not a dance company
not a dance company
Not A Dance Company is a movement arts collective founded by Payge Lecakes and based in New York. Their work strives to unpack, explore, and critically analyze societal patterns, constructs, and impacts as independent dance artists within a communal structure. A strong believer in dance as a form of communication, Lecakes’ work delves into the human condition, picking apart the deeply rooted yet relatively unquestioned aspects of modern life in a way that can be shared and understood by all who take part in it. They hold Not A Dance Company as an extension of and home for this work, challenging the institution of ‘the dance company’ and seeking more equitable alternatives that safeguard the autonomy and identities of each artist as separate individuals, most notably through the provision of space for personal experience and expression through the work produced within the collective.
RECENT PRESS
Founder and director Payge Lecakes sat down with CanvasRebel to discuss Not A Dance Company’s ethos and their hopes for the future of the dance field and community.
BODY OF WORK
you and me, at the end of it all (2025)
With environmental collapse, world-wide government-sactioned violence, and an ever-worsening social and political landscape available at our fingertips, how do we manage that which we cannot control? “you and me, at the end of it all’ grapples with the tension between staying engaged with the many atrocities made acessible for our viewing through Social Media and the impact that constant exposure to these can have on one’s mental and physical wellbeing, inviting audiences to stave off feelings of powerlessness by strengthing their interpersonal connections.
Premiered at Dancing Beyond 2025, presented by Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance in support of Dance Against Cancer and the American Cancer Society, in January of 2025
Choreography by Payge Lecakes
Performed by McKenzie Brewer and Kanon Sugino
Music: “Chrome Country" by Oneohtrix Point Never
Lighting Design by Maggie DeFrees
Videography: Milan Misko
Photography: Aidan Rivera
Costume Design: Payge Lecakes
getting up to fall back down again (2024)
“getting up to fall back down again” is a somatic exploration of living under a capitalist system as a movement arts worker. When one’s well-being is dependent on their ability to provide capital value to a society that does not, in turn, value the work that they do, how can this influence both their personal stability as well as their connections to those in similar positions around them? What impact does the constant need to pick themselves back up from rejection and financial instability have on the trajectory of their life and relationships? Loosely inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, this piece utilizes dynamic contemporary movement and floorwork to explore these questions, ultimately seeking to physicalize and confront the reality of life without systematic support for the movement arts and showcase the willpower and resilience required of those who choose to pursue the field professionally.
Originally premiered as a work-in-progress at Uptown Rising Performance Series, presented by Bridge for Dance and curated by Robert Redick (Fall 2024), before being further developed and performed as part of Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company's STUDIO TO STAGE Residency Program.
Choreography by Payge Lecakes
Collaborators during early development: Jade Bowen-Jean, Maggie DeFrees, Amil Giunti, Kylie Grossman, and Alicia "Honey" Williams
Uptown Rising Credits
Performers: Mackenzie Bing, McKenzie Brewer, Libby McKenzie, Victoria Serra, and Kanon Sugino
Music: "Instrumental" - Performed by Black Country, New Road; Written by Charlie Wayne, Georgia Ellery, Issac Wood, Lewis Evans, Luke Mark, May Kershaw, Tyler Hyde; Produced by Andrew Savours
Lighting Design: Robert Redick
Videography: Aly Douglas
STUDIO TO STAGE Credits
Performers: McKenzie Brewer, Hannah Howell, Ciana Jao, Libby McKenzie, and Kanon Sugino
Music: "Opus" and "Instrumental" - Performed by Black Country, New Road; Written by Charlie Wayne, Georgia Ellery, Issac Wood, Lewis Evans, Luke Mark, May Kershaw, Tyler Hyde; Produced by Andrew Savours
Lighting Design: Georgia Piano
Videography: Jayden Bempong, Gary Wachter
Photography: Aidan Rivera
Photographs are from the work’s development for Bridge for Dance’s Uptown Rising Performance Series.
FUNHOUSE (2024)
FUNHOUSE is a somatic exploration of the complexities and impacts of gender presentation within a cis-normative, capitalist society. It unpacks the intrinsically dichotomous and contradictory nature of ‘passing’ through a genderqueer lens, reckoning with the supposed safety and social value that comes with ‘passing’ as a trans individual within the understanding that such a safe haven is not accessible to those who hold non-binary identities. Pulling from Lecakes’ experiences as well as those of the dancers, it highlights the detriment that assumptions based on physical gender markers and expression can have on genderqueer people and their construction, understanding, and sense of self, calling for a reexamination of the role of strict binary categorization in the appointment of one’s societal value.
Direction and Choreography by Payge Lecakes
Performers: Zil Inami, Kanon Sugino
Videography by Sasha Reist, Editing by Payge Lecakes
Musical score composed by Caroline Stemmerman, Performed by Carmani
Costume Design: Payge Lecakes
Rehearsal Assistant: Kanon Sugino
Production Assistant: Aidan Rivera
Rehearsal Photos: Aidan Rivera
Selected for Dance Source Houston’s 2025 Barnstorm Dance Fest
and when it pours, (2024)
when it rains, it pours; and when it pours, we weather the storm.
