Join us on Saturday, April 5, at 5 pm, for What If We’re Beautiful, a celebration of queer joy and community through chamber music and dance. The performance features new choreography and dance by Brian Lawson and Aaron Loux that is set to a five-part composition by Daniel Thomas Davis, performed live by Hub New Music, with its distinctive instrumentation of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. This marks Hub New Music’s first live performance with Lawson and Loux’s dance and is presented in conjunction with a field of bloom and hum as part of the Queer Archives Symposium.

What If We’re Beautiful explores queer intimacy, from playful youth to adult life, highlighting the joy of intimate friendships. Davis’ music, structured as musical gifts for his chosen queer family, resonates with themes of support and celebration, and is embodied by the dancers. These themes meld perfectly with the exhibition, which presents artistic works that focus on queer identities and community building.

The evening’s full program is:

• Julius Eastman, Joy Boy
• Angélica Negrón, Pedazos intermitentes de un lugar ya fragmentado
  
• Nico Muhly, Drown
  
• Daniel Thomas Davis, What if We’re Beautiful
  
  • I. Song for L.H.
    
  • II. Prelude for J.W. & K.H.
    
  • III. Anthem for M.M.
    
  • IV. Arietta for M.A.
    
  • V. Verses for A.I. and H.R.

This event will be followed by a reception for a field of bloom and hum.

This is the second performance in the Adirondack Trust New Works Series at the Tang Museum.

About the Performers

Hub New Music, called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” by the Boston Globe, is a “prime mover of piping hot 21st century repertoire” (Washington Post). Founded in 2013, the Detroit-based ensemble has commissioned dozens of new works for its distinctive ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. Hub’s “nimble quartet of winds and strings” (NPR) actively collaborates with today’s most celebrated composers on projects that traverse today’s rich musical landscape.

Brian Lawson, Assistant Professor of Dance at Skidmore, is a dance performer and educator. He graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in dance performance from SUNY Purchase in 2010. Lawson performed with Pam Tanowitz Dance before joining the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2011. With MMDG, he originated numerous roles and had the pleasure to tour the US and the world performing Morris’s dances. He earned his MFA in Dance from the University of Washington in 2020, and began teaching at Skidmore in 2022. His choreographic research is collaborative in nature and focuses on queerness in concert dance. He also engages in pedagogical research with regards to contemporary balletic practices. He continues to research via performance as a dancer with Pam Tanowitz Dance and MMDG. Lawson enjoys teaching dance to diverse populations and has given masterclasses at Purchase College, NYU Tisch, and the American Dance Festival among others. He acts as a guest ballet teacher for the José Limón Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, and at Gibney Dance.

Aaron Loux is a dance artist, choreographer, educator, and writer based in New York City. He encountered modern dance as a child at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, later earning a BFA from Juilliard. For twelve years, Loux was a celebrated member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, appearing in the New York Times’s “Top Male Dance Performances of 2014.” He has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Merce Cunningham Trust, Cornfield Dance, Christopher Williams Dance, and Arc Dance Company. His choreography has been presented at the Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, the Works & Process Artists Virtual Commissions series at the Guggenheim, and dance festivals across the country. Loux teaches dance and yoga to adults of diverse backgrounds, including beginners, professionals, and dancers living with Parkinson’s disease through the Dance for PD® program. His writing appears in the September 2023 and January 2024 issues of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, published by MIT Press. Loux is currently pursuing a BA in American Studies at Columbia University and is an adjunct ballet instructor at Marymount Manhattan College.

About the Adirondack Trust New Works Series at the Tang Museum

The Adirondack Trust New Works Series at the Tang Museum is supported by a generous gift to Skidmore College from the Adirondack Trust Company. This annual series will present a world premiere commission in art, music, dance, or poetry at the Museum. Performances will be free and open to the public.