In an excerpt from Lauren Morrow’s new novel, Little Actions, the heroine, choreographer Layla Good, navigates emotions of pleasure and unease as she begins her tenure on the prestigious (fictional) Briar Home arts program.
An older girl walked by way 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 gorgeous.
“Margot,” mentioned the assistant. “That is the brand new choreographer, Layla Good.”
“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.”
“In no way,” I mentioned. “It’s a pleasure to lastly meet you in individual.”
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 mission—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 every part.
“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 performing some actually thrilling work with watercolors. After which there’s you.”
Americana. An odd class to throw me underneath. I’d all the time felt fickle about my Americanness, tried to flee it nevertheless I might. 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 buddy 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 concept she was there that evening. 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 develop into clear that my physique not carried the motion in the way in which that I, or anybody, wished.
“The angst in your motion displays what lots of people are feeling lately. It was put collectively fantastically with the textual content and the soundscape. The duet on the Palmer Heart was additionally fairly shifting. I beloved the facility dynamic, with the girl doing all of the lifting. A hanging commentary. You’re going to deliver one thing highly effective to our stage. I hope you’re enthusiastic about the place you match into the canon.”
“The canon! Wow. That’s so flattering. I’m actually simply understanding my 5, six, seven, eights at this level.”
“It is best to begin viewing your self by way 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, after all. Had seen them on the Brooklyn Academy of Music and different main theaters throughout 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 contemporary, new. Graham, the mom of contemporary dance, whose uncooked give up birthed a motion. Pina Bausch, who introduced glamour, humor, and flirtation to the world along with her dance-theater. Each underappreciated choreographer who’d made a music video transfer previously thirty years—all bombast, and intercourse, and swag. However I wasn’t a purist. Affect and inspiration have been completely different. My type was guided by dozens of choreographers—it was tough to pinpoint precisely from which household timber I branched. Putting myself beside any of them felt like a untimely act of conceitedness.
“I can’t wait to see what you do,” mentioned Margot. “Particularly with every part taking place on this planet now. The whole lot that’s occurred previously. The ache. The injustice.”
My breath lodged in the back of my throat, getting ready for what may 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 subsequent nice hope of the Black dance canon.
“Properly,” 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 whenever you have been working full-time. Now the chances are countless. There’s a phrase in Swahili that I discovered throughout my time in Tanzania.”
I pressed my lips collectively in what I hoped regarded like a smile.
“You could realize it.”
I squinted.
“Haraka haraka haina baraka.” She stared at me. “Have you learnt it?”
“I don’t know any Swahili, no.”
“It interprets to hurry, hurry has no blessing. The best issues take time, expensive. You’ve bought that right here. And cash! Ask for what you need, and there’s a robust likelihood we will make it occur.”
What I wished was to be identified. For inventive administrators and funders across the nation—around the globe—to see my identify and never should marvel. I wished them to need me, to offer me funding, levels, and respect. Margot might make that occur. Briar Home was a part of the Vermont Institute of Concepts, one of many best-funded multidisciplinary applications 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 robust board in addition.
I held out a hand as we stood within the doorway. However Margot pulled me in for a hug. Her scent was mushy 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.
