Brian Lawson and Aaron Loux perform choreography set to Daniel Thomas Davis’ composition, played by Hub New Music
Adirondack Trust New Works Series at the Tang Museum
Saturday, April 5, 5 pm
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (March 19, 2025) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces What If We’re Beautiful, a celebration of queer joy and community through chamber music and dance on Saturday, April 5, at 5 pm. The event is the second performance in the Adirondack Trust New Works Series at the Tang Museum.
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. The event marks Hub New Music’s first live performance with Lawson and Loux’s dance.
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.
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, a field of bloom and hum, which presents artistic works that focus on queer identities and community building.
The performance, which is followed by a reception, is the culminating event of the Queer Archives Symposium. The two-day gathering celebrates a field of bloom and hum and includes artist talks and screenings of experimental films. Details of the symposium to be announced soon.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu.
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 presents a world premiere commission in art, music, dance, or poetry. Events will be open to the public.
About Skidmore College
Founded in 1903, Skidmore College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college of about 2,700 students located in the dynamic town of Saratoga Springs, New York. Consistently ranked as a top liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Forbes, and more, Skidmore has also been recognized for its innovation, value, and sustainability efforts. Skidmore fosters academic and personal excellence — all driven by a belief that Creative Thought Matters. Its comprehensive array of opportunities encompasses more than 40 bachelor’s degree programs, including popular offerings in business, psychology, and the creative and performing arts; competitive NCAA Division III athletics; world-class facilities; and hands-on civic engagement and career development resources.
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm Thursday. https://tang.skidmore.edu