CHRISTIAN A. WARNER
WE GATHER HERE

RUNTIME: About 80 minutes with a brief intermission.
Portions of this performance contains the use of water based haze.

'WE GATHER HERE' is an ensemble dance-theater work and community activation project exploring the intimate spaces where we retreat to confide, rehabilitate, ground, and re-strategize.

Inspired by Afrofuturist speculation in Octavia Butler’s 'Parable of the Talents', 'The Wiz', and 'Brother from Another Planet', the work imagines a network of Eternals—carriers of memory who move quietly through generations, reuniting for a family reunion, gathering as both a spiritual and political act.

Through choreography and live sound, 'WE GATHER HERE' creates environments where we can witness bodies recalibrate together and frame assembly as both ritualistic and strategic technologies through which futurity is imagined.

Conceived, choreography, and direction by Christian A. Warner

Performers: Elinor-Kleber Diggs, Damond LeMonte Garner, Rachel Harris, A.J. Libert, Denise Ward, Christian Warner

Dramaturgy: Sophia Parker
Set Design: Imani Gaudin
Interactive Architecture: Michael Szivos | SOFTlab
Lighting Design: Connor Sale
Sound Engineer: Maxi Glen
Producer: Monica Nyenkan
Music Credits: “Two Hearts (Lawns)” music by Carla Bley, Alrac Music (BMI); Lyrics by Terri Lyne Carrington, Ajari (BMI). “Run” - Created and performed by Damond LeMonte Garner, “I Know I’ve Been Changed” by Lashun Pace, “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green, “All My Love” by Luther Vandross

Special thanks to the wonderful team at Triskelion Arts, set designer Imani Gaudin, and SOFTlab: a studio that combines a research-based design practice with an interest in how technology, craft, and materials come together in ways that explore the boundaries between art, architecture, other disciplines, and the public.

This work was made possible by the generous support of the HSPVA Black Alumni Network, the Princess Grace Special Project Award, and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Additional thanks to Jennifer Edwards, Taylor Collier, Joe Tennis, Therese Libert, 1Hood Media, slowdanger, and Joshua Bristow.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Christian A. Warner, a native of Houston, TX, is an interdisciplinary performance artist, choreographer, sound designer, and director working across movement, sound, and film. His choreography has been commissioned by Pepatian / BAAD, Triskelion Arts, JCAL, Performa/Dance, Ballet Co.Laboratory, and the BlackLight Summit. He is a 2023 Heinz Endowment Creative Development Awardee, a 2025 New York Dance Festival Choreographic Fellow, and a 2025 Princess Grace Award winner in Choreography.

He has danced with companies and artists such as Sidra Bell Dance New York, Boca Tuya, NVA & Guests, GauDanse, slowdanger, TU Dance, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, Ponybox Dance Theatre, and Kayla Farrish. His sound design has been featured in GRAPH for Sidra Bell Dance New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit "Flight To Egypt" and Imani Gaudin's production nanibu, premiering at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Elinor-Kleber Diggs, currently based in NYC, works in choreography, performance, photography, videography, and sound. They have shared work at Triskelion Arts, Bronx Music Hall, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Gibney, the Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater Lab, the QUEER NOISE NYC Annual Festival, and Pepátian for their APAP showcase. They were selected for the 2025 Baryshnikov Arts Fellowship, the 2025/2026 CUNY Dance Initiative Artist in Residence at CUNY York and Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, and the Jerome Early Career Residency. Performance credits include Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Christian Warner, Catherine Kirk, Marcus Jerrell Willis, Bill T. Jones, Ronald K. Brown, and Dianne McIntyre.

DaMond LeMonte Garner, originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, is a NYC-based performing artist, educator, and creative. They have worked with Parsons Dance Company, Yin Yue Dance Company, The Francesca Harper Project, The Black Iris Project, Texture Contemporary Ballet, and Gibney Company. DaMond performed as a Principal Dancer in Alexei Ratmansky’s Aida with The Metropolitan Opera in 2023, where they also performed in Lorin Latarro’s Traviata and Camille A Brown’s Champion. After joining Ballet Jazz Montreal, under the direction of Alexandra Damiani, Garner performed in works by Ishan Rustem, Andonis Foniadakis, Crystal Pite, Aszure Barton, Christophe Garcia, and Jo Strømgren.

Rachel Harris is a Bessie-nominated dancer, choreographer, and director based in NYC. Her credits include Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Parsons Dance, Life and Trust Emursive, NVA and Guests, Traverse City Dance Project, Zeitgeist Dance Theatre, and Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Rachel has been commissioned by Howard University, Traverse City Dance Project, the Kennedy Center, Paul Brill, and has received several grants to produce her choreography. Throughout her career, Rachel has worked with Yusha Marie-Sorzano, Sidra Bell, Stefanie Batten Bland, Rena Butler, Rickey Tripp, Marjanie Forté-Saunders, Hope Boykin, Rick and Jeff Kuperman, Jennifer Lott, and many others.

A.J. Libert attended Point Park University where he received a BFA in Modern dance. He has had the opportunity to work and collaborate with artists such as Sidra Bell, slowdanger, Christian Warner, Alexander Anderson, and Mark Caserta. AJ has performed at many venues across the country including the MET Museum, Webster Hall, Carnegie Museum, and 12th Avenue Arts. His love for the natural world combined with his love for movement drives AJ to find a deeper, seamless connection between the two. AJ would like to thank his two beautiful mothers, without them he would not be where he is today.

Denise Ward is a multidisciplinary creative and arts advocate with a passion for community building. Her commitment to championing the next generation of artists and creatives drives her work as she strives to create inclusive and equitable spaces in the arts. Originally from Houston, TX and now based in NYC, Denise finds joy as a performer.

Anna Wotring (Director of Production) is a community-minded dance artist, lighting designer, and production stage manager, dedicated to the practice of collaborative leadership. As the Director of Production at Triskelion Arts, Wotring shapes programming that makes production design accessible to movement artists. Her work ensures that Trisk serves as a creative home, allowing artists to materialize their production vision and find imaginative pathways around and through tangible possibility. Wotring holds a B.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and serves as a lecturer in lighting design within the graduate program at Sarah Lawrence College.

Connor Sale (Lighting Designer) is a New York-based Designer and the Resident Lighting Designer of Triskelion Arts. Recent collaborations include I Believed it Too (Baryshnikov Arts Center), Time Piece (Pageant), The Missing Fruit, Part 1 (New York City Center/Fall For Dance), Das Ersatz; I want to hold onto something beautiful and empty; Meaghan Robichaud is the Greatest Show On Earth (The Brick), MEOW! (Exponential Festival), Femenine (PS21), the underscore; Star Spangled Manor; Dog God//Germ Angels; The Closties Variety Hour; Farewell My Fool; til infiniti; The Suite; ENUF (Triskelion Arts). He’s toured internationally with Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring (Sadler’s Wells/École des Sables), Akram Khan’s Gigenis, Faye Driscoll’s Weathering, and Teac Damsa’s MÁM. More of his work can be found at connorsale.com and at @connorsalelight.

We respectfully acknowledge that the work of Triskelion Arts is situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape peoples. We pay our respects to their land, water, and ancestors, past, present, and future. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism and to learning to be better stewards of this land.