American Idle
Presented as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, this performance explores the theatricality and choreography of a museum visit in the galleries of the Whitney Museum's permanent collection exhibition, “Untitled” (America). Centering the visitor’s experience, BEING MOVED locates its subject not in the artworks themselves, but in the social rules, scripts, and patterns that condition our encounters with art. Tracing the gap between the fantasy of a profound encounter and the ambivalent realities of contemporary spectatorship, the work plays with the ordinary and minor dramas of a museum visit. This performance was choreographed by Lena Engelstein and created in collaboration with the performers.
press
→ "Maia Chao, Art World Anthropologist Making Whitney Biennial Debut" Art in America
→ "Artists Maia Chao’s Anthropological Performances" The Amp
→ "Maia Chao: BEING MOVED at the Whitney” Impulse Magazine
CONCEPT & DIRECTION: Maia Chao
CHOREOGRAPHY & CO-DIRECTION: Lena Engelstein
PERFORMED & DEVISED WITH: James Barrett, Kristine Bendul, Deja Rion, David Guzman, Anna Kohler, Ellen Maddow, Cory Seals, Nancy Slusser, Jo Warren, Paul Zimet and featuring Hannah Mitchell and Parker Sera
SOUND DESIGN & COMPOSITION: Ryan Gamblin
SYNTH MUSIC: Nina Ryser
LYRICS & VOCAL COMPOSITION: Maia Chao
COSTUME DESIGN: Lily O’Neill
PRODUCER & STAGE MANAGER: Aoife Delaney
CREATIVE CONSULTING PRODUCER: Emma Orme
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS: Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre, Marin Day, Ben Hard, Ampersand Paris, Chloe Engel, Nate Repasz, Spencer Claus, Isa Spector, Neva Guido, Miles Toth, Nora Raine Thompson
PHOTOS: Maia Chao & Julia Cervantes
Special Thanks: Ethan Philbrick, Emma Bergman, Blanche Brown, Maggie Millner, Joanna Zhang, Parker Sera, Julian Chehirian, Lane Speidel, Sunita Mani, Kim Altomare, Zoë Chao
Funding: Commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial.
“Many of the performance’s most engaging moments occur when the movements of the ensemble members are either synchronized or perfectly staggered.”
— asia stewart, impulse magazine
