SPRING 2025 SEASON
Welcome to Our New Ticketing Options!
Live Arts is proud to launch new community ticket pricing, allowing the public to choose a price that fits any budget. Limited “Pay-What YouWish” tickets are now available for all onsite events. To support this, Live Arts has introduced a “What-It-Really-Costs” ticket at $250, reflecting the true cost of a performance in NYC. Onsite performance tickets start at a standard price of $30. Students and Seniors receive 20% off standard prices and $10 Student Rush tickets are available for any onsite show that is not sold-out.
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077
View the season online:
Cover: Miguel Gutierrez, Super Nothing, photo by Amelia Golden
WINTER/SPRING 2025 CALENDAR
JAN 8-18 Live Artery 2025
JAN 12,13 & 15-18
see pg 9 for times
JAN 25-26
FEB 5
7PM
MAR 13-15
730PM
MAR 27-29 730PM
APR 3-MAY 31
MAY 4
3PM
MAY 15-17 & 22-24 730PM
JUN 13-14
Miguel Gutierrez: Super Nothing Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist World Premiere
Ellen Robbins: Dances by Very Young Choreographers
Bill Chats with Judith Butler
Makini: TERRESTIAL : The Sprout
Lisa Fagan & Lena Engelstein: Friday Night Rat Catchers
In/Between: NYFA Immigrant Artist Exhibition Ford Foundation Live Gallery
Bill Chats with Valerie Witte & Sarah Rosenthal
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Home Season
730PM Fresh Tracks New Works
JUN 22
Live Arts Pride: The House Party
We acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape people past, present, and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking where our theater sits - the land, the waters of the Lenape homeland.
Courage!
We feel that at this moment it takes determination to not crawl under a rock and disengage from the world. But as Bob Dylan said in 1963, “But you who philosophize, disgrace and criticize all fears. Take the rag away from your face, now ain’t the time for your tears”. (The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll)
We are writing this note with the election behind us and the performances of Still/Here still fresh in our hearts and minds. The overwhelming response from those who came to BAM reaffirm our belief in the transformative power of art—the poetic rituals that inspire empathy, community, resilience, healing, love, and the courage to perform the act of living. So, we welcome you to dive into art with us. The Spring season begins with the Live Artery Festival taking over our building as well as four offsite partner venues. It features an exciting roster of artists and the highly anticipated world premiere by Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist, Miguel Gutierrez. The season continues with new works by our Live Feed and Fresh Tracks residency artists, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company home season, Live Arts Pride, Bill Chats, and more. We look forward to seeing you.
Bill T. Jones & Janet Wong
Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director
Janet Wong, Associate Artistic Director
Photos by Stephanie Crousillat
“someone with a special, sacred magnetism..”
- New York Times
FAUSTIN LINYEKULA
My Body, My Archive
JAN 8-10 AT 7:30PM, JAN 11 AT 2PM
In My Body, My Archive, Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula explores the ways a body can hold and convey the histories of those who have come before. Linyekula uses dance to narrate stories of his ancestors, a journey that began in 2017 with Banataba, a tribute to his maternal lineage originating from a small village on the Congo River. Building on this exploration, Linyekula unearths and shares the histories of the women in his family. Linyekula imagines his own artistic journey in terms of his personal circle and asserts that archives of the body cannot be experienced alone. Companions, dancers, actors and musicians accompany him in this journey, helping him to tell stories, reactivate collective and personal memories and carry immaterial archives.
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
Photo: Sarah Imsand
Photo: Ben McKeown
MILKA DJORDJEVICH
Bob JAN 10-12, 8PM
Bob is a manic whirlwind of methodical rapid-fire movements, dictated, performed and self-enforced by Milka Djordjevich. Set to throbbing music composed by Djordjevich, Bob eroticizes the labor of the dancing body–the repetition, the discipline, and the fallout. A mid-career taxonomy of sorts, Djordjevich confronts demands to optimize her female body and the market’s expectation to enhance her performance over time. Algorithmic movement patterns conjure approaches from trance, folk ritual and rite–they become a means to no end. A reflection rivaling the self, Bob is on a rampage with and against self-consciousness in order to bask in reverie, delusion, desire and rage. Show no mercy!
