The Lesson examines what happens when desire has nowhere to go, and what we’re rehearsing when we practice “good behavior”.

Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) and choreographer Kate Wallich return to the stage with a new collaboration.

Combining Perfume Genius’ experimental pop with Wallich’s choreographic lens, The Lesson is a raw, uncompromising performance work inspired by The Piano Teacher, the notorious novel by Elfriede Jelinek, famously adapted by Michael Haneke.

The Lesson examines what happens when desire has nowhere to go, and what we’re 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 (Mike Hadreas) has spoken about his love of The Piano Teacher. Its intense, clinical bleakness and its capacity to be both unsettlingly comic and tragic, qualities that echo through the landscape of The Lesson.

Following their acclaimed 2019 performance collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here, Hadreas reunites with Wallich alongside his husband and musical partner Alan Wyffels and longtime collaborator Tate Justus.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Kacha

About the Artist

Kate Wallich and Perfume Genius

Kate Wallich and Perfume Genius

Kate Wallich is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and founder whose work spans contemporary performance, public practice, and creative entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Dance Church®, the all-levels movement practice that offers weekly classes in 12+ markets across the United States, supports over 50 professional dance artists through ongoing employment as teachers, and has engaged hundreds of thousands of community members since its founding in 2010. Her choreographic works have been commissioned and presented by organizations including The Joyce Theater, MASS MoCA, Walker Art Center, On the Boards, Seattle Theatre Group, and ICA Boston, among many others. She is the founder of Studio Kate Wallich, a nonprofit arts organization that houses her choreographic practice, public programming initiatives like WIP LA, and artist development projects. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

Perfume Genius is the moniker of artist Mike Hadreas. Since releasing his debut album, Learning, in 2010 via longtime label home Matador Records, Hadreas has become one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices in contemporary music, known for emotionally vulnerable songwriting, nuanced vocals, and boundary-pushing performances. His celebrated body of work includes Put Your Back N 2 It; Too Bright, featuring the breakthrough single “Queen,” which became a queer anthem and powerful statement of identity; the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, which brought mainstream recognition to his work; Set My Heart On Fire Immediately; Ugly Season; and his most recent GRAMMY-nominated album, Glory (2025). Spanning music, live performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Hadreas continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary artistic practice.

@katewallich

katewallich.com

@perfumegenius

perfumegenius.org

Artist page →

CREDITS

Kate Wallich | Director, Choreographer, Performer
Mike Hadreas | Director, Composer, Performer
Alan Wyffles | Composer, Collaborator, Performer
Tate Justus | Collaborator, Performer
Social Security (Nile Harris / Dyer Rhoads) | Dramaturgy
Amiya Brown | Scenographer

Commissioned by Seattle Theater Group. Presented in partnership with On the Boards.

The presentation with On the Boards is supported in part by Creative West which receives support in part from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Commissioned by Seattle Theater Group. Presented in partnership with On the Boards.