Alex Tatarsky
Sad Boys in Harpy Land
November 12-14, 2026
Sad Boys in Harpy Land is equal parts sad clown, demented cabaret, and extended crisis of meaning.
26/27
Welcome to our 26/27 Season!
Dear Friends,
I’m inspired by something that choreographer and dancer Angie Hauser said on stage last year when speaking about her approach to improvisation: she feels “capable within the unknown.” I think that’s what we do at OtB. It takes a brave community to support art that challenges us, confronts us with the unknown, and leaves us with our hearts touched and our minds confounded. It takes a special community to seek that out, to find that pleasurable, and to withstand confusion in the pursuit of surprise. I’m down bad for it. I suspect you are too.
Capable within the unknown. That’s such a nice way to say ‘fuck around and find out.’ Which might be a secret theme within this season, certainly for Alex Tatarsky, and their deranged storytelling and Clayton Lee who brings toxic relationships to a new level. Heather Kravas will premiere a new work in the form of a disjointed fairy tale about failure. French playwright Mohamed El Khatib quite literally takes this on in surfacing real-life stories of sex, desire, and love from people aged 80-100. Kate Wallich and Perfume Genius explore the erotic in their new ode to The Piano Teacher.
One of my curatorial sensibilities could be called something like,“subverting genre once more with feeling.” David Roussève’s dance theater self-portrait brings us through his life with honesty. Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon’s experimental opera pulls from their spiritual lineages and their real life as partners navigating queer-trans family building. ILVS STRAUSS employs movement, text, sound, and a bright green mask to bring us down an audiophile rabbit hole.
On the subject of the unknown, I am excited about three distinct pathways that OtB supports artists in their development of the new: the Northwest New Works festival returns, curated by Akoiya Harris, Alyza DelPan-Monley, and Amy O’Neal. We kick off a brand new artist residency program, selected by our new Curatorial Council Jody Kuehner and Janet Wong. And we are now in partnership with Base for the beloved 12 Minutes Max showcase.
Let’s feel things in the dark,
Megan Kiskaddon, Executive and Artistic Director
12 Minutes Max
November 22-23, 2026 · March 7-8, 2027 · June 13-14, 2027
For decades, 12 Minutes Max has been a launchpad for new artists and a testing ground for longer works—so much so that it’s inspired similar programs across North America, including Vancouver, B.C., Chicago and Houston.
David Roussève/REALITY
Becoming Daddy AF
December 10-12, 2026
The unforgettable self-portrait of a life lived in motion, told through a vibrant collage of evocative archival imagery, propulsive sound and embodied storytelling
ILVS STRAUSS
Ñ (ENYE)
January 21-23, 2027
An audiophile’s unhurried narrative tangents into the physics of sound, the advent of language, and basic human needs.
Mohamed El Khatib
La Vie Secrète des Vieux (The Secret Lives of Old People)
February 18-20, 2027
Elderly men and women share love stories from their first stirrings to reinventions in later life.
Heather Kravas
laughing dances
March 25-27, 2027
A trio that explores failure, absurdity, and motherhood within modern life and late-stage capitalism.
Kate Wallich & Perfume Genius
The Lesson
April 9, 2027
What happens when desire has nowhere to go and what do we rehearse when we practice “good behavior”? Available only to Complete Season Subscribers
Northwest New Works
June 3-5, 2027
Since 1983, NW New Works has been a vibrant celebration of artists from all performance disciplines, showcasing the dynamic arts community of the Pacific Northwest.
Past Events
Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon
How does it feel to look at nothing
October 15-17, 2026
An opera of the elemental, of pre-deities, and illusions of containment, this performance emerges through a story of transitional states.
Clayton Lee
The Goldberg Variations
September 17-19, 2026
An unhinged and reckless deep dive into power dynamics, sexual desire, heartbreak, and tenderness.
NW New Works 2026
June 4-6, 2026
Since 1983, NW New Works has been a vibrant celebration of artists from all performance disciplines, showcasing the dynamic arts community of the Pacific Northwest.
Fauxnique
How Do I Look?
May 7-9, 2026
Fauxnique wields a provocative, wry framework of drag, dance, and philosophy to confront identity, femininity, and self-image.
