The Young People’s Chorus of New York City performs can I have it without begging, an inter-generational program of mutually-inspired live music and dance collaborations between renowned choreographer Megan Williams and acclaimed composer Eve Beglarian.

The program, opening with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City singers performing Eve Beglarian’s Armon, comprises four connected Megan Williams Dance Projects repertory dance works set to compositions from Ms. Beglarian’s expansive catalogue. It is highlighted by the world premieres of two newly commissioned compositions by Ms. Beglarian and new dance works by Ms. Williams.

Megan Williams and the dancers of the Megan Williams Dance Projects are joined by Ms. Beglarian, YPC, and an all-star cast of new music luminaries: Tristan Kasten-Krause, bass; Thomas Feng, keyboard; Margaret Lancaster, flute; Huizi Zhang, keyboard; and Amy Garapic, percussion, with costume design by Barbara Erin Delo, lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann, and sound design by Sam Crawford.

Program:

My Great Desire is a new large ensemble ballet by Megan Williams inspired by Eve Beglarian’s Machaut in the Machine Age series.

Play Like a Girl is a raucous, contemplative suite of short dances that embody memories of the struggles and joys of girlhood. The dances are set to Ms. Beglarian’s keyboard variations on the Bulgarian tune Kaval Sviri.

Five Things is the reboot of a duet, originally premiered in 2018 and now reimagined for Megan Williams and Esmé Boyce, set to a musical dialogue by Ms. Beglarian of the translated text of a Song Dynasty letter to Zen Master Xiang.

Swift Bird is the world premiere of both a newly commissioned, instrumental and spoken text companion piece to Five Things by Eve Beglarian and a new solo dance work by and for Megan Williams, in which the vulnerability and solitude of aging are explored.