In an excerpt from Lauren Morrow’s new novel, Little Actions, the heroine, choreographer Layla Sensible, navigates emotions of pleasure and unease as she begins her tenure on the prestigious (fictional) Briar Home arts program.
An older girl walked by means of the doorways. A salt-and-pepper bob, slim physique swimming in Eileen Fisher. Her tortoiseshell glasses balanced delicately on the bridge of her aquiline nostril. She was beautiful.
“Margot,” mentioned the assistant. “That is the brand new choreographer, Layla Sensible.”
“Proper!” mentioned Margot. She pressed her glasses as much as take me in. Sunspots dotted her tan face. “Welcome, Layla! I hope you weren’t ready too lengthy.”
“By no means,” I mentioned. “It’s a pleasure to lastly meet you in particular person.”
We’d corresponded over electronic mail all summer time. Margot Mattenberg, the director of Briar Home, had shared the necessities: an evening-length piece set on a pickup firm we’d choose, an in depth proposal of the venture—from idea to music to design—a preview occasion in February, a premiere in Could, appearances of their promotional supplies, and interviews at their communications director’s discretion. I’d mentioned sure to the whole lot.
“We’re thrilled to have you ever right here this season,” mentioned Margot. “We’ve welcomed some fantastic worldwide artists the previous few seasons. This yr, we wished to have fun Americana! Every artist-in-residence is from the States. The composer grew up within the hills of Appalachia, the visible artist is from Wyoming—she’s doing a little actually thrilling work with watercolors. After which there’s you.”
Americana. A wierd class to throw me underneath. I’d all the time felt fickle about my Americanness, tried to flee it nonetheless I may. I’d spent a semester of school attempting and failing to include berets into my look, one other twisting my hair into what I assumed have been Bantu knots however that my pal Kofi—the one different Black dance scholar in my class at Connecticut Faculty—knowledgeable me have been merely not. Child lady, he’d mentioned, go to a salon!
“I first noticed your choreography at Montrose again in 2019,” mentioned Margot. “A revival of your unique solo present?”
I appreciated the time period, as if my work had taken Broadway by storm. I’d had no thought she was there that night time. It was a blended invoice, and she or he’d doubtless come to see one other artist who was on the rise. I’d initially carried out the solo, however set it on one other dancer for Montrose. It had change into clear that my physique now not carried the motion in the best way that I, or anybody, wished.
“The angst in your motion displays what lots of people are feeling as of late. It was put collectively fantastically with the textual content and the soundscape. The duet on the Palmer Middle was additionally fairly shifting. I beloved the facility dynamic, with the girl doing all of the lifting. A placing commentary. You’re going to deliver one thing highly effective to our stage. I hope you’re fascinated by the place you match into the canon.”
“The canon! Wow. That’s so flattering. I’m actually simply figuring out my 5, six, seven, eights at this level.”
“You must begin viewing your self by means of a canonical lens. Situating your self among the many greats. Alvin Ailey, Invoice T. Jones.”
“Martha Graham,” I mentioned jokingly. “Merce Cunningham.”
“Camille A. Brown,” she mentioned. “Ronald Okay. Brown.”
All of the Browns. All of the Blacks. I beloved these artists and their corporations, in fact. Had seen them on the Brooklyn Academy of Music and different main theaters throughout the town. Ailey was undoubtedly an affect—sharp, explosive motion, intricate musicality, the candy marriage of hip-slip and debutante posture. However so was Cunningham, his experimentations with guidelines and randomness that made every efficiency a sport—one thing recent, new. Graham, the mom of recent dance, whose uncooked give up birthed a motion. Pina Bausch, who introduced glamour, humor, and flirtation to the world together with her dance-theater. Each underappreciated choreographer who’d made a music video transfer prior to now thirty years—all bombast, and intercourse, and swag. However I wasn’t a purist. Affect and inspiration have been totally different. My model was guided by dozens of choreographers—it was tough to pinpoint precisely from which household bushes I branched. Inserting myself beside any of them felt like a untimely act of vanity.
“I can’t wait to see what you do,” mentioned Margot. “Particularly with the whole lot taking place on the earth now. All the pieces that’s occurred prior to now. The ache. The injustice.”
My breath lodged in the back of my throat, getting ready for what would possibly come subsequent. A chant of Black Lives Matter. A efficiency of “We Shall Overcome” by a gospel choir ready within the hallway. However Margot simply stared at me, the following nice hope of the Black dance canon.
“Nicely,” I mentioned. “I’m excited to get shifting within the studio. Can’t promise I’m going to crank out a Revelations redux, however I’ll see what I can do.”
“Do see!” mentioned Margot. “Don’t promote your self quick. Your work was shifting even once you have been working full-time. Now the probabilities are limitless. There’s a phrase in Swahili that I realized throughout my time in Tanzania.”
I pressed my lips collectively in what I hoped appeared like a smile.
“You might realize it.”
I squinted.
“Haraka haraka haina baraka.” She stared at me. “Are you aware it?”
“I don’t know any Swahili, no.”
“It interprets to hurry, hurry has no blessing. The best issues take time, expensive. You’ve acquired that right here. And cash! Ask for what you need, and there’s a robust probability we are able to make it occur.”
What I wished was to be identified. For inventive administrators and funders across the nation—around the globe—to see my title and never need to marvel. I wished them to need me, to present me funding, levels, and respect. Margot may make that occur. Briar Home was a part of the Vermont Institute of Concepts, one of many best-funded multidisciplinary packages within the nation. The institute was on the forefront of environmental science, public coverage, and tech, so Briar Home was hardly the centerpiece program. Nonetheless, it was linked, with a strong board besides.
I held out a hand as we stood within the doorway. However Margot pulled me in for a hug. Her scent was delicate and costly, her hair like silk towards my face.
From the guide Little Actions, by Lauren Morrow, revealed on September 9, 2025, by Random Home, an imprint and division of Penguin Random Home LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Lauren Morrow. Excerpted by permission.
