Deborah Hay 2-Day Movement Workshop & Audition
Open call to take part in a Deborah Hay / Michael Smith Collaboration
Due to an immense response, applications for the workshop have now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted their interest. We will notify you if you've been selected to participate, with additional details to know including the Travis Heights address where the workshop will be taking place.
During this free workshop, participants will spend two afternoons with choreographer Deborah Hay doing very simple movements, alone and in groups. Your status as an elder is the only requirement.
Following the 2-day workshop Hay will cast the individuals who will perform her material within a Deborah Hay and Michael Smith collaborative artwork, which consists of a video and live performance(s) commissioned by The Contemporary Austin.
No previous dance training or performance experience required. By attending the workshop, you agree to be considered for casting. Participation in the workshop does not guarantee a role in the final video and performance. Participants will be asked to sign a waiver saying that they agree to be filmed and have their likenesses used.
Dates
Mar 30 (Mon) | 1–3P
Mar 31 (Tues) | 2:30-4:30P
Location
Travis Heights, address will be confirmed upon sign-up. Please note there is a flight of stairs leading up to the studio.
Participants must meet the following criteria
• An elder (self-identifying)
• Has never worked with Deborah Hay before
• No dance or performance experience required
• Available for rehearsals and filming in December 2026 / January 2027
• Available for occasional performance(s) at The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center, February – July 2027 (dates to be determined)
Applications are now closed. If you submitted your interest, you will be notified by Mar 24 (Tues), if you've been selected to participate.
About the artists
Deborah Hay
Hay trained in New York with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska during the 1960s. She became involved with the experimental Judson Dance Theater with Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, Alex Hay, Robert Morris, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Rauschenberg, among others. In 1964, Hay danced with the Cunningham Dance Company while on its world tour and when Rauschenberg served as its artistic director. In 1976, Hay moved to Austin, Texas, where, in 1980, the Deborah Hay Dance Company was established and continues its workshops today.
Hay’s work has been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, the Menil Collection, and the Getty Center among others. Recent exhibitions include Different Dances, Verdant Gallery, Austin, 2026, Perception Unfolds: Looking at Deborah Hay’s Dance, a site-specific video installation, at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, in 2014 and traveled to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut and her inclusion in the 2018 MoMA exhibition, Judson Dance Theatre: The Work Is Never Done. She was awarded the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2015. Hay is the author of four books, including Using the Sky: a dance (2016) and her archives have been recently acquired by the Harry Ransom Center and Archive at the University of Texas, Austin.
Michael Smith
Michael Smith is a performance/video/installation artist who has exhibited and performed widely at fine art and popular venues, including museums, galleries, theaters, festivals, nightclubs, television, children birthday parties, online, and in the street. His work has been shown internationally at festivals and biennials including the 2017 Sculpture Project Münster, the Glasgow International and the 2008 Whitney Biennial. He has exhibited at the Tate Modern, London; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Le Magasin, Grenoble; Jeu de Paume and Pompidou Center in Paris; Mumok, Vienna, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, PS1, and SculptureCenter in New York. His works are in the permanent collections of MoMA, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; Migros Museum, Zurich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brazil; The LWL Museum for Art and Culture, Münster, and the Blanton Museum, Austin.
Throughout his career, Smith has been actively engaged as a lecturer and instructor at various institutions, among them Yale University, Columbia University, the Royal Danish Academy, Cranbrook, CalArts, Art Center and UCLA. Smith currently serves as Professor of Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been teaching performance art since 2001.
IMAGES
Michael Smith, Excuse Me!?!…I’m looking for the ‘Fountain of Youth’: A Ballet in Three Acts, 2015 (still). Video, color, and sound. Produced in collaboration with choreographer Stephen Mills, Mayo Thompson, and Ballet Austin. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York. Photo: Michael P. Garza
Deborah Hay, My Choreographed Body...revisited, 2019. Commissioned by PEAK Performances at Montclair State University, NJ. Produced by Tanz im August and HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Courtesy the artist and Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX. Photo: Camille Blake