U Don't Know Me - ABT Studio Company
U Don’t Know Me - A piece by Houston Thomas for ABT Studio company, confronts a universal tension: the space between how we’re perceived and who we truly are. Through choreography that oscillates between restraint and release, the work exposes how first impressions—those fleeting, often involuntary judgments—can flatten the complexity of a person. The title itself becomes a quiet rebellion against anonymity, an insistence on being seen fully.
For this production, we translated that theme into wearable visual metaphors. Collaborating closely with Houston, we developed AI-generated faces—non-descript male and female portraits. Using graphic manipulation, we designed a print that gradually became clearer as the ballet unfolded.
The opening dancers appeared almost spectral, their unitards printed with faces so blurred they dissolved into abstraction—a visual manifestation of how easily we reduce people to impressions. As the piece progressed, subsequent dancers revealed gradually sharper portraits, the once-indistinct features coming into focus like memories resolving themselves. By the final movement, the costumes displayed crisp, discernible faces—no longer anonymous silhouettes, but defined individuals emerging from the shadows of perception.
This sartorial evolution worked in concert with the choreography’s emotional arc. The identical unitard bases created visual continuity, while the transforming prints told a story of revelation—each layer peeled back brought us closer to genuine recognition. Technical precision was crucial; we selected fabrics that maintained graphic integrity during movement, ensuring every blurred edge and sharpened line read clearly from stage to audience.
In U Don’t Know Me, truth reveals itself in stages. And in that revelation, we found the perfect synergy between textiles and choreography: garments that didn’t just adorn bodies, but helped tell their stories.
Production Credits
Choreography: Houston Thomas
Music: Arvo Pärt
Costume Design: Keto Dancewear
Dancers: Max Barker, Kayke Carvalho, Yeonseo Choi, Elijah Geolina, Paloma Livellara, Kayla Mak.
Lighting: Audrey Shultz
Photo Credits: Rosalie O'Connor