The Room We Carry is the first chapter of YOUTH, a dance-theatre duology.

Follow five teachers as they recount fragments of their youth, reconnecting with who they once were and the questions they still carry. Now they stand at the front of the room, responsible for what they share. But what happens when the rules about what they can teach or say begin to change?

Through highly physical movement, text, and projections, the work weaves personal confessions with the quiet tensions of being surveilled.

Inspired by the novel Jugend ohne Gott (Youth Without God) by Ödön von Horváth, the award winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin and award winning miniseries Adolescence, this work also grew from conversations with teachers, our James Madison University residency, and our first Youth Creation Program and its curriculum. Seeing social-emotional learning (SEL) challenged in parts of the US made us question about the space left for the next generation. The work carries that unease, but also a tenderness for those who keep making space for others.

First Preview: November 5th, 2026

Length: approximately 50 minutes

Direction/Choreography/Text: Nicole von Arx (in collaboration with the cast)

Performance: Caitlin Taylor, Gabe Katz, Dareon Blowe, Juan Carlos Franquiz II, and Michael Greenberg

Music: Nicolas Jaar, Benjamin Louis Brody and Eliot Krimsky

Lighting Design: Kyle Driggs

Projection Design: Amanda Hameline

Understudies: Derek Lee, Thy-Lan Alcalay

Support: This program has been made possible in part through the sponsorship of Counterpart, with funding provided by the Danse Mirage Foundation.

Photos by Stepan Liubimov