Kayla Farrish’s Latest Was Inspired by Lost José Limón Works

For her first company commission, Kayla Farrish has choreographed a piece for Limón Dance Company inspired by two of founder José Limón’s lost works. Drawing on archival imagery of Redes (1951) and El Grito (1952), Farrish ran with Limón’s themes of the collective and an awakening consciousness. “Even though I think I am a very wild maker, they’ve embraced it as another way to move, another world to live in,” Farrish says of working with the company, which will premiere her new work at New York City’s Joyce Theater as part of its 78th season, November 5–10. For the commission’s score, Farrish and composer Alex MacKinnon drew on Limón’s connection to and migration from Mexico, the narrative songs known as corridos, and time periods of swift change. The two had previously collaborated on Put Away the Fire, dear, an evening-length dance theater work that began at Triskelion Arts in 2022 and has since toured to La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, ODC Theater, and, most recently, American Dance Festival.

Tell me about the inspiration for this Limón commission.

It began with artistic director Dante Puleio asking me to look at their archives, specifically these pieces called Redes and El Grito. The first version, Redes, José had worked on in Mexico and it looked like a solo and duets, and then when he got to New York and it became El Grito, the group work changed more. There are only photos, no video, which made me a little more at ease.

Did that make it easier to respond­ in your own choreographic language?­

I do swing and fall and recover—I think we have some crossover there. But the works I build aren’t necessarily like the company’s repertoire work. And Dante wanted my interpretation, to see how I would play and push the humanistic themes. So not having video was helpful because with these few details from archival photos, what could I imagine? I was seeing how they held these ropes between their hands, like tethers, and there’s these circles. How are these people connected? What’s it like to process as a community? Move to action as a community? And in that process of looking at community, it’s complicated by our own impulses and ideas around change and individuality.

How did the material develop in the studio?

I had about six weeks, starting last year in June. The time was such a gift because I got to know the group. I have improvisation in my process and I build off the people in the room. In the solos and duets, the lens focuses on each person and how they rise out of the material. There’s also some really layered group sections, and I’m using 12 of the dancers in these complicated patterns.

Their listening to each other is so deep, it made things easier to synchronize. There’s this giant, moving group section where they’re flying across the space. The music doesn’t have a beat that they’re following, and they sync up in this very electric, intense phrase without slowing down. They can just hear each other’s impulse and impetus, and it’s so exciting and daring.

Simultaneous with this commission, you have been iterating and touring Put Away the Fire, dear, along with teaching and occasionally performing in Sleep No More. How do you manage it all?

This year of doing the tour, independently­ with this very small admin team, into this commission—it’s been more intense than I thought. As a choreographer, I’m figuring out the cost of making your own work, and then the balance of that with outside commissions or other work, and craving more time to rest or slow down so I can be more generative. There’s a solo work I’m dreaming of and there are also these leftover questions from Put Away the Fire, dear. I’m thinking about how to build more full scripts and narrative arcs that can bring people along and allow me to take more risks. I’m also thinking about sustainability in how to make my dreams come true.