Allan Harris: Harlem After Dark

Experience the electrifying Harlem After Dark: An Uptown Jazz Party—a thrilling celebration of both Harlem’s rich jazz history and its vibrant, evolving scene today. Hosted by the dynamic Allan Harris, this unforgettable night seamlessly blends music, dance, and culture. Allan Harris, on vocals and guitar, leads the charge as MC, bringing his magnetic presence to the forefront.

AROOJ AFTAB: NIGHT REIGN

Transformative may not be an urgent enough word to describe the multi-hyphenate creative Arooj Aftab. Rooted to a constellation of unmappable margins and elegant refusals, she lithely moves against the weight of time and convention, honoring multiple traditions while being owned by none. She has a sprawling vocal practice that moves with cunning intention through and alongside jazz, South Asian classical music, pop, and blues.

ART BATH

Art Bath transforms the salon experience into a festival-in-an-evening that takes audiences on an immersive ride through many disciplines and textures of art. With an established history of fostering new collaborations and work by world-class creatives, Art Bath draws from an eclectic lineup of opera, music, dance, puppetry, and fine artists to create unique evenings in a reimagined warehouse

Art Bath + PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL will feature star operatic bass Soloman Howard in an intimate performance, master puppeteer and designer Julian Crouch with Saskia Lane in their work Birdheart, choreographer Annie Rigney with thereminist Rob Schwimmer and countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen in she was becoming untethered.., sculptor and performance artist Elissavet (Betty) Sfyri in a new work, and a first-time collaboration between contemporary Gnawa collective Saha Gnawa and roller-skating artist Manuela Agudelo Roberts.

BLACK LODGE

Drawing on the complicated mythologies of the surrealist writer William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Black Lodge uses dance, industrial rock, classical string quartet, and opera to take viewers through a Lynchian psychological escape room.

Cassette Volume 1

The celebrated contemporary dance company, AIM by Kyle Abraham (AIM), renowned for its captivating performances, shares its newest evening length work by Artistic Director Kyle Abraham, Cassette Vol. 1 fusing a variety of movement vocabularies—from ballet to release-based techniques—and honoring the lineage of the diverse pop music of the ‘80s and ‘90s and the hybridized culture of Black experiences in America. Cassette Vol. 1 aims to make space for the ridiculous and the referential; holds space to laugh at its extremes, and to cry at the subtle humanity of memories past and forgotten.

Children of Dharma

“Children of Dharma” explores life, forever sprouting, transforming, dissolving, and renewing, through three characters from the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata. These characters and their myths reveal the power of ancient cultures to reaffirm humanity’s relationship with nature and the sacred today. Co-created by Aparna Ramaswamy, Ranee Ramaswamy, and Ashwini Ramaswamy, “Children of Dharma” centers South Indian embodied rituals in the immigrant experience—upholding dance as a spiritual practice that can inspire, heal, and transform. "The Ramaswamys’ devotion to the Bharatanatyam style and to treating that lineage as a living language is always radiantly clear." — The New York Times

Creatives in Motion

Creatives in Motion showcases groundbreaking works in performance and exhibition, led by emerging artists from South Korea / Korea National University of Arts. Highlighting the ingenuity and artistry of young Korean creators, the program aims to inspire and engage the global art community through innovative and dynamic creations where tradition meets modernity. This program includes three shows; 'EleK-Tradition (Korean Traditional Performing Arts + Electronic Music), 'T.O.B Group (Contemporary Dance)', and 'Hammer (Creative Gugak)', co-hosted by Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY), Korea National University of Arts (K-ARTS).

Duration of Mountains and Seas (山海经 穿越)

Duration of Mountains and Seas (山海经 穿越) is a musical showcase that reimagines ancient mythology, creating a fantastic universe where Chinese music meets electronica to traverse through time and space. Conceived and created by composer/ musician Hu Chenyun, the showcase includes the electronic music duo Frankfurt Helmet and a group of renowned musicians from the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. This contemporary performance is inspired by the great classic of ancient Chinese mythology, Classic of Mountains and Seas (3rd Century B.C.), exploring a world of mythical beings and vast geographies. The creative intermingling of Chinese instruments such as suona, pipa, and konghou with electronic voices creates a space where technology and nature—and past and future—are placed in vibrant dialogue.

EAT THE DOCUMENT

EAT THE DOCUMENT is based on the novel by Dana Spiotta, unfolds in the wake of a radical protest gone wrong. Shifting between the1970s and the 1990s, the piece considers idealism, activism and consequences, while exploring connections between the two eras – their language, technology, music, and activism.

Ife: My Heart, Four Corners, Grace

In anticipation of EVIDENCE's 40th anniversary season kicking off in January 2025, this showcase highlights an excerpt of Brown's seminal work, Grace, originally choreographed on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. As a companion to Grace, Ife: My Heart, another commission originally made on the Ailey company, is a stirring incantation inviting audiences to embrace a higher good. Completing the line-up is an excerpt from Four Corners, Brown's allegorical work inspired by friend and recording artist Carl Hancock Rux.

