Embedded Files
banner photo by Vincent VDH
Photo by Alice Chacon
Photos by Monica Nyenkan
kNoname Artist is a Berlin-founded, now New York City-based company created in 2015 by Roderick George. kNoname Artist is a collective that strives to use art as a form of protest and healing method to find agency. The company invests in reflecting the times, both past and current events, and using the culture of origins as a vessel for creative expression. The knowledge of division created by colorism, class, and social-economic differences provoked the mind of George, yet also with joy and hope to motivate the growth of kNoname Artist. The mission of this multidisciplinary company is to gift its spectators’ evocative stories told through raw, percussive, and fluid movement interspersed with dialogue and humor. The iterative and evolving vision for the company melds dynamic movement, music, and scenic landscapes into experiential works exploring themes of queerness, blackness, and human rights. kNoname Artist has performed at festivals such as Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Zurich Tanzhaus, Hollins University, New York Live Arts, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Sophiensæle Festspiele, Pocantico Art Center, and Fall for Dance North/NIGHTSHIFT.
Roderick George was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He has trained at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, The Alvin Ailey School, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). George was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in 2005 and a YoungArts Winner and Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003. He has danced for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Basel Ballet/Theater Basel, Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, and The Forsythe Company. In addition, he has performed the work of choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, and Richard Wherlock.
In 2012, George. was a part of the Emerging Choreographer Series for the Youth American Grand Prix and an Emerging Choreographer for Springboard Danse Montréal in 2013. In addition, he has been commissioned by dance companies, institutions, and festivals, including Bodytraffic, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Zurich Tanzhaus, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Ballett Basel, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and Fall for Dance North/ NIGHTSHIFT. Most recently, George was a YoungArts Fellow Winner Awardee for the 2021-2022 season. In Jan 2024 he created Venom, a piece commissioned by Gibney as part of the organization’s DoublePlus program in collaboration with New York Live Arts. He is a 2024 Princess Grace Award winner in Choreography and a 2025 Princess Grace Artist Fellow, and the recipient of the inaugural Jacob's Pillow Men Dancers Award.
Works Available to Tour
The Grave's Tears
The Grave's Tears
The Grave’s Tears is a full-length choreographic work that expands on themes first explored in kNoname Artist’s Venom (2024), taking a deeper and more expansive look at the psychological toll of systemic oppression and the hatred directed toward the LGBTQIA+ community. Begun with seven male dancers, the work centers queer bodies as vessels of memory—sites where grief, resistance, intimacy, and survival coexist. Drawing from the liberatory spirit of the Disco era, The Grave’s Tears reflects on a time when joy, music, and collective celebration became radical acts of defiance for queer communities forced to the margins. As gay men were alienated from society and denied safety, visibility, and institutional care, they built refuge through chosen family, physical closeness, and shared movement. Love emerged not as sentiment, but as a necessary practice of survival.
Set against the enduring legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and widespread social and governmental abandonment, the work confronts the fragility of communities left to grieve in isolation. In response to neglect and erasure, queer communities forged their own systems of care—holding one another through loss while insisting on presence in a world that sought their disappearance. The Grave’s Tears unfolds as a live art love letter to those forgotten and erased, honoring LGBTQIA+ lives through memory, embodiment, and collective resilience. Haunting and skeletal in its physical language, the work operates as both mourning and refusal, affirming that joy, intimacy, and remembrance remain powerful acts of resistance against historical and ongoing erasure.
Premiere: February 2026, New York Live Arts
Choreography: Roderick George
Original Music: Jace Clayton
Lighting Designer: Tanja Rühl
Associate Lighting Designer: Connor Sale
Costume Design: Lauren Carmen
Run time: approximately 50 minutes
Touring cast & crew: 10 (7 dancers, 1 director, 2 crew)
The first iteration of the production was commissioned by Gibney as part of the organization’s DoublePlus program for the 2023-2024 Season, curated by Gibney Center Artistic Director Nigel Campbell and Kyle Abraham.
The Grave’s Tears was developed as part of the Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence program and the support of New York Live Arts, Williams College and the Schwarzman Center at Yale University and Pomegranate Arts. Additional residency support provided by La Villette - Paris .The production received support from the National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund.
The Grave’s Tears is commissioned by Le Manège, Scène Nationale - Reims. Produced by kNoname Artist.
Photo by Vincent VDH
The Missing Fruit
The Missing Fruit
The Missing Fruit explores how the manifestation of racial and public health violence affects Black Americans and other Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)communities through an interdisciplinary artistic production rooted in contemporary dance. First conceptualized during the most recent #BLM protests, The Missing Fruit examines the experiences of BIPOC communities, particularly addressing their struggles to combat oppression and death, financial insecurity, and health vulnerabilities while making space for Black joy to thrive.
Premiere: September 2023, Kaatsbaan
Choreography: Roderick George
Original Music: slowdanger
Producer: Florent Trioux
The development of The Missing Fruit was generously supported by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and YoungArts.
Run time: approximately 60 minutes
Touring cast & crew: 11 (8 dancers, 1 director, 2 crew)
Touring History
Touring History
New York City Center's Fall for Dance, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, Williams College, Harlem Stage, Scène Nationale - Reims (FR), Scène Nationale - Bar le Duc (FR), Festival Quartiers Danses (Montréal, CA), Suzanne Dellal (Tel Aviv), Kaatsbaan, Zürich Tanzhaus, Hollins University, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj (FR), Sophiensäle Festspiele (Berlin, DE), Pocantico Art Center, and Fall for Dance North/NIGHTSHIFT (Toronto, CA).
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