Amy O'Neal
Again, There Is No Other (The Remix)
March 26-28, 2026 | Commission, World Premiere
A ritual of femme power and connection rooted in two decades of research and participation in street and contemporary dance cultures.
Rose Jarboe
Rose: You Are Who You Eat
February 19-21, 2026 | West Coast Premiere
A genre-defying musical shrine to queer identity and transformation invites us into an irreverent feast of gender, memory, and grief.
Ogemdi Ude
MAJOR
January 29-31, 2026 | Commission, West Coast Premiere
Rooted in deep cultural memory and archival research, six Black femmes channel the power and poetry of majorette dance in a fierce investigation of memory, sensuality, and pride.
Aya Ogawa
The Nosebleed
November 13-15, 2025
A tender and darkly comic autobiographical play that transforms grief into a ritual of forgiveness.
Eiko Otake & Wen Hui
No Rule Is Our Rule
October 11, 2025 | 4pm
Composed from unscripted video diaries filmed in Beijing in 2020, this documentary traces the beginnings of Eiko Otake and Wen Hui’s artistic collaboration, laying the groundwork for What is War.
Eiko Otake & Wen Hui
What Is War
October 9-11, 2025
Dance luminaries Wen Hui and Eiko Otake create a complex tapestry of language, movement, and video to share their personal memories related to war.
San Cha
Inebria Me
September 11-13, 2025
An experimental, genre-bending opera of queer liberation, melodrama, and divine transformation.
NW New Works 2025
June 12-14, 2025
NW New Works returns by popular demand to showcase the most daring, cutting-edge performances in our region once again!
dani tirrell
Elysium: Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! Book II
May 29 - 31, 2025 | Commission & World Premiere, presented in partnership with CD Forum and Velocity Dance Center
Seattle’s legendary dancer/choreographer dani tirrell brings the club to heaven in the second installment of the widely acclaimed Leviticus or Love project. Centering around Black and brown bodies leaving this world and entering the "afterl
Miguel Gutierrez
Super Nothing
May 1-3, 2025 | Commission
How can a dance speak to the overwhelming and constant grief that undergirds our lives? This is one of many questions raised in the latest work by the award-winning bicoastal multimedia artist, Miguel Gutierrez. Thinking about movement in b
Dynasty Handbag
Titanic Depression
March 27-29, 2025
This hilarious reimagining of the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic stars Dynasty Handbag - the peerlessly subversive, wacky, and dystopian alter ego of LA-based artist Jibz Cameron. The performance wields animation, soundscapes and a stunning
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
BLACK HOLE – Trilogy And Triathlon
February 6-8, 2025 | West Coast Premiere
Deeply inspired and infused by the spirit of Afrofuturism, this contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk combines dance, original sound, video projection, and light design in a tale of vitality and tenderness, darkness and light, personal growth and co
Paul Budraitis
I Love That For You
January 16-19, 2025 | West Coast Premiere
Berlin-based theater artist Paul Budraitis returns to Seattle, his once long-time home, to share this intimate, honest, and deeply moving performance. It’s a community offering that invites the audience to notice what death can teach us in
Juni One Set: Degenerate Art Ensemble with Senga Nengudi and yuniya edi kwon
Boy mother / faceless bloom
December 12-14, 2024 | West Coast Premiere
Threading mythology and autobiography, while drawing from the diverse lineages of queer, anti-colonial, and care-based artistic practices, Boy mother / faceless bloom tells a story of transformation, transgression, and the formation of new
Timothy White Eagle
Indian School
November 14-16, 2024 | Avant Premiere
Timothy White Eagle, a Seattle-based visual and performance artist, returns to OtB to present a deeply personal performance about displacement and identity, tracing the impact of America's history of cultural genocide. Through it, he confro
Mouthwater Festival
October 10, 2024 | 6:30pm (Mask-required performance) Presented in partnership with Velocity Dance Center
Mouthwater Festival is a 3-week, city-wide fringe festival of Disability arts, with 26 events including meals, movement workshops, parties, artist socials, and performances!
The Javaad Alipoor Company
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
September 12-14, 2024 | West Coast Premiere
Internationally renowned British-Iranian artist, Javaad Alipoor, takes you on a wild ride down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia and murder mystery podcasts. This interdisciplinary work sorts through the tangle of digital information about the m