She did not begin dancing until high school in Ojai, California, but once Gianna Burright began she worked hard, did her research, and earned degrees. Along the way, she received encouragement and recognition from very important dance artists including Jojo Alsberry, Lillian Barbeito, Peter Chu, Alex Ketley, Dianne McIntyre, and Risa Steinberg. That acknowledgement continues and on Thursday, November 12, and Friday, November 13, 2026, Baryshnikov Arts Center will present the World Premiere of Burright’s work As if everything was perfect in its Jerome Robbins Theater in New York City.
One iteration of As if everything was perfect was presented by producer/curator Barbara Mueller-Wittmann and Odyssey associate artistic director Beth Hogan on their Dance at the Odyssey in July of 2024. I saw that performance and was very impressed by her work. In the fall of that same year, Burright was awarded a Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency. She also was selected for residencies at the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Intensive, and in she had a choreographic residency at Kennesaw State University in the state of Georgia.
Dance at the Odyssey – Nicole Hagen in “As if everything was perfect” by Gianna Burright – Photo by Hope Spears.
In just over a decade, Burright has presented choreographic work in fifteen countries including at iconic venues such as The Bonnie Bird Theater, The Place, Turner Contemporary Gallery, Waterloo East Theatre, STEPS, OPEN DOORS North America, and the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Recently, Burright agreed to an interview on Zoom to talk about her background and her path to this upcoming New York premiere.
In one of her press releases, Burright proclaimed herself as a late bloomer. I asked her to explain.
“I know starting dance in high school isn’t that late, but as a female dancer I felt behind walking into my first formal ballet class when I was 16 years old.” Burright said. She was reluctant when her mother forced her into the high school dance program. She admits, however, that it change her life’s trajectory from there. What helped was that Burright had been physically very active, playing competitive soccer and horseback riding. “Everything switched from there.”
Alex Rix, Ariel Clarke and Piper Dye in rehearsal for Gianna Burright’s “As if everything was perfect” – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
Burright took ballet classes local studios in Ventura County, and Burright now teaches at the Nordhoff Junior High and High School in Ojai where she began her training.
From the beginning, Burright chose not to go the route of dancing in other people’s work or companies. She received her associates at Moorpark College, transferred to UC Santa Barbara, and moved to London, England immediately afterwards where she earned her MFA at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. All the time she performed in her own work. She moved back to Ojai in 2018 and was saving up to move to New York when the Covid pandemic put the brakes on the lives of everyone around the world.
In 2023, Burright applied for an artist residency for the 2024-2025 cycle. “Baryshnikov Arts Center was always a dream for me to be able to have an artist residency and to be supported by Misha [Baryshnikov],” She said. “The studios are amazing and the residency is wonderful. It was always something that I wanted and never thought would be possible until it happened.”
Piper Dye, Ariel Clarke, Alex Rix in rehearsal for Gianna Burright’s “As if everything was perfect” – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
Burright began working on As If everything was perfect in 2022 when she was selected as a Jacob’s Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow. On the last day of that residency, she learned that she had received the Dance Gallery Ardsley Choreographic Residency which is located in upstate New York in the Catskill Mountains. According to their website, “the Ardsley Choreographic residency is a weeklong, all-inclusive residency in collaboration with Catskill Art Space in Livingston Manor, NY.”
The composer for As if everything was perfect is Sio Tepper who is based in Brooklyn, NY and here is southern California. When Burright and her dancers traveled to upstate New York for the residency, Tepper was able to join them, something that is always wonderful for everyone involved.
Composer Sio Tepper in rehearsal for Gianna Burright’s “As if everything was perfect” – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
After applying for places to perform, in 2023 Burright self-funded a small residency in Ojai where he film the still evolving As if everything was perfect. She shared that she had always planned that this evening-length work would take five years to complete. Her patience paid off when a week after the self-funded residency, Burright learned that she received the residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Of course, the next step was to raise the funding to get everyone to New York. Part of that came from the Ojai Arts Council.
“And then we went to New York and developed it in the fall of 2024,” she related. “I received some amazing feed back from Misha and other people and remained in dialogue with the center about the work and my dreams with the work.”
Alex Rix, Ariel Clarke, Piper Dye in rehearsal for Gianna Burright’s “As if everything was perfect” – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
“Gianna Burright is a serious artist with a clear artistic vision,” said Baryshnikov. “We loved having her as a residency artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center and look forward to finding ways to support her continued development in the future.”
I asked Burright if the work had changed since it was presented on the Dance at the Odyssey festival. “Yes,” She exclaimed, “It has a lot. When it happened at the Odyssey, it was before my Baryshnikov residency, so that changed in the fall of ’24, and then we spent three weeks earlier this year in New York in the summer developing the work.”
Ariel Clarke, Alex Rix, Piper Dye in rehearsal for Gianna Burright’s “As if everything was perfect” – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
Burright said that her work is now about an hour long and that the musicians will be performing live with the composer, Tepper, performing on piano and potentially guitar as well as another musician playing violin. “So the sonic score has changed, the piece has expanded and we’ve had some casting changes,” Burright said. “There’s more text involved in the work and more prop work.”
Creating this work has been a journey Burright admits. “Making every piece, I have a moment of am I making a dance or are we just moving props? What are we doing? And then I look at the dancers and they’re like, no, we’re dancing very hard.” She agreed with me that As if everything was perfect can fit into the category of dance theater.
When describing the piece, Burright only said that when the audience enters the theater the musicians are onstage playing their music. Once onstage, the dancers never leave, and that there are lots of costume changes that take place onstage as clothing has become more integral to the work. Like many artists, she wants the audience to see the work and decide for themselves what it means or is about.
Gianna Burright – Photo by Brittney Nevison.
The only hint comes from a statement in her press release. Blending contemporary dance and original live piano and violin, As if everything was perfect invites audiences to explore the emotional weight of inherited expectations and the deeply human desire to find meaning and purpose. “The piece began as a response to the push and pull of expectation – too much, too little, too early, too late,” said Burright. “The choreography unfolds through fantasies, nightmares, memories, and imagined utopias, blurring the lines between reality and illusion in an emotionally charged physical landscape.”
The other collaborators for Gianna Burright’s As if everything was perfect include dancers Alex Rix, Ariel Clarke, Piper Dye, and Bryaunna Kostelnik (understudy), with original composition and live performance by Sio Tepper (composer/pianist) and Camille Schiess (musician/violinist).
Performance Details:
As if everything was perfect (World Premiere)
Thursday, November 12, and Friday, November 13, 2026
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Address: 450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
Ticket Information: https://baryshnikovarts.org/
For more information about Gianna Burright, please visit her website.
For more information about Baryshnikov Arts Center, please visit their website.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Rehearsal photo from Gianna Burright’s As if everything was perfect – Photo by Stephen Cummings.
