UNMAM proudly announces that the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company (DTSBDC) will debut a world premiere piece at the 2025 Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Conference, hosted by UNMAM, June 24-27, 2025.  

UNMAM commissioned DTSBDC to create Sudden Snow, which draws inspiration from the work of abstract expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler. Company founder Dana Tai Soon Burgess — an alumnus of UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance — is a nationally recognized choreographer who served as the Smithsonian Institution’s first choreographer-in-residence from 2016 to 2023.  

The Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company is Washington, D.C.’s premier modern dance company specializing in the works for both museums and stage. Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman describes the company as “Not only a Washington prize, but a national dance treasure.” 

“It is an honor to create a new dance inspired by the work of Helen Frankenthaler for the UNM Art Museum and the AAMG community. My education at UNM led me on a lifelong journey to explore the confluence of dance and the visual arts,” said Burgess. “This unique opportunity, to return home to UNM, with a tribute to Helen Frankenthaler is truly special.” 

Commission showcases alumni, collaboration 

UNMAM previously hosted the premiere performance of Transformations, a work inspired by the New Mexico-based Transcendental Painting Group, from DTSBDC in 2023. 

The AAMG conference commission reflects UNMAM’s ongoing commitment to recognizing UNM alumni through its public programs and exhibitions. The exhibition High Five Hall of Fame, which closes out the current academic year at UNMAM, highlights personal narratives from alumni and contributors about how specific artists and artworks from the UNMAM permanent collection influenced them. 

“We wanted to give conference attendees a truly special, memorable experience to enjoy,” says UNMAM Director Arif Khan. “We have worked with Dana before to bring dance into museum spaces, and this performance will be equally inspirational.” 

The performance takes place on the opening night of the AAMG conference. Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, also a UNM alumni, will deliver the keynote address that same evening. Conference registration is required to attend. 

Dance piece echoes artwork’s movement, emotions 

“Sudden Snow” complements the exhibition Push & Pull: The Prints of Helen Frankenthaler and Her Contemporaries, on view at UNMAM through May 17, 2025. 

“It is an honor to create a new dance for the UNM Art Museum and the AAMG community. The dance titled Sudden Snow exemplifies how kinesthetic inspiration can be found in visual art, as well as how museum programming can amplify and deepen the audience experience,” says Burgess.

Known for her iconic soak-stain technique, Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011) helped shape an entire art movement. She was influenced by other abstract painters including Hans Hofmann and Jackson Pollock, as well as by Asian Buddhist calligraphy practices. It is this intersection of abstraction and Eastern aesthetics that inspires Burgess’s choreography for this new work.  
 
The half-hour dance for eight dancers from the Company includes a visual montage of Frankenthaler’s Sudden Snow (1987), a 10-color lithograph. “The dance is created to reflect the movement and emotions of Frankenthaler’s paint and canvas; the dancers are akin to the movement of paint across the stage,” says Burgess. 

The piece features original fabric designs by Taos Pueblo designer Patricia Michaels with costumes by Icelandic designer Sigrid Johannesdöttir, and a musical score consisting of Romantic Era compositions. The compositions are works that Frankenthaler listened to while painting in her New York studio. The musical score will be played live by DTSBDC collaborative pianist Dana Nichole Scott accompanied by a cellist and a violinist.  

Celebrating UNMAM’s innovation 

Khan notes that the commission aligns with the AAMG conference by underscoring the distinctive role that academic museums such as UNMAM can play as both educational centers and sites for innovative collaboration. For example, Push & Pull was made possible through a generous gift of 20 prints by Helen Frankenthaler, part of Phase II of the Frankenthaler Prints Initiative. 

UNMAM was one of only 10 university art museums selected for the initiative. Along with the prints, the museum received a $25,000 grant to support a project focused on the study, presentation, and interpretation of Frankenthaler’s editions. As a result, during the Fall 2024 semester, UNM students enrolled in the course “Abstraction on Paper: Curating Postwar American Prints and Drawings (AHIS 429/529)” helped develop the exhibition. 

“The exhibition, the class and now the dance commission point to the unique capacity of academic museums to bring together scholarship, creativity and public engagement through interdisciplinary collaboration,” says Khan. 

The 2025 conference marks the first time AAMG’s flagship event will be held in New Mexico as well as the first time that the UNMAM will host the prestigious annual conference. AAMG leads national efforts to ensure best practices for academic museums, galleries, and collections through its educational and advocacy initiatives.
 
The AAMG Annual Conference is the largest professional gathering for academic museum and gallery staff, educators, curators, and students in the United States.