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Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) and choreographer Kate Wallich return to Minneapolis with an uncompromising new collaboration that reshapes the possibilities of role-playing in music and dance, blurring and expanding the boundaries between the two. Combining Perfume Genius’ experimental pop with Wallich’s sharp choreographic lens, “The Lesson” is a raw, visceral performance work inspired by the notorious novel by Austrian Elfriede Jelinek, “The Piano Teacher.” The piece, a Northrop Centennial Commission, was developed in part during a creative residency at Northrop in May 2024 and weaves together new and existing music by Perfume Genius, with forthcoming releases arriving via Matador Records ahead of the presentation.
“The Lesson” examines what happens when desire has nowhere to go — researching what, exactly, we are rehearsing when we practice “good behavior.” The work moves through repression, longing, authority and submission in unstable scenes where roles shift, and the unsaid becomes manically physical.
Longtime admirers know that Perfume Genius has spoken about his love of “The Piano Teacher.” Its intense, clinical bleakness and its capacity to be both unsettlingly comic and tragic echo through the landscape of “The Lesson.”
Building on their acclaimed 2019 performance collaboration “The Sun Still Burns Here,” Hadreas and Wallich are joined by Hadreas’ husband and musical partner Alan Wyffels and longtime collaborator Tate Justus.
“The Lesson” was commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group, Liquid Music | Northrop and REDCAT.
“The Lesson” is sponsored by Blue Fox Arts.
Top image: Kate Wallich & Perfume Genius: “The Lesson.” Photo © Alexandra Kacha.
Related Links, Quotes & Reviews
- Kate Wallich website
- Perfume Genius website
- About “The Piano Teacher”
- Learn more about Liquid Music
“This might be how the music of Perfume Genius is meant to be experienced.” — Pitchfork
“An otherworldly collaboration.” — The Stranger
“[Wallich's work is] particularly hypnotic … has the power of a cryptic ritual.” — The Seattle Times
“Mike Hadreas, the artist better known as Perfume Genius, has always been a physically expressive performer, and he’s made dance a crucial part of his generally stunning live shows and videos. And now he’s about to make it a focus.” — Stereogum
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Planning Your Visit
Learn More — Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop’s mission toward cultivating intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
- Dance: Composition and Production
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies
- Art and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- Music After 1945
- Theory and Analysis of Popular Music
Dive deeper with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the art form and the artistic process.
“How Perfume Genius Grew Up And Started Thriving” — Alex G Frank, Medium
Video: “Perfume Genius - ‘The Sun Still Burns Here’ (Performance Trailer)”
“Perfume Genius Becomes a Dancer and Brings His Slippery Universe to Life” — Pitchfork
Video: “Movement and Community with Kate Wallich, CEO of Dance Church”
Video: “Kate Wallich - Dance Church - What Fuels You”
Video: “Perfume Genius & Kate Wallich Residency”
“Elfriede Jelinek: Provocation as the Breath of Life” — The Nobel Prize
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Building on the spellbinding chaos of their 2019 collaboration “The Sun Still Burns Here” (co-commissioned by The Joyce, Seattle Theatre Group and MASS MoCA), Kate Wallich and Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) — joined by Hadreas’ partner in music and life Alan Wyffels and long-time collaborator Tate Justus — form a charged, unhinged quartet that threads the edges of exhaustion, tenderness and queer connection. Pitchfork’s Colin Lodewick describes the transcendent quality of “The Sun Still Burns Here,” saying, “Hadreas is flung into the air in time with the song’s climax: a sigh of ecstasy. It is a moment of complete synthesis, the physical toss a perfect translation of the sigh’s warmth, one that suggests this might be how the music of Perfume Genius is meant to be experienced.”
- How might the co-creation of art change or challenge existing relationship dynamics between creators?
- How does the passing of time affect our relationship to a person or an artistic work?
- How does the audience’s experience of live performance differ from experiencing a recorded album?
Shaped through the lens of “The Piano Teacher,” a novel that explores a passionate and violent affair between a 38-year-old piano teacher and her younger student, this new work uses its themes of repression and desire, authority and control, and isolation and longing as an emotional and structural framework for their ongoing collaboration. The piano becomes both a centering force (Wyffels) and a voice (Hadreas), while dance functions as a shared language between all four artists, allowing an evolving movement vocabulary to stretch, fracture and recombine in real time.
- How does art help shape or challenge ideas of gender?
- How does music reinforce or challenge the structural framework of societies?
Kate Wallich is a dancer, choreographer, educator and the founder of Dance Church, which has grown since its creation in 2010 into a thriving community practice across the country. An all-levels movement class, Dance Church invites people of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds and identities into a communal space to move their bodies where no training is required and open-mindedness is the only prerequisite.
- Why might open-mindedness be a prerequisite for creative group collaboration?
- How might dancing or creating alone differ from dancing in a group led by an instructor?
- Can you think of a communal space where you have felt welcome and a sense of belonging? What made you feel that way?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
The Kate Wallich & Perfume Genius: "The Lesson" presentation is sponsored by Blue Fox Arts.
About the Liquid Music | Northrop Series
Expand your idea of how music flows through contemporary dance, film and beyond. The Liquid Music | Northrop Series brings boundary-pushing works to the Northrop stage. Immerse yourself in these dynamic performances from exceptional collaborations.