What do we do when the things we can’t control become the things that control the route of our lives? Do we double down on that which we can control? Do we begin to extend this control to those around us? How can we begin to lose control of ourselves in the process of attempting to regain it? Who do we become when we relinquish control of where we are going?
“when it pours,” questions the role of control in our lives, following the way in which it impacts, shapes, and constructs our social lives and access as well as our sense of self.
Performed at the National Dance Institute for Dancing Beyond 2024, presented by Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance and Dance Against Cancer.
Rehearsal Assistant: Kanon Sugino
Lighting Design by Payge Lecakes and Maggie DeFrees
Videography by Milan Misko
Photography by Ally Douglas
Cast: Valerie Abegg, McKenzie Brewer, Kelsey Donovan, Amya Fortunato, Paul Gamble, Angelina Laguna, and Kanon Sugino
Music Credits: Audio from Jack Stauber's "rain" ; "Big Big Love (Fig. 2)", performed by Foals, written by Edwin Cogreave, Jack Bevan, James Smith, Walter Gervers, and Yannis Philippakis
heel, toe. (2023)
I have walked on the balls of my feet (literally) since I learned to walk. When I was in the first grade, my teacher would pull me out of line to fix this, pushing my heels down and repeating to me repeatedly, “heel, toe”. Our bodies and how they perform in the world around us are constantly under surveillance by the ‘powers-that-be’, impacting how we occupy them and the spaces we enter. How do we change this performance to fit more neatly into the norms and expectations held for us? How does our audience impact our performance as bodies?
Premiered at Bridge for Dance's Uptown Rising Performance Series in December of 2023
Performance by Payge Lecakes
Lighting Design by Robert Redick
Videography by Ally Douglas
Music: "Nihterinos Peripatos - Remastered 1998" by Manos Hadjidakis
sublime edge of the eternal hereafter (2023)
Created as a dual thesis for my BFA in Dance and BA in Gender Studies from Purchase College, “sublime edge” is a journey through the process of learning how to be ‘woman’, specifically from the perspective of a non-woman. Drawing from both personal experience and academic research, it attempts to examine and deconstruct feminine socialization and its impacts, commenting on how the ways in which we are taught to be can stifle who we are able to become.
Lighting design: Jaqueline Cabrero
Videography and Photography: Isabella Pagano
Cast: Charlotte Aucella (she/her), Symone Denwood (she/her), West Devaney, Kiae George-Long (she/her), Libiya Gray (she/her), Zil Inami (they/them), Elinor Kleber Diggs (they), A’lia Martin (she/her), Sophie Ortiz (they/she), and Tamya Stevenson (she/her)*
Music: “Disappeared but Not Forgotten”, written and produced by Jurriaan Terpstra, performed by nthng; “Happy Hymn”, performed by Ricky Eat Acid, written by Sam Ray; “I’m Every Sparkly Woman” by Ana Roxanne; “Being Dead Sounds Magnificent'' by dandelion hands; Excerpt from Judith Butler’s “Why Bodies Matter” (2015) ; Excerpt from “Dream Sweet in Sea Major”, originally performed by Miracle Musical, covered by Carmani, arrangement by Caroline Stemmermann
Music editing: Payge Lecakes and Aidan Rivera
Costuming: Gail Baldoni and Payge Lecakes
Special thanks to Amya Fortunato and Kanon Sugino
*The pronouns listed here are subject to change but are included due to the nature of the work. They represent the identification of the cast members at the time of the work’s performance.
Required Reading and Viewing:
Cixous, Hélène. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Translated by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976. JSTOR, DOI: 199.79.170.209.
“Performances: Waiting.” About Faith Wilding. Refugia, http://faithwilding.refugia.net/waiting.
Preciado, Paul. Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era. Translated by Bruce Benderson. The Feminist Press, 2013.
Snorton, Riley C. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Tavares, Luís de Barreiros. “Judith Butler: ‘Why Bodies Matter’ - Gender Trouble | Full Conference.” Youtube, 30 Sep. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzWWwQDUPPM&ab_channel=LbtavaresTavares.
If you are looking for access to the above texts or are interested in the autoethnography, entitled “Notes from the Other Side of the Eternal Hereafter: Non-Binary Reflections on Feminine Coding and Socialization”, accompanying this work please reach out to me by email.
bourne (2022)
How much responsibility can we take on for the well-being of those closest to us? “bourne” seeks to examine the hard truth that one cannot help another without the existence and active want for help, exploring the all-too grey boundary between assistance and reliance.
Performed at the Jamaica Dance Festival on behalf of Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance in June of 2022.
Cast: Payge Lecakes, Sasha Reist
Previous Collaborators: Kaliana Medlock, Alexander Faraday
Music: "Marathon (In Roses)" by Gem Club
taming blues (2022)
Created as part of the Junior year curriculum at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College and with its tongue resting deep in its cheek , “taming blues” pokes fun at the absurd reality of late-stage capitalism. It seeks to highlight the performance of work within this structure, commenting on the ways in which it devalues and homogenizes personhood in exchange for the prioritization of mindless work that is only in service of itself.
