News
24 September 2026 – Perfume Genius Finds a 'Natural High' Between Pop, Dance and The Piano Teacher
By Editorial Team - September 24, 2026
Summary
Mike Hadreas shares 'Natural High', co-produced with Pascal Stevenson, teasing his evening-length dance collaboration The Lesson with choreographer Kate Wallich.
Key Facts
- Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) shared standalone single 'Natural High', co-produced with Fashion Club's Pascal Stevenson.
- Serves as the musical centerpiece for The Lesson, an interdisciplinary dance piece co-created with Kate Wallich.
- Narrative and themes draw inspiration from Elfriede Jelinek's novel The Piano Teacher and Haneke's film adaptation.
- Entities: Perfume Genius, Mike Hadreas, Natural High, Kate Wallich, Pascal Stevenson, The Lesson, MASS MoCA, REDCAT
- Tags: perfume-genius, mike-hadreas, natural-high, the-lesson, kate-wallich, art-pop, dance-theatre
Perfume Genius has released "Natural High," the first new song from Mike Hadreas since 2025 album Glory and a musical doorway into The Lesson, his new evening-length collaboration with choreographer Kate Wallich. The pair have worked together before, but The Lesson pushes their relationship into especially ambitious territory, drawing inspiration from Elfriede Jelinek's novel The Piano Teacher and Michael Haneke's film adaptation.
Hadreas and Wallich are exploring desire, morality, restraint and shifting identity through live music and movement, with Hadreas moving between characters inside what he describes as a dreamlike narrative. "Natural High" was co-produced with Fashion Club's Pascal Stevenson and carries enough standalone musical identity that it does not feel like incidental material waiting for a stage production to explain it.
The Lesson is scheduled to travel through venues including MASS MoCA, REDCAT in Los Angeles, New York's Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Philharmonie de Paris. That interdisciplinary route suits Perfume Genius, whose art-pop catalogue has always understood performance as something involving bodies, gesture and visual tension rather than merely microphones.