Wendy Whelan (on the left) and Marc Bamuthi Joseph (on the right) with illustrations of sheep, butterflies, and clouds throughout.

HTP Mainstage

Carnival of the Animals

Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Wendy Whelan

Performances

Oct 19

Show run time: 1 hour and 5 minutes, no intermission.

Carnival of the Animals, an evening-length work written and conceived by spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph in response to the events of January 6, 2021, navigates the reality of today’s political jungle through music, poetry, and dance, embodying our shifting societal values and our relationship to democracy. Anchored in Joseph’s powerful words, the work is choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper and performed by Wendy Whelan and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The collaboration between these renowned artists crosses the boundaries of traditional genres and produces a unique and moving performance.

Carnival of the Animals is set to a vivid reimagining of Camille Saint-Saëns’ classic composition of the same name, reworked by composer and interdisciplinary artist Sugar Vendil more than one hundred years after its original publication. The contemporary score depicts a visceral landscape of animalistic inspirations, brought to life by an ensemble of two pianos, violin, cello, and audio recordings to represent a holistic experience of stark political unsteadiness.

Developed and produced by SOZO, an arts agency and incubator with a two-decade history that intersects social impact, innovation and the arts, this contemporary expression features a primarily BIPOC and women core creative team.

Commissioned by Meany Center for the Performing Arts, and co-commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society, Lincoln Center, the Harris Theater, Stanford University, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Wharton Center for Performing Arts, with funding from the Harkness Foundation for Dance and The MAP Fund supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. The poetry by Marc Bamuthi Joseph for Carnival of the Animals, in part, was originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Art.

“…Ms. Whelan is among that rare breed of artists who have touched the public in a way that transcends the fashions that can make ballerinas (or artists or actors) sensations for a season. Her sinewy physicality, with its tensile, thoroughbred articulation of muscle and tendon, her kinetic clarity and her dramatic, otherworldly intensity have created a quite distinct and unusual identity..." — The New York Times

“ Joseph’s poetry is the driving force of the work’s message, insistently studded with repetition and chilling wordplay that questions as powerfully as it cuts.” — Dance Enthusiast

Written and performed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, spoken word
Performed by Wendy Whelan, dance
Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper
Chisa Yamaguchi, Associate Director, Production Director
Sugar Vendil, Composer
John E. D. Bass, Lighting Designer
Elias Gurrola, Costume Designer
Michael John Garcés, Dramaturgical Consultant
Tim Stickney, Choreographic Assistant
Inon Barnatan, Music Consultant
Chisa Yamaguchi, Ichun Yeh, Producers
Rika Iino, Executive Producer
Co-conceived, developed and produced by SOZO
A SOZO Production

A black and white image of Marc Bamuthi Joseph while he lowers his face and extends his arms outward.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In 2022, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Bamuthi is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD™. He has lectured in twenty-five different countries and his TEDtalk, “You Have The Rite,” has been viewed more than five million times.

Bamuthi has most recently completed commissions for Yale University, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington National Opera. His new opera Watch Night, with music by Tamar-kali and direction by Bill T. Jones, premiered at PAC NYC in 2023.

An emergent onscreen talent, he is among the featured performers in HBO’s screen adaptation of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates. He currently serves as the Vice President of Social Impact and Artistic Director of Cultural Strategy at The Kennedy Center. A proud alumnus of Morehouse College, Bamuthi received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts in 2022 and was the recipient of a second Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College in 2023.

Image of Wendy Whelan with her arms behind her neck.

Wendy Whelan
Wendy Whelan is widely considered one of the world’s leading dancers. She spent thirty years at New York City Ballet, performing virtually all the major Balanchine roles, working closely with Jerome Robbins on many of his ballets, and appearing internationally as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet and the Kirov Ballet, among others.

Whelan has been nominated for an Olivier Award and a Critics Circle Award, and she has received the Jerome Robbins Award, a Bessie for Sustained Achievement in Performance, the Dance Magazine Award, and a Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa, from Bellarmine University. She has performed on four continents and has worked with countless other dance legends including Christopher Wheeldon, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Jorma Elo, Shen Wei, and Wayne MacGregor.

Since retiring as a dancer from New York City Ballet, Whelan has been teaching young female dancers and developing her own projects, including Hagoromo, Some of a Thousand Words, and THE DAY. For THE DAY, Whelan has joined forces with cellist Maya Beiser and the seminal modern dance choreographer Lucinda Childs to create an evening-length work featuring music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan, a documentary which won the Chita Rivera Award for Best Dance Documentary, speaks to her commitment to nullifying the stigma of aging and to focus instead on empowering women. The film is available on Netflix.

In February 2019, Whelan was appointed as New York City Ballet’s Associate Artistic Director.

Francesca Harper
Francesca Harper has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Hubbard Street II, and La Bale Da Cidade, among others. She has also choreographed works commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and her own company, The Francesca Harper Project. Harper was a principal dancer with Frankfurt Ballet from 1991 to 1999, under the direction of William Forsythe. She also has been a featured performer in Broadway shows such as Fosse, All Shook Up, and The Color Purple. Sought after for her expertise and experience as a consultant for major film and stage productions, Harper is currently engaged as Executive Producer with Sony Pictures on a series in development.

In 2021, Harper was named as the Artistic Director of Ailey II.