Season at a glance

It is widely known that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The criminal justice system disproportionately affects people of color and effectively keeps the poor in poverty.  Despite differing motives and proposed solutions, conservatives and liberals have increasingly agreed on the need for...

In Spiritrials, addiction, religion and the law intersect in a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program.  A timely exploration of the American criminal justice system, this multidimensional play blurs the line between hip-hop and dramatic performance. Writer/performer Dahlak Brathwaite weaves through the autobiographical and the fictional,...

Free public readings to honor 12 Radical Visionaries who gave up much to deepen and challenge our understanding of democracy. APR 19, 4PM Russell Frederick reading as Medgar Evers Tamar-kali reading as Ida B. Wells Aisha Tandiwe-Bell reading as Mamie Till-Mobley Queen Godis reading...

Thomas Jefferson wrote that if forced to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” A free press was so important to the Founding Fathers that they included its protection in the First Amendment, alongside...

A monologue by Mike Daisey. The End of Journalism explores how journalism in America ended, peeling back layers of “real” and “fake” news to find the darkly hilarious truth about the world we’ve made. Daisey is hailed as the pre-eminent monologist in the American theater...

Tocqueville argued in Democracy in America (1835-40) that Americans showed how democracy in the modern world might look: when they want something done, they form democratic associations to accomplish it. Just fifty or sixty years ago, one in four people held leadership positions in local politics. Today, most of us...

Are free and open elections at odds with the democratic process? In the face of gerrymandering, voter suppression, campaign finance abuse, election tampering, and a disillusioned electorate, is now the time to reinvigorate our electoral system, or get rid of it?  What are the alternatives? Join us for...

Big Tech (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple)  has a hand in everything we do: what we think, what we buy, how we vote… And as seen in the last election, the tech companies that wield such tremendous influence over our lives are themselves subject to interference and manipulation.  Meanwhile,...

An evening of cutting-edge performances hosted by Drag King Elizabeth (Macha) Marrero from the Bronx.  Featuring Portland based extended technique vocalist, composer, and performer Like a Villain (Holland Andrews), multi-octave and multi-genre singer Joseph Keckler, Choreographer/dancer Marguerite Hemmings, Drag...

Co-presented with the Abingdon Theatre. This staged reading is of a new play based on the 1920 ad hoc disciplinary tribunal of five administrators at Harvard University formed to investigate charges of homosexual activity among the student population that began with the suicide of a student. The affair went unreported until...

In a remarkably short span of time, President Donald J. Trump has transformed our culture. His achievement is not measured in his ability to build a border wall, heighten mass incarceration, impose a travel ban, or launch a military strike against North Korea. It is that these ideas...

A secular liturgical performance of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail 2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, a Radical Visionary.  This participatory ritual/performance appropriates the structure of an Episcopal liturgy and brings to life the...

Throughout human history, communal singing has served as a source of both solace and empowerment for societies in crisis. Voices raised together in song can energize and propel through uplifting expressions of solidarity and resistance. Drawing on legacies of protest songs that have fueled social justice movements of...

Take up space as an act of resistance and release pent up political angst on the dance floor with festival-goers and participants. High energy layered dance music by DJ JLMR and special guest performance by spitfire cabaret artist Daphne Always and The Dauphine of Bushwick. Back to the festival...

Newsome’s FIVE explores Voguing, a competitive dance form created by a subculture of Black and Latino LGBTQ and GNC New Yorkers in the 1970’s. Accompanied by a makeshift orchestra, five dancers perform five individual elements of vogue fem. The Live Feed creative residency program is...

During this four-week residency, the company will be beginning a new work, currently titled The Deep Blue Sea. The facilities at BAC will be used emersed in the creative process, spending valuable time together and with the BAC community through open rehearsals, community dialogues and public events. Drawing from inspiration from Herman Melville’s...

In this audacious first solo work, luminous dancer Anne Plamondon dares to take on the subject of mental illness. In collaboration with actress, author, and director Marie Brassard, she superimposes realities to offer an almost panoramic view of this gripping theme. She becomes, alternately, a lost man—dislocated personality who manifests...