Photo: Maria Baranova
SYMARA SARAI
I want it to rain inside JAN 11, 1PM & JAN 13, 3PM
I want it to rain inside is a physical voyage through Symara Sarai’s paternal and maternal lineage, a complex and tender cascade. Paying homage to her late father and longing to understand him better, she embodies his complex personhood through family lore and American cultural fantasy from the wild West and deep South. Equipped with her lasso, the work is juxtaposed next to that which she does know; the matriarchal. She performs a series of scores that center autonomy and liberation, energetically emboldening the black feminine to charge boundlessly through space and time.
“Mr. Gutierrez has long been a master of keeping an environment in flux, while somehow holding it all together.”
- New York Times
Photo: Amelia Golden
Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist MIGUEL
GUTIERREZ
Super Nothing
JAN 12, 7:30PM; JAN 13, 5:30PM & 8:30PM
JAN 15-17, 7:30PM; JAN 18, 2PM & 7:30PM
What can a dance do to confront the constant grief that we experience in our lives? Super Nothing presents four dancers whose actions and choreographic relationships are analogues for how people support each other to survive. Interdependence takes multiple forms, as the performers move through representations of the past to create a blueprint for a new future. This piece extends Gutierrez’s interest over the past few years in creating “choreography for the end of the world.”
Jan 17 Stay Late Discussion
Jan 18 All matinee tickets Pay-What-You-Wish
Since 2011, the Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program has been made possible with lead funding from Mellon Foundation, and we are excited to share Rockefeller Brothers Fund has joined our partnership to provide lead support going forward.
Super Nothing was commissioned, produced and presented by New York Live Arts as part of the Randjelović /Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program, with lead support from Mellon Foundation. Co-commissioned by On the Boards/Seattle, Center for the Art of Performance/ UCLA, MCA Chicago and American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works, with additional support from Café Royal Cultural Foundation and developed with residency support from Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival and The Field Center. S uper Nothing is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project, supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).
STACY MATTHEW SPENCE
I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves
JAN 10, 7:30PM
JAN 11, 4PM & 7:30PM
Co-presented off-site with Danspace Project
Stacy Matthew Spence’s new dance in triptych form, I am, here (a solo for Spence), Here with us (a duet), Where we find ourselves (a quartet) explores ideas of self, impulse, and sharing.
Spence’s dance work often explores the exchange between person and environment. This idea involves playful interactions and movement generated in response to the places he finds himself – studio, home, and in public spaces.
Photo: Elyssa Goodman
JULIA ANTINOZZI
THE SUITE
JAN 10, 8PM; JAN 11, 2PM & 8PM; JAN 12, 3PM
Co-presented off-site with Triskelion Arts
THE SUITE is a postmodern ballet set in a dream sequence defined by an architecture of light. The work centers two overlapping duets that are inspired by the character and style of romantic and neoclassical ballet. While the movement is paramount and the plot is deemphasized, THE SUITE suggests a liminal romance.
This is the premiere of THE SUITE in its completeness, which links moments from its predecessors: THE SUITE was first developed through the Trisk Fellowship at Triskelion Arts. THIRD VARIATION, the continuation, was originally commissioned by the Fresh Tracks program at New York Live Arts.
Photo: Alice Chacon
JESSE FACTOR
The Marthaodyssey
JAN 10-12, 9:30PM JAN 13, 11AM
Co-Presented with Kelly Strayhorn Theater, off-site at Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, in association with Martha Graham Dance Company
Dancing across gender, time, and bodily differences, The Marthaodyssey siphons the rich physicality of Martha Graham’s archive, reinterpreting and recontextualizing classic works as they are set to excerpts of Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition World Tour setlist. Part dance concert, part pop concert, part drag show, The Marthodyssey’s aesthetic presentation moves Graham’s tradition of lights and tights into pop spectacle and genderfuck lip sync.
