About this Event
8 performances: Saturday, April 25 through Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 8pm
Douglas Dunn Studio
541 Broadway, NYC
Limited seating. Doors open 30 minutes before curtain. Running time approximately 1 hour.
No late seating. Seats must be claimed no later than 5 minutes before curtain each night.
Tickets: $25 chairs; $20 cushions on floor (inclusive of fees)
Elevator Access
Choreography: Douglas Dunn
Costume Design, Set Collaboration (painted surfaces): Mimi Gross
Video and Sound Design: Jacob Burckhardt
Lighting and Scenery Design: Lauren Parrish
Scenery and Installation: Parrish Productions LLC
Lighting Equipment: 512 Productions
Dancers: Alexandra Berger, Janet Charleston, Grazia Della-Terza, Douglas Dunn, cove barton, Vanessa Knouse, Kieran McBride, Emily Pope, Deniz Sancak, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Dongri Suh, Timothy Ward
Have you ever looked into one of Joseph Cornell's boxes and imagined its contents coming to life? Here's your chance. Lauren Parrish makes and lights the box. Douglas Dunn and Jacob Burckhardt collaborate on the music, classical and contemporary, mixed with sounds of nature. Dancers appear, costumed by Mimi Gross. They're not a group. Individuals wander in with separate agendas, deciding as they go how to pass mythical time. Why aren’t they relating more? Is there strength, will, determination and courage present enough among them to overcome somnolent decadence and activate the scene? Are these people trapped in a make-believe world of aesthetic pleasure and beauty, or, however dreamily, are they preparing to go to work to correct the high percentage of human failure?
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Douglas Dunn is a New York-based dancer and choreographer working since 1971. He was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1969 to 1973, and a founding member of Grand Union, the non-rehearsing troupe that rollicked from 1970 to 1976. Following his own duet, solo, and film work in the 1970s, he formed Douglas Dunn + Dancers in 1978, and in 1980 set Stravinsky’s Pulcinella on the Paris Opera Ballet. He is Board Member Emeritus of the New York City presenting organization Danspace Project. He likes to collaborate with poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, and playwrights to offer a multifaceted theatrical experience. In 1998 he was awarded a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement, and in 2008 was honored by the French government as Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. While continuing to lead Douglas Dunn + Dancers, he teaches Open Structures at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and presents salons at his studio at 541 Broadway in Manhattan. His book of collected writings, Dancer Out of Sight, is available at amazon.com. douglasdunndance.com
Lauren Parrish (she/her) is a technical production manager and visual designer for live events and spaces. She spent 15 years touring as a production manager and lighting supervisor with dance and theater companies, such as American Repertory Ballet, KEIGWIN + COMPANY, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, EnGarde Arts, and the New York Neo-Futurists. During this time, Lauren collaborated on, planned, and adapted dozens of pieces, realizing artists' visions on stage. Lauren transitioned into venue management in 2016, where she engaged in infrastructure and capital projects that kept venues safe, functional, and aesthetically pleasing, adding improved, streamlined, and current technological systems. During the pandemic, Lauren's commitment to keeping theater workers employed led to her expanding the services of the scenic shop at Abrons Arts Center to outside companies. Over three years the shop grew, serving Off-Broadway shows and museums while supporting the shows produced at the Center. In 2024, Lauren founded Parrish Productions, distilling over 20 years in live entertainment experience into a company focused on providing various production support services, including fabrication.
Mimi Gross has been active as a painter, set designer, costume designer and a teacher. Working in many media, she has exhibited internationally and her art is in numerous significant public and private collections. Her diverse output includes collaborations with many artists and designers. She has collaborated with Douglas Dunn on over twenty-five dances since 1979. She has gratefully received fine arts grants from NEA (twice), NYFA, Institute of Arts and Letters, Emily Harvey Foundation residency, and for sets and costumes “the Bessie." She lives in New York City. Until early June 2026, two large iconic installation sculptures and the original documentary film, from “Ruckus Manhattan”(1976), on view in the Brooklyn Museum lobby.
All the while making underground movies, Jacob Burckhardt has worked at a variety of jobs: Steel Mill laborer, grape harvester, Fuller Brush man, Truck driver, Taxi driver, camera repairman and freelance photographer. As an audio engineer his work in sound ranges from recording audio around the world to mixing sound tracks for independent films at a midtown studio. He now teaches in the Film/Video department at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After making two feature movies in the 1980s, he went back to making shorts where it is possible to preserve a direct relationship between the film and the film maker. He first worked with Douglas in 1988, creating the sound track for Matches at The Kitchen Center.
Image: The Garden of Hesperides, Ricciardo Meacci, 1894
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Douglas Dunn + Dancers
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Douglas Dunn Studio, 541 Broadway, New York, United States
USD 20.00 to USD 25.00
