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Published on October 24, 2025
Ensemble in "Of Dishes and Dreams." Photo: Maria Baranova
Of Dishes and Dreams
World Premiere Commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts
Choreography and Direction: Keerati Jinakunwiphat, in collaboration with the artists
Performers: Jennifer Florentino, Zack Gonder, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Alysia Johnson, Claude “CJ” Johnson, and Ryan Yamauchi
Site-Specific Mixed Media Installation: Bryndon Cook and Quaba Venza Ernest
Costume Designer: Karen Young
Lighting Designer: Dan Stearns
Artistic Advisor: Doug Varone
Consultant: Rachel Davis
Text Conceived by Keerati Jinakunwiphat
Writing and Voiceover: Chacha Tahng
Photos: Dustin Dacier
Covers: Savannah Gaillard, Camille Phelps
Additional music credits: New Dawn by Sathapat Sangsuwan, Wave by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens by Andre 3000, and ลำปางใหญ่ by นิก กอไผ่
Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater
October 16 - 18, 2025
In Of Dishes and Dreams, Keerati Jinakunwiphat finds the steady heartbeat that thrums beneath the bustle of restaurant life: one of rhythm, care, and community. Jinakunwiphat’s first evening-length commission, which premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater on October 16th 2025, draws on her experiences growing up in her family’s Thai restaurant in Chicago. Through her direction, the kitchen emerges as both a workplace and metaphor as a site of order and chaos, of discipline and devotion.
Before the first of the work’s seventeen scenes, we encounter Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya's luminous installation of textiles, sculpture, and domestic objects. The sculpture rises and spills, from mounded clusters on the floor to vast hanging suspended overhead, its scale embracing us in a quiet, shimmering abundance. Rice sacks, glints of kitchen utensils, and layers of patterned fabric intermingle with more abstract textures, forming a patchwork that breathes with memory. Within this shrine-line landscape, Jinakunwiphat begins alone, her grounded movements tracing currents of reflection and gratitude that seem to awaken the objects around her.
Set to an original score by Bryndon Cook and Quaba Venza Ernest, Jinakunwiphat’s choreography pulses with the tempo of collective work. The ensemble of six (Jennifer Florentino, Zack Gonder, Alysia Johnson, Claude “CJ” Johnson, Ryan Yamauchi, and Jinakunwiphat) moves with a cohesion that mirrors the ebb and flow of a buzzing kitchen. Their unison passages capture the drive required to keep such a space in motion while also uncovering something deeply human beneath the surface.
Each dancer contributes a distinct rhythm and personality to the ensemble’s larger breadth, their movements imbued with remarkable nuance and intention while evoking both family and workplace relationships. The dancing unfolds thrillingly through various vignettes: smooth yet dynamic, supple yet grounded. Wide pants and loose short-sleeved shirts in various vibrant colors accentuate their free-flowing dancing. Throughout the piece, they adorn and remove identical chef jackets.
A sense of play seeps in most notably during a section titled Rice, where Yamauchi and Gonder’s duet transforms an everyday task — carrying a bag of rice — into a lesson in care and endurance. The two move like brothers, their shared labor tinged with teasing affection and instruction. Bathed in red light, the exchange unfolds as both mentorship and game, a push and pull between guidance and resistance. When Yamauchi finally hoists the sack onto Gonder’s shoulder, the moment lands with part triumph, part surrender, and entirely bound by love.
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Energy tightens in a later section, Knives, as bladed arms and slicing gestures punctuate the space in rigorous unison. The ensemble maneuvers with the precision of a kitchen during a dinner rush, revealing Jinakunwiphat’s command of group dynamics; her choreography thrives on momentum, syncopation, and trust.
The atmosphere shifts again when a timer rings and the hiss of a stove ignites the air. In Service, the cast bursts into motion as jazzy rhythms drive their pace, their gestures of offering extending toward the audience before folding back into organized chaos. The scene captures the elegant efficiency of a galley mid-rush, with each dancer attuned to their comrades and customers.
In Radio Poll, one of the evening’s most endearing scenes, humor and nostalgia intertwine through a duet between CJ Johnson and Jennifer Florentino. When an overhead broadcast announces a radio giveaway for Six Flags tickets, the pair eagerly joins the contest. “What makes a Thai restaurant authentic?” the announcer asks. Their answers spill out in an eager back-and-forth: “It takes 20 minutes for your food to arrive… or 40, if it is a small business… It has 3.5 stars on Yelp… There is a kid doing homework in the corner… The kid is waiting for their family to finally bring them home!” Each reply evokes comedy and tenderness, and beneath the laughter lingers a memory of family labor and love.
Quiet introspection follows in Daydream, where Yamauchi delivers a solo suspended between reverie and routine. Leaning against a stool before unfolding into wide, fluid motion, he embodies the flicker of imagination that surfaces in stillness. Perhaps on a mid-day break, or reflecting at the end of a long day, his expansive passage conveys a wistful yearning.
As the score erupts into a driving pulse, Chaos takes hold. Jinakunwiphat signals to her fellow dancers like the head chef conducting another dinner rush. Honks, clangs, and blares saturate the air as the group darts through the space in dizzying synchronization, their patterns teetering between control and collapse. What begins as organized frenzy dissolves into playful disarray as bodies collide, stumble, and recover.
The storm gives way to stillness in Patience, a duet between Yamauchi and CJ Johnson, that provides a quiet counterpoint to the prior tumult. Bathed in cool blue light, the two lean into each other with steady calm, their movements unfolding slowly and deliberately. Where Chaos exhales energy, Patience breathes it back in, a meditation on rest and mutual understanding.
Of Dishes and Dreams concludes as it begins, with Jinakunwiphat alone, her gestures echoing her opening solo. The same introspective current ripples through her body as she moves from commanding floorwork through dynamic shapes alongside the shrine-like sculpture. The final image reflects lineage, memory, and the laboring hands that shape meaning and purpose through repetition. Oscillating between tenderness and tension, individual expression and communal rhythm, Of Dishes and Dreams ultimately conveys something larger: the grace embedded within daily work and the quiet beauty of the subtle motions that uphold care itself.
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