About
(by-yay & ae-suh)
We were born & raised in New York City. We’ve known each other since first grade & our bodies are shaped by a shared education. Through the personal dynamics of our relationship we address the larger political landscape of our upbringing, struggling to show a reality of violence while communicating a necessity for empathy.
Hip Hop & African dance languages are the foundation of our technique. The rhythms of these techniques inform the way we energetically confront contemporary dance & theatre.
Baye & Asa is a company creating movement art projects directed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt. We met when we were 6 years old. The physical aggression in our choreography is a symptom of our political rage, and a yearning to personally implicate ourselves. We use our choreography to create political metaphors, interrogate systemic inequities, and contemporize ancient allegories; we build theatrical contexts that celebrate, implicate, and condemn the characters onstage.
We've presented work at The Joyce Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, 92nd Street Y, Mark Morris Dance Center, Battery Dance Festival, Dixon Place, Gibney Dance Center, Westbeth, South Hampton Arts Center, Thread Artist Space in Tambacounda Senegal, The Future Dance Festival, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Dance Camera West, Cucalorus Film Festival, LA Dance Film Festival, Portland Dance Film Festival, IN/MOTION, and given lecture performances at The University of Maryland, Bard College (NY), Hunter College (NYC), The Dalton School (NYC), and The Hotchkiss School (CN). Individually we have performed with Akram Khan Company, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, Abraham in Motion, David Dorfman Dance, Gallim, Kate Weare Company, and The Francesca Harper Project. We were one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2022, and we are currently creating new works for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.