IN A GROVE

Inspired by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s classic story, In A Grove is a haunting meditation on the impossibility of truth and the subjectivity of memory and perception. Set in a ghost forest in the aftermath of a wildfire in the Pacific Northwest, this searing adaptation plunges the listener progressively deeper into the ever more fallible regions of the human heart, interrogating how we see, hear, remember and believe.

Iterations of adaku

Sweat Variant shares an excerpt from let slip, hold sway, commissioned for Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum, demonstrating their ongoing research into the entanglement between ancestors, future generations, and the role of ritual using the aesthetics of experimentation as an homage to Ailey. This piece is physical research for the adaku trilogy, a speculative mythology about how one family in precolonial West Africa becomes entangled in the transatlantic slave trade. The company is developing part two in this mythology, investigating the embodied impact of this rupture. After a 30-minute performance excerpt, Okpokwasili and Born invite questions and reflections.

Many Happy Returns

Many Happy Returns is a dance version of a memory play about time passing and the inherent disappointment in returning to things. It’s about aging from a female perspective, particularly in the “middle” years. That all sounds potentially loaded and hard, but we promise, we are unabashedly artists of joy. Yes, joy! There’s a beach ball, there’s a sing-a-long, people balance things on their heads, and someone in the audience gives a toast. It’s a celebration that asks us all to laugh at the question of whether we keep changing, while worrying that we might always remain the same.

Meet the Irish

A Showcase of tour-ready contemporary Irish theatre and dance

Minty Fresh Circus (by Monique Martin), shared showcase with STREB EXTREME ACTION

Inspired by abolitionist Harriet Tubman and the survival of generations of African Americans, Minty Fresh Circus asks: what does freedom feel and sound like if your only access to it is through your imagination? Minty Fresh is US-based circus performed by an all-Black cast, created by a majority-Black creative team. With an Afro-futuristic vibe and a steam-punk look, this circus features movement, music, and circus arts in a time-bending journey of redemption. The show celebrates the power of Black music as a healing, alchemical, transformative force; a ritual, a portal to joy, and an invitation to tap into your imagination.

Mixed Repertory

A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham's Mixed Repertory: 'Cassette Vol. 1', '6 Lost Labors', '2x4' A.I.M shares a sneak peek of commissioned choreographer Paul Singh’s new work, 6 Lost Labors; a new work by Abraham, 2x4 (working title) and excerpts for Abraham’s newest evening-length piece, Cassette Vol. 1.

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show

Following a sold out, critically-acclaimed, award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024, My Mother’s Funeral: The Show by Kelly Jones comes to SoHo Playhouse in New York for a limited run. Abigail’s mum is dead. But it turns out she can’t afford her to be. Did you know how expensive it is to die? £4000 for the funeral, extra for flowers. Even more for sausage rolls. Then, when a theatre pulls out of Abigail’s new project, she is asked to write about something else. Something raw, from her ‘unique working-class lens.’ Yep. To afford the funeral, she has to write about her mum. With power and playfulness, Kelly Jones’s new play tackles the inequalities around death, and the cost of turning your life into art.

NIGHT 1 | WORKS & PROCESS UNDERGROUND UPTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL

KR3TS (Keep Rising to the Top) with Violeta Galagarza*

Afro Latin Soul with Sekou McMiller and Friends

Rotunda Dance: Salsa Social

Part of JanArtsNYC

Gather round the Guggenheim for one-night-only events that start in the theater and culminate in rotunda dance parties with wine reception.

See a first look of new works by Latin Grammy and Bessie Award–winner and hip-hop veteran Violeta Galagarza. Afro-Latin dance pioneer Sekou McMiller's explores the jazz and African roots of salsa dance and music. The evening culminates with a salsa lesson and dance party in the rotunda for all.

Bringing together street dance cyphers, social dance spaces, club and dance battle culture, and the circular architecture of the museum, the festival transcends the proscenium to connect audiences and artists, blend spectating and participating, embodying joy, and build community.

Part of JanArtsNYC, which is one of the city’s largest and most influential arts gatherings and draws more than 45,000 performing arts leaders, artists, and enthusiasts from across the globe.

NIGHT 2 | WORKS & PROCESS UNDERGROUND UPTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL

It’s Showtime NYC! Pyramid by Cal Hunt and Johnathan Moore*

Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington’s MasterZ at Work Dance Family*

Rotunda Dance: Ladies of Hip-Hop All Styles Battle

Gather round the Guggenheim for one-night-only events that start in the theater and culminate in rotunda dance parties with wine reception.