Photo: Anita Buzzy Prentiss
LESLIE CUYJET
For All Your Life
JAN 11, 6:30PM
JAN 12, 1PM & 5PM
Co-presented off-site with CPR - Center for Performance Research
For All Your Life is a performance event and social experiment that investigates the value of black life and black death. Centered around an ambitious serio-comical short film, For All Your Life is staged as a seminar, guided by an insurance sales woman, played by choreographer and artist Leslie Cuyjet. Part screening, part sales pitch, this solo performance offers a primer on the life insurance industry and its direct connection to slavery; unpacking the ways in which human beings grapple with the inevitable prospect of death and, more importantly, the ways in which lives—especially those of people of color—are monetized.
Photo: Peter Richards
Showings
Works in Progress Showings
JAN 11-13
Live Artery provides a space for artists to network and share their work with the general public and presenters from around the world alike, which leads to commissions, tours and the building of longterm relationships. Artists to show works-in-progress or excerpts of complete works include Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Ogemdi Ude, Michael Sakamoto and Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky, Roderick George | kNoname Artist, zoe | juniper, Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre, Joseph Keckler, and Shamel Pitts | TRIBE. Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre and Joseph Keckler Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and Shamel Pitts | TRIBE are INVITATION ONLY
zoe | juniper
Photo by Emma Lawes
Joseph Keckler
Photo by M. Sharkey
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company
Photo by Jim Coleman
LIVE ARTERY 2024 CALENDAR
kNoname Artist |
Roderick George
Photo by Rebecca Hurson
Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre
Photo courtesy of the artist
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
Photo by Tushrik Fredericks
Michael Sakamoto and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Photo by Cedric Arnold (L) and Tobin Poppenberg (R)
Ogemdi Ude
Photo by Myssi Robinson A.I.M by Kyle Abraham
Photo by Cheryl Del Cuore
Artist Salon
JAN 12, 11AM-12:30PM
New York Live Arts Lobby | INVITATION ONLY
An informal gathering to share new or recently premiered works with short presentations, conversations and light refreshments.
Kayla Farrish
Photo by Stephanie Crousillat
Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
Photo by Eryk Rocha
Janani Balasubramanian
Photo courtesy of the artist
Heather Kravas
Photo courtesy of the artist
Tere O’Connor
Photo by Maria Baranova
LIVE ARTERY 2024 CALENDAR
JAN 8-10 7:30PM
JAN 11 2PM
JAN 10-12 9:30PM
JAN 13 11AM
JAN 10 & 11
see pg 10 for times
JAN 10-12 8PM
JAN 10-12
see pg 11 for times
JAN 11 1PM
JAN 13 3PM
JAN 11 3PM
JAN 11 6PM
JAN 11 & 12
see pg 13 for times
JAN 12 11AM
JAN 12 1PM
JAN 12 3PM
JAN 12 6PM
JAN 12, 13 & 15-18
see pg 9 for times
JAN 13 1PM
JAN 13 2PM
JAN 13 6PM
JAN 13 8PM
Theater
OFF SITE
OFF SITE
Faustin Linyekula: My Body, My Archive
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
Jesse Factor: The Marthaodyssey
Co-Presented with Kelly Strayhorn Theater, off-site at Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater
Stacy Matthew Spence: I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves Co-presented off-site with Danspace Project
Studio Milka Djordjevich: Bob
OFF SITE
Studio
Julia Antinozzi: THE SUITE Co-presented off-site with Triskelion Arts
Symara Sarai: I want it to rain inside
Studio Ogemdi Ude
Studio
OFF SITE
Lobby
Michael Sakamoto and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Leslie Cuyjet: For All Your Life Co-presented off-site with CPR - Center for Performance Research
Artist Salon Invitation Only
Studio kNoname Artist | Roderick George
Studio Shamel Pitts | TRIBE Invitation Only
Studio zoe | juniper
Miguel Gutierrez: Super Nothing
Theater
Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist World Premiere
Studio A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham Invitation Only
Theater
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Invitation Only
Studio Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar & BAM
Studio Joseph Keckler
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
ELLEN ROBBINS
Dances by Very Young Choreographers
JAN 25 & 26, 2PM
ALUMNI CONCERT: JAN 25, 7:30PM
Dances by Very Young Choreographers showcases the choreography of the students of Ellen Robbins, ages 8 – 18. It is devised to give a young audience exposure to the variety of theater experiences that modern dance affords. It includes dances that are humorous, narrative, minimal, lyrical, and visually conceptual. The music selections, chosen by the choreographers, range from classical to contemporary, including folk, jazz, pop, and the spoken word. Children in the audience will have an opportunity to come onstage for a brief, structured improvisation for the fun of dancing an idea.