New York Premiere The ADF-commissioned “Elvis Everywhere” is dendy/donovan projects’ latest work. “America is Elvis Presley–the most beautiful, talented, rebellious nation in the history of Earth. And now, you’re in your Vegas years. You’ve squeezed yourself into a white jumpsuit, you’re wheezing your way through ‘Love Me...

Yerushamly’s Paramodernities engages with the canon of modern dance in radical ways in order to spark new ideas and new choreographies. The project involves deconstructions of landmark modernist choreographies, as well as contributions by writers, philosophers, and historians who situate these iconic works in...

Set to the soundtrack of Elvis’ greatest hits, join Colette Krogol, principal dendy/donovan projects company member since 2008, as she leads you through an improvisational warm-up deepening your connection to the floor, inversions, weight shifting, and the glorious Elvis’ hips. The class will continue with set energetic phrase work as...

Ariel Rivka Dance, an all-female dance company helmed by choreographer Ariel Grossman, collaborates with Amy Marshall Dance Company and guest choreographer Chanel DaSilva for a season dedicated to empowering women creatives. ARD presents two new works— She, a dance that delves into the emotional waves of motherhood, and a solo work...

The third installment of Yamazaki’s Darkness Odyssey series, is a non-operatic celebration of “becoming others”. Inspired by writings of authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and Butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata’s notion of “dance of darkness”, the series explores the idea of the body as a black hole. The Live...

“The uses of adversity” are indeed sweet in this beloved play that explores the warmth of friendship, the pain of exile, man’s inhumanity to man, and how we can be healed by engaging with our community and the natural world. This performance marks the culmination of a year of study...

New York Live Arts popular series, Bill Chats returns, featuring Bill T. Jones in dialogue with writers, scholars, visual artists and activists.

RoseAnne Spradlin is the 2017-18 Randjelovic/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA). This award continues a long relationship with New York Live Arts and Dance Theater Workshop, beginning with Fresh Tracks in 1990, and several presentations and commissions since. Join us for this special work in progress showing of the new work...

An artistic collaboration blending painting, poetry, music and dance. When painter Maria Popovits’ collaborated with poet James O’Dea the result was a best-selling art book titled “Enter the Luminous”. It is from this marriage of poetry and painting in which Ms. Barbosa drew her inspiration for this evening’s work premiere....

Join us for an informal showing of work developed by the 2017-18 Fresh Tracks Artists Nora Alami, Brendan Drake, Lisa Fagan, Alethea Pace, and Jessie Young. Live Arts’ legendary Fresh Tracks performance and residency program continues its 53-year commitment to bringing new voices to the forefront. The program...

For 36 years, the BTJ/AZ Company has been on the leading edge of contemporary art, moving audiences around the world with the athleticism, intelligence and human resonance of its work. The 2018 Summer Workshop offers a concentrated opportunity to delve into the thoughtful and vigorous movement training, the innovative creative...

Building a Better Fishtrap / from the river’s mouth is a performance ritual that honors and embodies the stories and spirit of the Bronx River. Created through collaboration with dozens of artists and community members, the work takes audiences by boat on a 1.5-mile stretch of the once embattled waterway;...

Co-curated with Tyler Ashley THE HOUSE PARTY is a building wide and sidewalk celebration in the historic gayborhood, Chelsea, just blocks from the pride march. The daylong performance party embodies the historical importance and unwavering power of houses in LGBTQAI culture. Young collectives from NYC’s queer nightlife and art scene come together...

Sidra Bell Dance New York presents a new work, F R I C T I O N (prequel) with longtime collaborator and composer Juilliard trained Alexey Gorokholinsky who will perform live with the company. F R I C T I O N is paired with the critically acclaimed work garment...

New large-scale mixed-media works on denim inspired by and responding to the physical processes of making dance, and collaborating across disciplines. Opening MAR 7, 5–7pm Jonathan Allen works in painting, collage, video, and performance and frequently collaborates with poets and performers. He will be performing in Joanna Kotze’s evening length work, ‘What...