Trisha Brown Dance Company To Present Pelican Gala At Xanadu Roller Arts

The Trisha Brown Dance Company's (TBDC) Pelican Gala, celebrating the visionary legacies of Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg, will take place on May 18, 2026, at Xanadu Roller Arts, Brooklyn's premier roller-skating rink. Part of the company's ongoing tribute to the Rauschenberg centennial, the evening will feature three rarely seen dances: a re-envisoned version of Rauschenberg's Pelican and Brown's Skunk Cabbage, Salt Grass and Waders—both not performed since the 1960s—and Brown's Rulegame 5. A roller-skating dance party and rink-side cocktail reception will follow the performance. Generous support for the event has been provided by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.

“The Pelican Gala will pay tribute to the enduring friendship and mutual influence of two seminal artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and honor their humor, innovation, playful spirit, and artistic daring,” said TBDC's Executive Director Kirstin Kapustik. “The gala will give guests the rare opportunity to discover Rauschenberg—celebrated for his groundbreaking painting and graphic artistry—as a cutting-edge choreographer.”

Rauschenberg's Pelican, reimagined here in artistic collaboration with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, was the artist's first work of choreography. Created for an abandoned roller rink, Pelican featured Rauschenberg himself among the original cast, who circled the space on skates and bicycles while wearing billowing parachutes. The score combines “found sounds,” including fragments of music, ringing telephones, and honking car horns. The work—which hasn't been performed since 1966—was titled by Brown. The gala performance will feature former Merce Cunningham dancers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener on roller skates, alongside New York City Ballet soloist Ashley Hod. Pelican has been reimagined by former TBDC dancer Tara Lorenzen, drawing on original photographs by Peter Moore, archival video footage, and Rauschenberg's notes.

Trisha Brown's intimate, improvisational early work, Skunk Cabbage, Salt Grass and Waders, was rooted in her childhood memories of duck hunting with her father. The dance was performed to a taped monologue written and recorded by Brown, layered with spoken text and ambient sounds. She wore a white cotton dress and used simple props: a water-filled bucket and a chair. The dance, titled by Rauschenberg, premiered at a Manhattan gallery in 1967 and was last seen in 1969. The piece has been reimagined and will be performed by TBDC alumna Laurel Jenkins.

Rulegame 5 (1964) features five performers navigating seven paths within a 21-square-foot grid. Beginning upright, they move across seven parallel lines, continuously adjusting their levels to maintain a progression from highest to lowest as they pass along the vertical plane. The sound score consists of the performers' own spoken instructions as they freeze and direct one another in real time to maintain the progression. Rauschenberg and Brown were both members of the original cast.