with your sweet fragrance

World Premiere - New York Live Arts, September 2025

Cinematography by Taylor Antisdel
Photography by Travis Emery Hackett

“Katherine Maxwell, Artistic Director of Hivewild, is not one to shy away from the value of human connection. with your sweet fragrance, her evening-length work at New York Live Arts, presents an opportunity for us to sit with how we can deepen our relationships to each other and our surroundings.”

READ THE FULL REVIEW FROM THE DANCE Enthusiast

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with your sweet fragrance (Original Score)

Relive the magic through Paul Maxwell’s original score.
From brutalist techno pulses to gentle ambient tones, Maxwell’s score unfolds across the emotional and elemental landscape of the performance — a meditation on tenderness, interconnection, and the climate crisis. Through layered textures and evolving motifs, the score invites listeners into the sensorial world of with your sweet fragrance.

LISTEN

A HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO OUR PATRONS & VIP SUPPORTERS

John Halbreich
Mike Lemaire
Julia Lourie

Patricia Arellano, Ron Boling, Elizabeth Cooke, Allison Davis, Alix Holloway, Lena Lim, Vikram Paralkar, Miguel Pinto Martinez, Luis Rosado, Ari Simon, Liz & Fritz Thomas.

HOW DO WE BECOME TENDER WITH THE EARTH?

with your sweet fragrance aims to underscore how human relationships reflect humanity’s treatment of the planet and its resources, by integrating a multi-species and multidisciplinary perspective.

The work will utilize elements of dance, photography, set design, and sound design to create a full-length dance theater narrative in collaboration with local community gardens and environmental activist groups. The goal of with your sweet fragrance is to facilitate a visceral and tender experience that leads to a deeper awareness of humanity’s role within the climate crisis, and generate activation towards both individual and collective climate reparations.

CAST
Robyn Ayers • Felix Bryan • Hardy • Julian Grubman • Céline Maillard • Sean Rosado • Kira Shiina • Ragin Smith • Madison Wada


Director/Choreographer*- Katherine Maxwell
Executive Producer- Julia Lourie
Producers - Ann Kreitman and Robyn Ayers
Cinematographer- Taylor Antisdel
Composer - Paul Maxwell
Costume Designer - Caitlin Taylor

Dramaturg - Sam Morreale
Lighting Designer - Jackie Fox
Photographer - Travis Emery Hackett
Set Designer - Sarah Karl
Stage Manager - T Saiz Perez

*made in collaboration with the dancers

playbill
Press Release

For inquiries, email info@hivewild.com

A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Pancho’s Garden

The Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden was founded in 1979, bringing green to the Lower East Side. Pancho’s Garden is a half acre of flowerbeds and vegetable gardens, and hosts community events including music, art, and gardening workshops.
Volunteer with Pancho’s

Arts & Climate Initiative

The Arts & Climate Initiative uses storytelling and live performance to foster dialogue about our global climate crisis, create an empowering vision of the future, and inspire people to take action. Operating on the principle that complex problems must be addressed through collaborative efforts, we work with artists across disciplines and geographic borders, solicit input from researchers in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, and actively seek community and educational partners.

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown's mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through urban farming, sustainability and nutrition. We have local urban farms that increase access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, and provide farm-based development programs to Harlem youth.

Earth Matter NY

Earth Matter NY Inc. is a nonprofit organization based on Governors Island. We seek to reduce the organic waste misdirected into the garbage stream by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting.
Sign up to Volunteer
Mondays 9-12 ~ Lend a hand to our weekly compost build by helping unload materials, sort and weigh food scraps, and build the pile - grab some gloves and be part of the transformation!
Fridays 9-12 ~ Jump in to help us nurture our compost piles - roll up your sleeves and grab a pitchfork!

with your sweet fragrance is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

2026

with your sweet fragrance: afterlife

Hosted in partnership with Pancho’s Garden, with your sweet fragrance: afterlife explores what happens after crisis, after repair, after death, and after rebirth. This free performance brings with your sweet fragrance to public spaces and aims to create actionable pathways between arts audiences and climate activism. 

Director/Choreographer - Katherine Maxwell
Dancers - Felix Bryan • Madison Wada • Hardy
Costume Design - Caitlin Taylor
Producers - Robyn Ayers and Erin Newton

2025

with your sweet fragrance

The mainstage premiere of ‘with your sweet fragrance’, shown at New York Live Arts. The 70 minute work follows nine different characters as they try to find a precarious balance with themselves, one another, and their surroundings – either attempting or refusing to adapt. As time passes, the dancers criticize, support, and disappoint one another while the environment cycles through deterioration and rehabilitation. 

See above and linked playbill for credits.

2024
with your sweet fragrance: the wall
Presented at Carroll Hall (Brooklyn), this was a preliminary look into the universe of with your sweet fragrance, focusing on human relationships and power dynamics. The full iteration of with your sweet fragrance will facilitate a visceral and tender experience that leads to a deeper awareness of humanity’s role within the climate crisis and activation towards both individual and collective climate reparations. 

Director/Choreographer* - Katherine Maxwell
Dancers - Robyn Ayers • Felix Bryan • Sean Rosado • Ragin Smith • Madison Wada • Liana Zhen-ai Kleinman
Dramaturg - Sam Morreale
Costume Design - Caitlin Taylor
Producers - Ann Kreitman and Robyn Ayers

*made in collaboration with the dancers

Open Studio Visit
Katherine and the Hivewild team opened the studio doors for an intimate look into the latest artistic developments of with your sweet fragrance.

CLIMATE WEEK, WE ARE NATURE: Echoes at Sundown
Excerpts of with your sweet fragrance were presented during NYC Climate Week at the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roof & Community Engagement Center in collaboration with NOoSPHERE Arts

WE ARE NATURE: A Vibrant Tapestry
Excerpts of the work were shown at the 8th Annual Kingsland Wildflowers Festival in July 2024. The cast of six traversed the lush green spaces and rooftops of the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roof & Community Engagement Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

with your sweet fragrance: questions
In June, Maxwell and the team spent two weeks as Artists-in-Residence in the Irish Midlands at Shawbrook Creative Space developing the work. During this residency, choreographic sequences were created and captured on film amongst 85 acres of new-growth forest.

Carroll Hall Artist-in-Residence
In February, Hivewild completed a month-long residency at Carroll Hall in Brooklyn, dedicated to expanding the movement vocabulary and developing character narratives with dramaturg Samuel Morreale. At the residency’s conclusion, Hivewild presented a work-in-progress showing of the first 30-minute section.


2023
with your sweet fragrance: the daydream
A film study on early concepts for with your sweet fragrance. Surrounded by the woods near Shawbrook Creative Space (Ireland), one dancer explores what it means to interact with the natural world with tenderness and reverence.