About Tapestries
Tapestries is a Dance-Theater piece guided by the curious narrative of The Unicorn Tapestries (1495-1505) housed at The Met Cloisters, reimagined through the queering of Ukrainian folklore and tales. This performance consists of eight short vignettes based off each original tapestry, re-developed through sound, visual art, movement, and theater to allow an audience to step inside the tapestries and experience them from a new cool perspective. With rigorous and quirky movement vocabulary abstracted from Ukrainian folk dance, ballet, American modern dance, and contemporary dance, alongside a score ranging from Ukrainian children in a playground to disinterested Russian electronica, gorgeous 80s day glow unitards, and meticulously re-constructed tapestries, this dance-theater piece is part play, part history lesson, part morality lesson, part fantasy, ranging from heavy to fanciful. It serves as an embodied archive, an ever evolving Сморгасбург of the subjective history of queer Ukrainian culture.

How it was made
Tapestries began in June 2024 as a series of solos, duets, and trois. It was generously supported by Arts On Site, who invited us to present two work in progress showings: October 25th, 2024 and February 21st, 2025.

From there, we moved to Baryshnikov Arts Center in Spring 2025 for the continual development of movement, music, costumes, lighting, and illustration, where it transformed into a multi-disciplinary, evening length performance.

Upcoming Performances
Currently, we have an exciting opportunity to perform Tapestries in Pioneer Go East Collective's, Out-FRONT! Fest. on January 3rd and January 5th as a part of APAP, and in addition, at Baryshnikov Arts Center in Spring 2026.

Tapestries include a cast of eight movement artists, an illustrator, a composer, a lighting designer, and a costumer, and we need your help to make this incredible LEAP into the next stage of development!! Something extremely exciting and major for the entire cast!!


Where Every Dollar Goes
Please consider a tax-deductible donation which will go directly to:

Artist Fees:  I pay dancers $25/hr and we are rehearsing eight artists for 30 hours for the Out-FRONT Festival at Judson Memorial Church. For each performance, our fee is $200 for each performer. This is a total of $6000 for the Judson Performance and $5000 for the Baryshnikov Arts Center performances. 

Administration Fees: I pay my long time administrator Paulina, $30 an hour, as needed, to help with scheduling, studio bookings, create contracts, constant contact emails, all while continuing to help develop the company for future engagements. This estimate is $1000.

Music Recordings: We will be recording with live instrumentals to create the outrageously gorgeous score. This includes paying each musician, our composer, Katie-James, for their time and talent, and to book a studio for recording. This is $2000.

Studio Bookings for Rehearsals: For our 30 hours of rehearsals we use mostly subsidized space at $10 an hour, but some are as expensive as $30 an hour. A rough estimate of $500 will go to pay for studio bookings. Studios from the Baryshnikov Arts show will be provided so we are spared of this cost for that specific show only. 

Program Printing: Tapestries includes a program with the fantastic illustrations of Emmy Castellani. These books, which are given to every audience member, costs a total of $500 estimated to print. 

Without you, this simply would not be possible. We need your help!!  No donation is too small, and every dollar will impact the local NYC queer artists community. 

Who's Involved
Choreographed and directed by Suzzanne Ponomarenko. Performed by eight movement artists: Kate Antionette Reyes, Pilar Mellon-Reyes, Lauren Marie Jaeger, Larissa Asebedo, Paige Barnett Kulbeth, Piper Makenzie Dye, Dalton Young, and Jay Beardsley. Music composed by Katie James Rushin. Lighting by S.C. Lucier. Costumes by David Quinn. Illustrations by Emmy Castellani.