Following the matinee, the evening concert will present works from the program’s alumni. The alumni artists are: Marina Chan, Lina Azalea Dahbour, Maia Sage Ermansons, Krista Jansen, Amelia Dawe Sanders, Alexandra Scully, Rakhel Shapiro, and Lou Sydel.
Photo: Faye Ellman
BILL CHATS
with Judith Butler
FEB 5, 7PM
Bill Chats will feature Live Arts Artistic Director and international dance icon Bill T. Jones in conversation with American philosopher and gender studies scholar Judith Butler.
with Valerie Witte and Sarah Rosenthal
MAY 4, 3PM
Dance artists Kyle Marshall and Donna Uchizono, and authors Valerie Witte and Sarah Rosenthal, sit down with Jones to discuss Witte and Rosenthal’s book One Thing Follows Another: Experiments in Dance, Art, and Life through the Lens of Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer.
Bill Chats is supported in part by Partners for New Performance
Photo: Judith Butler by Cayce Clifford
Photo: Sarah Rosenthal by Denise Newman
Photo: Valerie Witte by K. B. Dixon
MAKINI
TERRESTIAL: The Sprout
MAR 13-15, 7:30PM
Oh, to be a body.
A solo dance performance, The Sprout wonders about the legacy of a single human lifetime as it relates to the broader expanse of a planet’s geological history. It wanders through the terrain of identity amidst the impossibility of individuation.
Conceived by Makini (Durham, North Carolina, USA), with co-direction by Anderson Feliciano (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Nefertiti Charlene Altán (Oakland, California, USA), TERRESTRIAL is a multidisciplinary project that weaves together performance, choreography, speculative futurist thought and equity-based models of cooperation to re-calibrate social, cultural and physical existence.
Mar 14 Stay Late Discussion
The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
TERRESTRIAL: The Sprout is a Creative Capital project and has been supported through a Guggenheim Fellowship. The project is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Dance Place, New York Live Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Radical Healing, and NPN. For more information www.npnweb.org. The project has also been developed in partnerships with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts’ Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence Program and the Black Performance Institute of University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, this project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Durham Arts Council, local grants administrator.
Photo: Maria Toultsa
Photo: Maria Baranova
LISA FAGAN AND LENA ENGELSTEIN
Friday Night Rat Catchers
MAR 27-29, 7:30PM
Beneath the shimmer of a disco ball, lucky contestants dance like they have the world on a string. The year is 1976, an irresistible bassline drives and the martinis never run dry. What could go wrong?
While the contestants nearly lose their minds with the pleasure of being selected, The Host has reconfigured the game. Ripped headfirst from their shrimp cocktail, gameplay unfolds at breakneck speed. Cement punctures the dancehall, the party grinds to a halt, and an inky night belches to the surface.
Bridging dance and theater, this new work by experimental choreographers Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein features Marianne Rendón, sound by Tei Blow, costumes by Normandy Sherwood, lighting by Masha Tsimring, and set by Jian Jung.
Mar 28 Stay Late Discussion
The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY
Home Season
MAY 15-17 AND 22-24, 7:30PM
Program A - Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: People, Places & Things
People, Places & Things was created against the backdrop of a memory of freedom, and with that memory comes a taste for self determination: living where one wants to live; loving who one wants to love, celebrating that youthful desire to be free and discover the world and oneself within it. Through this work, Jones is trying to understand the world we live in right now through the mechanism of recalling, reinventing and imagining, using the Company to draw a portrait of this moment, set to the soundtrack of his youth.
Program B - Bill T. Jones:
Memory Piece: Mr. Ailey, Alvin… the un-Ailey?
Memory Piece is a series of solo performances reflecting on influential moments and figures throughout the illustrious career of our Artistic Director. Jones describes himself as someone who went in a different direction than Alvin Ailey. This iteration will welcome audiences into a rare and intimate space built from words, movement, and music.
