Leslie Cuyjet, For All Your Life

Access Information

Audio description and English CART captioning are provided for Saturday’s performance.

To request additional accessibility services, please contact us at [email protected] or 312-397-4076.

About the Artists

Leslie Cuyjet (Lead artist) is a choreographer, dancer and writer whose multidisciplinary practice weaves together dance, video, text and installation. Her work functions as a living archive, tracing both personal and collective memory. Born breech in Illinois, the family story goes that she “came into this world dancing,” feet first and kicking. After arriving in New York in 2004, Cuyjet spent years as a performer for a diverse group of downtown choreographers and artists, including Cynthia Oliver, Jane Comfort, David Gordon, Niall Jones, Juliana F. May, Narcissister, and Will Rawls. Her choreographic voice is driven by interrogating these experiences as a performer through the lens of the black body, and questions how the performer is perceived, staged, and remembered. Cuyjet’s solo performances and installations present these intersections of history, personal narrative and the politics of presence as pathways to visibility and black embodiment. Her work has been presented at venues like BAM, ICA Boston, EMPAC, The Kitchen, The Shed, MoMA PS1, Center for Performance Research, SculptureCenter, and The Chocolate Factory Theater. Cuyjet has garnered recognition and support with a Guggenheim Fellowship, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists; with residency support from Sarah Michelson at David Zwirner, Performance Space New York, MacDowell, Chinati Foundation, Watermill Center, and Movement Research. She is also the recipient of two New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards. Cuyjet is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program; and proudly served as co-editor for the online journal Critical Correspondence for two years. She received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Sean Donovan (Co-director/Dramaturgy) is an actor, director, choreographer, dancer, and writer. His recent works include, Cabin at The Bushwick Starr, The Reception at HERE Arts, and 18 1/2 Minutes at JACK. He’s also been presented in The Under the Radar Festival, CUNY’s Prelude Festival, Incubator Arts Project, FAE Festival in Panama, Stanford University, NYU, and others. He is currently on David Byrne’s Who is The Sky World Tour as a singer and dancer. Sean won a 2022 Lortel Award for his performance in Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova. He was nominated for 2014 and 2017 BESSIE awards for Outstanding Performer. He’s worked with Taylor Mac, Jason Robert Brown, Rob Ashford, Lee Sunday Evans, Heather Christian, Faye Driscoll, Miguel Gutierrez, Jane Comfort, The Builders Association, and many others. Recent credits include Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil at The Goodman Theatre, Bark of Millions at Sydney Opera House and BAM, The Trees at Playwrights Horizons, Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova, Thank You for Coming at BAM, Danspace Project and an international tour, Age & Beauty Part 2 at New York Live Arts, and House/Divided at BAM. He teaches Movement and Choreography at NYU.

Tess Dworman (Stage manager) is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, performer, and audio describer.

Ryan Gamblin (Sound design) (they/them) is a sound designer, composer, and performance-maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Their practice centers found media, original composition, and the use of systems as instruments. Recent: Spare Parts (Theatre Row), Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire (Vineyard / The Civilians), Bowl EP (Vineyard / National Black Theatre), Manon (Heartbeat Opera), Weathering (Faye Driscoll / New York Live Arts), Time Signatures (Exponential Festival), Godbird  (Exponential Festival), The March (Big Dance Theater / PACNY), The Following Evening (600 Highwaymen / PACNY). Recent solo work: SPLICE (Reforesters Laboratory). Ryan is a current fellow at the Target Margin Theater Institute.

Max Ludlow (Sound design) is a community organizer and sound artist working at the intersection of performance art, electronic music, and popular media. He is part of the team behind Montez Press Radio, an experimental performance space and listening platform, and writes Signal to Noise, a monthly live music column, for Perfectly Imperfect.

Brian Maschka (Company management) is a Chicago-based artist and entrepreneur. Recent producing credits include Seth’s Broadway Concert Series and To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim at the Studebaker Theater where he has worked with Manual Cinema, Baxter Theatre & Handspring Puppet Co., Plexus Polaire, Basil Twist, Jazz Institute of Chicago, WBEZ Presents, Camerata Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. He has directed at The Den, Crossroads Repertory Theatre, Planet Connections, Fresh Fruit Festival at Wild Project, Midtown International Theatre Festival, Florida Repertory Theater, and The Station. His stage management credits include three seasons at Steppenwolf, Playwrights Horizons, DR2, Play Company, Mint, Weston Playhouse, and the Museum of the City of New York. As production manager, Brian has worked with Barrington Stage, Chicago Children’s Theatre, and the University of Chicago where he served for five years. He is an alum of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, CalArts, and the Graham School.

Amanda K. Ringger (Lighting design) has been designing locally, nationally, and internationally for over 25 years with artists such as Faye Driscoll, Cynthia Oliver, Doug Elkins, Leslie Cuyjet, Molly Poerstel, Ivy Baldwin, Laura Peterson, Darrah Carr, Antonio Ramos, Alexandra Beller, Sean Donovan, and cakeface, among many others. She received a BA from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, and an MFA from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She is the recipient of a Bessie award for her collaboration on Faye Driscoll’s 837 Venice Boulevard.

Daniele Sarti (Director, film) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist and award-winning filmmaker. His work has been shown at Wave Hill, Abrons Art Center, and Paris Photo, among others. As a cinematographer he has worked with directors on various commercial and narrative films. His latest short film collaboration The Promotion, was featured in several festivals around the country. More at www.danielesarti.com.

Neal Wilkinson (Original stage and set design) is a set designer, production manager, and multimedia artist. Recent set designs include Hang Time by Zora Howard, and Our American Queen and Shooting Celebrities for the american vicarious. As a member of the Builders Association from 2003 to 2019, he designed works including House/Divided, Elements of OZ, and Strange Window, which have been presented by theater festivals internationally. Wilkinson’s company Corps Liminis provides production management for theatrical productions, museums, and installations, with ongoing involvement with both the Shed and MoMA. As a multimedia artist, his new work Fight For America!, in which the events of January 6, 2021, are re-played by audience members as a tabletop wargame, premiered in London in June 2025, and will be touring the US in 2026.

Funding

Lead support for the 2025–26 season of MCA Performance is provided by Elizabeth A. Liebman.

Generous support is provided by Anne L. Kaplan; and Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.

The MCA is a proud member of the Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.