Performed at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College in May of 2022.
Videography: Isabella Pagano
Cast: Gianna Goldey, Jael Griffin, A’lia Martin, Tamya Stevenson, Kanon Sugino
Music: "Joe Tex, These Taming Blues" by Phosphorescent
familyofTHINGS (2022)
What do we do with the parts that have made us up once they no longer service? Holding this quandary at its center, “familyofTHINGS” critically analyzes and explores the process of socialization and its impact on one’s construction of self in a cis-heteronormative society that is built on white supremacist ideals. When who we are is built on incongruencies and tainted by societal expectations, how do we uncover who we are meant to be?
Performed at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College in May of 2022.
Videography: Isabella Pagano
Cast: Star Coltrin, Minylan Echols, Zil Inami, Lola Jenkins
Audio: "Daisy Bell", Composed by Harry Dacre (1892), Performed by an IBM computer (1960); Audio included on the Voyager Golden Record (1977); Clips from the WKCR hijacking (1994), “Wild Gesse” (published in 2004), Written and Performed by Mary Oliver
kishin. (2021)
After Atsushi Okubo, “kishin” is a study in loneliness, fear, and the struggle to find true community and interpersonal connections while holding identities that are indigestible. How can we be known by others if we do not know ourselves? How do we reckon with the potentiality that and implications if the latter is unattainable? How can we build steady social bonds while our identities are constant in their fluctuations?
Premiered at DAD ICE, an independently organized interdisciplinary movement arts festival for students at SUNY Purchase College, in December of 2021.
Choreography, Direction, Editing, and Performance: Payge Lecakes.
Featuring animation from Soul Eater Episode 24 (Directed by Takuya Igarashi, 2008)
Audio: "II" by Ritt Momney; "Belated Birthday Present" by dandelion hands; "Once Upon a Time" by Kimya Dawson; "Ending Theme" by nthng; and "Thank You" by Florist
Audio Mixing: Payge Lecakes.
skin and blister (2021)
Inspired by both Charlotte Zlotow's "Big Sister and Little Sister" and my personal life experience, “skin and blister” is an exploration of the institution of sisterhood. It seeks to answer how shared trauma, history, and up-bringing can both build and sever bonds, impacting the way in which we relate to our relations. When someone has been where you have, how do those shared experiences influence where you go?
Premiered at the Bridge for Dance Uptown Rising performance series in October of 2021.
Videography and Photography: Aidan Rivera
Cast: Ma'ayan Kaplan, Sophie Ortiz, Kanon Sugino
Music: "Intro Song (ft. Paul Dano)" and "Montage (ft. Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe)" by Andy Hull and Robert MacDowell
conditional forms (2021)
In the wake of the 2020 (read: the ongoing) COVID-19 crisis, the dance world was forced to re-contextualize the art it produces and which modes of production are considered to be palatable. Without a clear picture of the conditions for the future of our art, how can we continue to strive for success within it?
Conceived at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, '“conditional forms” is a response to the intersection of capitalism and dance, unpacking the commodification of art and artists and the impact that such has on creation and creators alike, calling for a broader reevaluation of art-making that still resonates (read: is needed) today.
Primered at the Dance is Actisim Film Festival in February of 2021; Presented by Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, Bridge for Dance, and the Producers Club.
Choreographed, directed, and edited by Payge Lecakes.
Videography and editing by Aidan Rivera.
Cast: Sol Court, Alexander Faraday, Joseph Hodge, Payge Lecakes, Sophie Ortiz, Kanon Sugino
Music: "Born, Never Asked" by Laurie Anderson; "Interlude 1 (Rot and Ruin)" by alt-J; “Between the Bars" by The Mctague Twins
we’re here; (2019)
In collaboration with Sasha Reist, '“we’re here;” is a celebration of queer connection and community. It showcases a journey of self-discovery and awakening, illustrating how seeing ourselves in those around us can help facilitate the discovery and healing of the self.
Premiered at Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts in July of 2019.
Choreographed by Payge Lecakes and Sasha Reist
Videography by Adam Reist and Dare to Be Films
Photography by Shannel Resto
Cast: Alex Bar, Tamere Chambers, Joseph Goffy, Monica Hill, Kristian Renolds, Taj, Libran-Newman, Tashae Udo
Music: “Suite Bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair De Lune”, Composed by Claude Debussy, Performed by Steve Anderson; "Banana Slugs-Cosmonaut" by High Places; “Babys” by Bon Iver
Consequence of Sound (2018)
How do we communicate with the people around us? With so many factors, methods, and forms of interpersonal interaction, it can be easy to lose understanding in translation. “Consequence of Sound” takes a deeper look at how we relate to others, questioning the role and purpose that our social lives have and serve in our broader scope of selfhood. Can humans truly be considered social creatures in consideration to the anxieties and misinterpretations that can arise in those situations?
Premiered at Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts in July of 2018
Photography by Julia Discenza
Cast: Joseph Goffy, M'Shiari Gonzales, Orlando Harbutt, Payge Lecakes, Sol Messiah
Music: "Consequence of Sound" by Regina Spektor