Street dance takes center stage. It’s Showtime NYC!, a company of dancers with a history of performing on New York’s streets and subways, premieres Pyramid. MasterZ at Work Dance Family, led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington, the Founder of the Kiki House of Juicy Couture and Mother of the House of Balenciaga, fuses street dance, street jazz, ballroom, vogue, and hip hop. Then step up and step into the Ladies of Hip-Hop All Styles Battle in the rotunda.

Bringing together street dance cyphers, social dance spaces, club and dance battle culture, and the circular architecture of the museum, the festival transcends the proscenium to connect audiences and artists, blend spectating and participating, embodying joy, and build community.

Part of JanArtsNYC, which is one of the city’s largest and most influential arts gatherings and draws more than 45,000 performing arts leaders, artists, and enthusiasts from across the globe.

Percussion Bitter Sweet: Tender Warriors and Walking Out the Dark

Demonstrating a blend of the rhythms and traditions of the African Diaspora fused with contemporary dance and African American culture, this showcase features an excerpt from a recent 2024 commission by The Joyce Theater Foundation, Tender Warriors. The work is a joyous tribute to jazz legend Max Roach, on the occasion of his centennial birthday, and honors the Afro-Cuban rhythms of Roach’s iconic 1961 album Percussion Bittersweet. The program will also include an excerpt of Walking Out the Dark, a hauntingly beautiful quartet mirroring conversations amongst family, friends, and lovers.

POSITIVE VIBRATION NATION

Positive Vibration Nation Is a rock guaguanco opera created by Sol Ruiz. Blending live performance with integrated technology, the new work fuses sound, visual art, costume, and music with Caribbean influences to investigate contemporary issues, explore Miami’s cultural singularity, and convey a positive message to audiences.

Serving Nia, Order My Steps, Grace (program A), High Life (program B)

Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE celebrates 40 years of groundbreaking dance works melding the traditions and rhythms of the African diaspora with contemporary dance forms and stories of the ancestors. Invoking themes of spirituality, community, and self-determination, the company returns for its home season at The Joyce with a landmark restaging of Serving Nia (2001) as well as the 25th anniversary performance of Brown’s tour-de-force masterpiece, Grace (1999), featuring a special guest appearance by award winning singer-songwriter, Gordon Chambers. In the company premiere of Serving Nia, the thematic sequel to Grace, Brown invites audiences to reconnect to their inner calling and purpose, set to a rapturous blend of movement traditions from Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Guinea, interwoven with modern dance forms.

Shamel Pitts TRIBE: Marks of RED

Marks of RED , a work of magical realism, will research the nuanced multiplicity within the interior and exterior chasms of primordial self-expressionism & shared human experiences, specially narrated by, and featuring viewpoints of, 6 femme presenting/identifying people of color. Marks of RED is an Afro-futuristic meditation on the 'womb space'. Pitts and his collaborators at TRIBE are exploring metaphorical spaces of regeneration, enfoldment, implosion, rupture and potential. Marks of RED will premiere at the Walker Art Center in the spring of 2026.

Soles of Duende at Chelsea Factory

The three female percussive dancers of Soles of Duende (Amanda Castro, Tap; Arielle Rosales, Flamenco & Brinda Guha, Kathak) share new material (with live music) from their (currently in development) upcoming show. Basking in the light of their collective percussive conversation, Soles of Duende celebrates their survival amidst the barriers that diminish collective liberation. They bottle this energy into an enticing evening of rhythmic exchange. “It is clear that this team is ready for an even bigger spotlight - a treasure and a triumph.” - The New York Times

TELEKINETIK

A would-be vigilante, tortured by a telepathic shaman, learns a difficult lesson about justice versus bloodlust, as told through the “hip-hopera” stylings of the daring composer, Khary Laurent.

The Reclamation and POWER

“…complexity of traditions within black culture and society is an abiding presence in Wilson’s work.” Back after five years with his new evening length work, The Reclamation, Wilson shares its layered origins and insights. You will see some of the exciting recent developments and transformations that will premiere in The Reclamation at NYU Skirball, April 4-5, 2025! POWER shares investigations related to the early evolution of Africanist spiritual worship in the pantheon of American utopian religions. Foundress of a Philadelphia Shaker community, Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson is the source/inspiration for this kinesthetic model of communal living and cooperation.

Tipi Tales from the Stoop

With unflinching humor and heart-warming empathy, award-winning playwright and performer Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/Rappahannock) confronts family history and generational trauma as she dives into an epic quest to keep cultural traditions alive. Tipi Tales from the Stoop is the joyous journey of one Native New Yorker discovering her voice and proving that resilience is not just about surviving, it’s about thriving—with or without the occasional family drama. “Borst-Tarrant’s humor sends up cliché after cliché with a human and political urgency that is authentic and contagious.”—Exeunt Magazine

TELEKINETIK

A would-be vigilante, tortured by a telepathic shaman, learns a difficult lesson about justice versus bloodlust, as told through the “hip-hopera” stylings of the daring composer, Khary Laurent.