The Morris Museum of Art Presents Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green on Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the Miller Theater.

Deemed “fabulous . . . an ingenious idea . . . striking” by the New York Times, Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green brings his Gullah-inspired paintings to life through creative choreography and settings that are based on his paintings.

William Starrett, artistic and executive director and principal choreographer of the South Carolina Ballet, and artist Jonathan Green met twenty years ago, expressed their admiration for each other’s work, and forged a collaboration that led to the first performance of Off the Wall in 2005.

The vignettes that Starrett created were based on twenty-two of Green’s paintings. Starrett’s pieces explore the same themes of family, faith, hope, and love that are central to Green’s art, bringing the rich, vibrant colors of his paintings to the stage through dazzling settings, more than one hundred and fifty hand-sewn costumes, and music that combines traditional work songs with gospel, soul, classical, and jazz music—some of which is performed live by a choir. Starrett’s marvelous choreography is the tie that binds as the company’s dancers embody portraying the cultural heritage of the Gullah and Geechee communities that are depicted in Green’s paintings.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Opening March 13, 2025, be sure to view Jonathan Green: The Aesthetics of Heritage exhibition at the Morris Museum of Art.