Poly Dancers Collaborate Across Divisions in Innovative Performance with Acclaimed Artist

On Thursday, November 13, Poly begins the first of three performances of The Speech (NYC) as part of the Performa 2025 Biennial. This collaboration with Performa 2025 Biennial, a globally recognized non-profit organization celebrating its 20th anniversary and renowned for its Biennial festival dedicated to performance art, marks an exciting milestone for Poly.

The Speech (NYC) is a collaborative piece by artist Lina Lapelytė and Poly students from Grades 2 through 12. Originally scheduled to take place at Federal Hall, a historic New York City landmark, the show was relocated to Harlem Parish due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. (See below for information to see the performances.) To prepare, Poly dancers participated in weeks of rehearsals that included the artist, the choreographer, and Courtney Cooke, Poly’s dance teacher from Lower School, with whom older students reunited on the “big campus.” 

Exploring The Speech

The Speech (NYC) places Poly students at the heart of a professional arts production, exploring the relationships between humans, animals, language, and sound through role play, collective vocalization, and movement. Students walk through the room making various animal noises, from a dog to a rat, in choreographed movements. ”Performance art and improvised movement and sound scores provide a space for our student performers to play and explore,” said Cooke. This project is ideal “to highlight the essential skills of our curriculum: collaboration, creativity, and community.” 

“It’s really about the failure of speech…”

The abstract piece, like all performance art, requires reflection. “It’s not about perfectly imitating animal sounds, but about using our imagination and our bodies as transmitters of that creativity,” said Lapelytė. The artist provides a perspective for viewers to think about the performance: “Even though it’s called The Speech (NYC), it’s really about the failure of speech, the limitations of human language, and an invitation for children and audiences alike to connect on a more primal level, through sound, space, and the simple act of listening.” 

When the opportunity arose to collaborate with Performa and artist Lina Lapelytė, Cooke saw it as the perfect way to bring her students’ improvisational talents to a broader audience. “I have seen thousands of magical moments happen inside the dance studio over my years at Poly Prep. Our students are strong, intuitive improvisers and performers. I have long dreamed of sharing their talents with a public audience.” When Performa producer Caitlin Adams reached out, Cooke enthusiastically said yes. “I could immediately envision the students succeeding within the concept and material.”

On top of that, working with current Lower School students and with her former students now in Middle School was a treat for Cooke. “There is nothing better than getting a surprise hello from a former student in the hallway.” 

A Unique Collaboration

 “As an artist, [Lapelytė] is incredibly clever in the way she explores deep, serious issues that concern us all—but does so with such beauty and subtlety, said Founding Director and Chief Curator of Performa RoseLee Goldberg. ”She invites children to think about how animals communicate, and while on the surface it’s playful and imaginative, it opens up profound questions about our relationship to animals and to the world around us.” 

Goldberg shares her excitement for Poly students to work with the multidisciplinary artist, anticipating that the experience may shape the way students see and understand the world. “When you experience an artwork like this, you’re engaging on so many levels: visually, spatially, sonically, relationally. You notice how the artist composes an image, how she’s created this beautiful carpet that the students will build together. There’s so much to unpack, and it holds tremendous potential for students and teachers alike to spark new conversations about what the work is achieving.”

The (Performance) Art of Listening

Lapelytė believes that the performance will encourage students and audience members to practice listening in a new way. “The first thing the children had to learn was how to listen to one another. It was important to me that five-year-olds share the same stage with seventeen-year-olds; there’s a sense of care and communication in that exchange…”

Why Poly

The artist, like Poly itself, values experiential learning, The Speech (NYC) offers students a chance to work with a living artist, becoming both collaborators and performers. “It was really a combination of factors,” Lapelytė said about choosing to work with Poly. “One was discovering a movement teacher, Courtney [Cooke], who was willing to create this opportunity for children to perform beyond the school walls.” Lapelytė found the experience meaningful. “For me, it’s important to offer something that feels real, where children are part of the process of making the piece… It also meant a lot that [Poly] was open to integrating the material of the performance into the curriculum.”

The world of dance remains largely new to Sarah Mangerson P’26, ’31. She’s experiencing it through her Middle Schooler who has been dancing at Poly for the last two years. “This is not something that happens everywhere,” she says, talking about the Poly Arts partnerships with prestigious organizations like STREB and Performa NYC. “We know it’s special.” What moves Mangerson most is the transformation she’s witnessed in her daughter. “This performance has shown her that she’s capable of so much more than she ever realized, and it fills me with joy to see the growth and confidence she’s discovering in herself.”

Seeing The Speech

Poly families are invited to attend the public performances of The Speech (NYC) using an exclusive discount code. Please see the Poly Pulse for the discount code and as well as important updates including performance venue and dates. Click here to learn more about the performance, the Performa Biennial, and to purchase tickets.

Read the New York Times feature on the partnership between Poly and Performa.

About the Artist

Lina Lapelytė (b. 1984, lives and works in London and Vilnius) grounds her practice in music, flirting with elements of pop culture, gender stereotypes, nostalgia, and ecology. Her works engage trained and untrained performers, often in an act of singing across genres, from mainstream music to opera. The vocal expression becomes a collective, affective event that questions vulnerability and silencing.

In 2019, her work Sun & Sea (Marina)—created with Vaiva Grainytè and Rugilè Barzdžiukaitè, and curated by Lucia Pietroiusti—won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale. Lapelytė received Lithuania’s National Prize for Culture and Arts in 2020. She holds a BA in Classical Violin (2006) and Sound Arts (2009) and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Arts, London (2013).

Her works were shown at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris; Biennale de Lyon; Public Art Munich; HCMF, Huddersfield; Frac, Nantes; Lafayette Anticipations Foundation Gallery, Paris; Castello di Rivoli; Space Gallery, London; Gherdeina Biennale; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Moca, LA; BAM, New York; Tai Kwun, HK; Glasgow International; Riga Biennial – RIBOCA2; Cartier Foundation Gallery, Paris; Kunsthalle Praha; National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; Moderna Museet, Malmo; FIAC, Paris; Venice Art Biennial, Venice; Rupert, Vilnius; Hayward touring show, UK; Serpentine, London.