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The Take Away

Who would think that the unglamorous prep work in a Thai restaurant kitchen would serve as an idea for a choreographic work? Or that running water and clanking dishes might be an evocative soundscape? This was in fact the inspiration for Thai American choreographer and dancer Keerati Jinakunwiphat to create an evening-length work titled “Of Dishes and Dreams.” Spurred by her experiences as a daughter of immigrants and growing up in a family-run Thai restaurant, Jinakunwiphat started exploring the initial material for the piece over a year ago during a two week artistic residency at Baryshnikov Arts. She developed her piece around restaurant work themes like coordinated collective effort, service, order and chaos, mundane tasks, and the dreams for the future that fuel this labor. The work recently premiered at Baryshnikov Arts from Oct 16-18.

Performance

Keerati Jinakunwiphat: “Of Dishes and Dreams”

Place

Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY, October 16, 2025

Words

Karen Greenspan

Keerati Jinakunwiphat's “Of Dishes and Dreams.” Photograph by Maria Baranova

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Jinakunwiphat has had choreographic commissions for major companies like New York City Ballet and A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, but this is her first work for her own chosen cast (including herself) and creative team. Her dancemaking sensibilities are intuitive and skillful—having been mentored in composition by Doug Varone, who served as her artistic advisor for the piece, and having danced for several years with Kyle Abraham’s company. 

A significant art piece by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, incorporating colorful textiles and a sculpture made from domestic objects, defined the stage. Tangerine colored silky fabrics of various lengths assembled with a multi-colored swatch and pieces of rope were suspended above an overflowing pile of kitchen utensils, crates, and sundries. Set off to the left side of the stage, the visually arresting combination of elements gave the impression of a tattered sail atop a makeshift raft—a lifeboat to the future. The pile of objects also provided a continuous source of props for the dance.

Jinakunwiphat opened the work with poetic nuance taking a pretzel sit on the floor downstage center with her back to the audience. She reached her arm out as if to see or touch a far-off shore and then launched her body to distant parts of the stage using powerful spiraling floor sequences. Stopping for a moment to caress the ground with her hand, she continued her traverse with more speed and intensity. Eventually coming to her feet near the set, her arm and hand movements took on the characteristics of classical Thai dance with flexed wrists and flat palms, fingers held straight and together. She picked up a small pagoda-shaped keepsake from the jumbled heap, reverently examined it, and returned it to the collection.

Keerati Jinakunwiphat's “Of Dishes and Dreams.” Photograph by Maria Baranova

More dancers entered to form a cast of six, bringing the restaurant energy to life as urban traffic and opening-hour noises, part of the original score by Bryndon Cook and Quaba Venza Ernest, backgrounded the action. The integrated restaurant sounds along with musical compositions by a couple Thai artists, and a jazz standard by Antonio Carlos Jobim interwove intelligently to evoke the pulse and creativity within a kitchen, nostalgia for homeland, and dreams of a better future.

The dance’s sections were listed on the program like menu items and included entries such as: Prep, Rice, Service, Radio Poll, Daydream, Flo, and Chaos. Several scenes were sprinkled with moments of inventive humor. For example, “Rice” featured two male dancers in humorous rough and tumble interactions as they competed to show off their strength in lifting and hauling an industrial sized bag of rice. “Service” offered a view of the collective coordinated effort of serving the public a tasty, culinary product. All the dancers performed certain gestures at specific places on the stage mimicking the organized flow of work at various stations in a professional kitchen. When the pace intensified, a scene of chaos ensued with people pushing each other out of the way, stepping over fallen stools, and colliding into one another. Amid the frenzy, Jennifer Florentino leaped up and was caught in the air in a seated lift. From her high perch, she gestured commands to the others acting as the family matriarch (evidently based on Jinakunwiphat’s grandmother, who owned the family restaurant). In another stroke of humor, she wielded a fly swatter batting everyone out of her way so she could complete her task. 

The dramatic action was generally held within a container of luscious, full-bodied dancing in a balletic-modern style with various groupings of dancers inter-relating in pleasing floor patterns. Breakout moments of pedestrian stage business between sections of dancing worked well integrating real-life activities representative of discipline and ritual. This was demonstrated through the frequent handling of their work attire, the costumes designed by Karen Young. The dancers donned and buttoned their uniform shirts before starting each scene and then took them off afterwards, neatly folding them with care and precision.

Keerati Jinakunwiphat's “Of Dishes and Dreams.” Photograph by Maria Baranova

A poignant scene called “Radio Poll” featured two workers sitting around between shifts and listening to a radio talk show. They decide to respond to the call-in contest question asking, “How can you tell if a Thai restaurant is legit?” In this spoken dialogue with a sound recording as the radio host, they supply as many answers as possible within the 30-second time limit: “It’s full of regulars who know the staff.” “A little kid is working as the host.”“Another kid is doing homework in the back room.”“Lots of aunties and uncles show up.”“It takes at least 40 minutes to get your food.”

The punchline is that the two workers win the prize—a trip for two to Six Flags Amusement Park, but are not sure that they can take a day off work to enjoy their winnings. 

Jinakunwiphat concluded the piece alone, with elegance. She brushed her hand along the ground and brought it to her heart before making a breathtaking spin through the space. She completed the vision, taking her pretzel sit on the floor downstage of the set—the orange sails of her boat of dreams hovering above—as she set her gaze ahead into the distance.       

Karen Greenspan


Karen Greenspan is a New York City-based dance journalist and frequent contributor to Natural History Magazine, Dance Tabs, Ballet Review, and Tricycle among other publications. She is also the author of Footfalls from the Land of Happiness: A Journey into the Dances of Bhutan, published in 2019.

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