Photo: Jim Coleman
Photo: Maria Baranova
Maxi Hawkeye Canion
Photo courtesy of the artist
Kashia Kancey
Photo courtesy of the artist
Jade Manns
Photo courtesy of the artist
ayo ohs
Photo: azu rodriguez
FRESH TRACKS
New Works: Maxi Hawkeye Canion, Kashia Kancey, Jade Manns, ayo ohs
JUN 13-14, 7:30PM
This season’s Fresh Tracks artists present their new work in a shared evening in the theater. Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is a season-long residency for emerging movement-based artists in support of new work creation and professional development. This season marks the 60th year of Fresh Tracks, which was a signature program of Dance Theater workshop to bring new choreographic artistry to the forefront.
The Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is supported in part by National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, and Partners for New Performance.
LIVE ARTS PRIDE
The House Party
JUN 22
Live Arts’ Pride is an epic LGBTQIA+ pride extravaganza! NYC’s queer nightlife and art scene come together under one roof to serve up the city’s most colorful and fierce performance, music, queer marketplace, installations and more for a multi-space, nonstop celebration for the ages.
Past artist collectives include Body Hack, Bubble_T, Double Dutch Dreamz with Malika Lee Whitney and Friends, Legends of Drag, Papi Juice, Ragga NYC, Switch n’ Play, The House of Transcendence, and Yas Mama. 2025 line up to be announced.
Pride is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.
Photos: Santiago Felipe29
FORD FOUNDATION LIVE GALLERY
In/Between: NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program Exhibition
OPENING RECEPTION: APR 3, 5:30-7PM ON VIEW: APR 3 - MAY 31
New York Live Arts, in partnership with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), presents the 6th In/Between exhibition, featuring works by artists in the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program.
Co-curated by Yanira Castro, Martita Abril, and Zahra Banyamerian, the exhibition will be on view at the Ford Foundation Live Gallery located in Live Arts Lobby.
Photo by Santiago Felipe
MONDAY, MAY 19, 2025
Bill T. Jones, the Board of Directors, and all of us at New York Live Arts invite you to save the date!
6:00 pm Cocktails
7:00 pm Dinner Program Dance Party to follow!
Festive Attire.
Honorees and special guests to be announced!
LIVE CORE
Are you an artist working to connect with larger audiences and raise funds to support your work?
Enrollment in Live Core is $100 for a full year of unlimited access to the program’s offerings, including the Fiscal Sponsorship Program, discounts on tickets and workshops, professional development services, and more!
For more information on joining Live Core, please visit newyorklivearts.org/about/opportunities.
2024 Live Ideas Gala, Photo by Maria Baranova
DONATE
Your contribution, no matter the size, is essential in ensuring artists are supported, seen, and heard. With your generosity, we provide vital resources—commissioning funds, residencies, studio space, and professional services—that empower artists at every stage of their careers.
Live Arts thrives on your generosity, and we thank our Trustees, Partners in Creation, Partners for New Performance, Patrons Circle, and Donors for their vital support.
To learn how you can contribute to our mission and the artists we serve, please visit newyorklivearts.org/support.
Mickalene Thomas, Briona Simone Jones, Jamel Robinson, Lena Waithe, Derrick Adams, Nate Lewis, photo by Whitney Browne
SUPPORT
Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dance/NYC, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, The Poss Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Tides Foundation, Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.
Corporate support for New York Live Arts includes Google and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
Public support for New York Live Arts is from National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Dance/ NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by Mellon Foundation.
The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous, Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker.
We thank our Partners for New Performance for supporting Live Feed, Fresh Tracks, Live Ideas, Bill Chats, and humanities programming: Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschson, Julie Orlando, John Robinson, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker, Robyn Trani.
VISIT US
Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077
Hours: Monday–Friday: 3pm–9pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am–9pm
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
(Between 7th & 8th Aves)
Subway: 1 to 18th Street, 2/3, F, M, L and A/C/E to 14th Street.
Live Arts’ entrances are located on the street level, as is the main entrance to the theater. Box Office staff is available for assistance at either the single revolving door or pair of push bar doors. The elevator provides access to theater seating at the front of the audience, administrative offices, and the studios. Studios and bathroom entrances have ADA push button swing doors.
