New York Theatre Ballet Brings Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged to East Hampton

New York Theatre Ballet brings Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged to the Hamptons, exploring the artists’ turbulent marriage, Pollock’s death and the powerful work Krasner created in its aftermath

Few artist couples are as closely tied to East Hampton — or to each other’s mythology — as Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.

They lived and worked in Springs, part of a generation of artists drawn to the East End by its distinctive light and landscape, helping establish East Hampton as a center of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Their former home and studios are now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, where the paint-splattered floor of Pollock’s barn studio remains one of the most visceral links to his work.

Now their complicated story is coming to life through another art form — dance.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, New York Theatre Ballet brings Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged to LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, a 50-minute dance-theater work exploring the artists’ marriage, creative partnership, Pollock’s struggles with alcohol and infidelity, his sudden death and the remarkable period of painting that followed for Krasner.

Conceived by Claire Van Kampen and New York Theatre Ballet Artistic Director Antonia Franceschi, the work unfolds in LongHouse’s sculpture garden — just miles from the Springs home where Krasner and Pollock lived, painted and became two of the defining figures of postwar American art.

For Franceschi, whose career stretches from George Balanchine and New York City Ballet to London’s West End, bringing the work to East Hampton also brings the story back to the landscape where much of it happened.

“I had this idea brewing for four years,” said Franceschi, who divides her time between Sag Harbor and New York City. “I was at a concert at LongHouse and thought, ‘This is right near their home. How perfect.’”

The piece was inspired after Franceschi and the late composer and playwright Van Kampen dug into Krasner’s story and began brainstorming about how to bring it to the stage.

From Pollock’s death to Krasner’s Umber paintings

Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged does not romanticize one of the art world’s most famous marriages.

The work traces the relationship between the two artists through ambition, artistic discovery, addiction and infidelity, leading to the August 1956 car crash that killed Pollock and passenger Edith Metzger. Pollock, who was driving drunk, was traveling with Ruth Kligman, who survived the crash.

Krasner was in Paris when she learned that her husband had died.

She returned to Long Island and eventually began working in Pollock’s larger barn studio. Struggling with grief and insomnia, Krasner often painted at night, entering a period that produced her monumental Umber paintings of 1959-62 — works filled with sweeping movement in shades of brown, cream and white.

Among them was Uncaged.

“In researching Lee Krasner, Claire and I were incredibly moved by what she did with insurmountable grief, after living with a genius,” Franceschi told Spark Hamptons.

“We were taken with the story of how two artists, brilliant artists, give everything to their work. And the idea of falling in love with somebody’s work, their brain, and them, and then how she moved forward within that mass of complexity — and had the unbelievable courage to keep doing what gave her life, which was her work.”

Franceschi was impressed with Krasner’s resolve.

“All artists have insomnia after going through something and wondering, ‘How am I going to manage this?’” Franceschi said. “Krasner’s Trojan strength to paint in the middle of the night, when an artist needs light — uncaged, because there was no light, and using browns and blacks and white, umber — in what became the Umber Series — that moment is the beginning of the ballet, The dancers start in a diagonal of light and we get to see her mind and her heart as she is pulled to the next painting in the middle of the night.”

The dance ends at the point where that painting begins: with Krasner disappearing into the act of creation.

An earlier version of the work, Uncaged, was presented by New York Theatre Ballet in 2020. The expanded work features 10 dancers and choreography by Franceschi in collaboration with Dara Adler, Christian Laverde Koeng and Anna Blundy.

Its original score was composed by Van Kampen, the Tony-nominated composer and playwright whose extensive theater career included collaborations with Mark Rylance and productions on Broadway and London’s West End.

“Claire’s memorial last year in London was a rebirth of the piece,” Franceschi said.

The score will be performed live at LongHouse. Costumes for the production are hand-painted.

From Balanchine to Fame

Franceschi brings a formidable dance and theater résumé of her own to the project.

A New York City Ballet alumna, she was selected by George Balanchine and danced with the company from 1981 to 1992, creating roles in works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins and others.

Her career began even earlier on screen. At 16, Franceschi appeared in the landmark 1980 film Fame, and she also appeared in Grease. She later built an international career as a dancer, choreographer, writer and teacher, with credits spanning the Royal Opera House, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, Juilliard, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Royal Ballet.

In 2023, she choreographed Dr. Semmelweis, starring Mark Rylance, at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.

She is now artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet, with Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged among the works defining her new chapter with the company.

For an East Hampton audience, perhaps the most intriguing element is where the work will be performed — in the town where Pollock and Krasner worked, lived and made art that would become famous around the world.

Pollock and Krasner’s story remains deeply embedded in Springs. Their former home and studios are now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, and both artists are buried at nearby Green River Cemetery, the storied Springs burial ground that became the final resting place for a remarkable roster of artists and writers. Pollock’s grave is marked by a massive boulder, with Krasner buried across from him.

Their story has been told in books, films and museum exhibitions around the world. On Saturday, it returns to East Hampton — not on a gallery wall, but through bodies in motion in the sculpture garden at LongHouse.

If You Go

Krasner & Pollock / Uncaged
Saturday, Sept. 12, 5-7 p.m.
Performance: 50 minutes, followed by a reception

LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Road
East Hampton

Presented by New York Theatre Ballet.

Conceived by Claire Van Kampen and Antonia Franceschi. Choreographed by Antonia Franceschi, artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet. Original score by Claire Van Kampen, performed live. Costumes are hand-painted for the production.

Host Committee: Jan Planit, Douglas Denoff, James Walker, Holly Hodder, Peter and Beth Poopat, and Jane Berliner.

Tickets and information: LongHouse Reserve / New York Theatre Ballet

Angela LaGreca

Editor, Co-Founder/Publisher

Angela LaGreca, Editor-in-chief and co-Founder/Publisher of Spark Hamptons, is a four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, writer and comedian/host. Her TV credits include NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “The View,” and, most recently, the primetime cable news program “Cuomo” on NewsNation. On the East End, she was the Creative Director at LTV, VP Features/Events/Photo Editor at Dan’s Papers, and has performed at Guild Hall, Bay Street Theater and the WHBPAC. Her publishing career began at Modern Photography, where she was managing editor. LaGreca lives in Manhattan and East Hampton and can be reached at angelatvmedia@gmail.com and angela@sparkhamptons.com .