92NY Announces Harkness Dance Center 2022/23 Season Featuring an UNA Productions NYC Premiere & More

The 92nd Street Y, New York Harkness Dance Center has announced the 2022/23 season, anchored by the Mainstage Series. Debuting last season, the Mainstage Series features unique performances in one of the art form's most historic spaces - Kaufmann Concert Hall - where audiences witnessed iconic artists including Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey (premiering Revelations), Jose Limón and Pearl Primus.

This season's Mainstage Series presents modern-day dance pioneers UNA Productions; Peter Chu; Johnnie Cruise Mercer; Maurya Kerr; the return of FLOCK - Alice Klock and Florian Lochner; and Maleek Washington creating and premiering works that move dance forward. The series also includes a celebration of the iconic Yuriko, whose choreographic career was launched from our 92nd Street Y stage; a world premiere work from Seth Parker Woods and Roderick George in collaboration with 92NY Tisch Music; and an evening of tap, body percussion and live music from 92NY Artists in Residence Leonardo Sandoval and Gregory Richardson, founders of Music From The Sole.

The 2022/23 season also brings audiences the new Harkness Studio Series, in Buttenwieser Hall. The hall is currently undergoing renovations, including restoration work and installation of new retractable stage and seating systems, as well as movable wings, improved acoustics and a new open plan lobby. This new series highlights the work of choreographers Annie Rigney and Barkha Patel, two artists first introduced to the 92nd Street Y as finalists in the inaugural 2020 Future Dance Festival. The third Future Dance Festival - a choreographic competition showcasing a new generation of creators - is also part of the Harkness Studio Series and includes both online and in person programs.

During Buttenwieser Hall's renovation, Works & Process and 92NY presents LayeRhythm (on the Move) third Thursdays this Fall at the Gibney Center, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, and The New York Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. The events will feature unique improvisational performances blending movement, live music and spoken word poets. LayeRhythm & Grooves is back in Buttenwieser Hall next year.

"Witnessing Kaufmann Concert Hall revive its dance heartbeat with the creative visionaries of today was a dream come true last season," comments Taryn Kaschock Russell, Director of the Harkness Dance Center. "The life energy brought back onto our historic stage during the inaugural Mainstage Series was clearly inspired by the voices of the past but also empowered to move the artform forward. Once again, dance at 92NY has become a platform for firsts and the future of dance."

"The 92nd Street Y played a crucial role in the history of modern dance, supporting dancers with a place to try new ideas," notes Jody Gottfried Arnhold, Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) founder and 92NY Board Chair. "We're thrilled to return to that role, so essential in evolving this art form."

Harkness Mainstage Series
Kaufmann Concert Hall

UNA PRODUCTIONS

Grass is Green
NYC Premiere
Chuck Wilt and Dancers of UNA Productions
In Person - Thu, Sep 22, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri Sep 23 - noon, Mon, Sep 26, from $20
Grass is Green is an evening-length work for seven dancers and drag queen/live cellist/live pianist, Rose Nylons. The work is inspired by cycles of destruction and rebirth both within humanity and the land we are a part of. Chuck Wilt was a former Artist in Residence at the 92nd Street Y between 2018-2019 where he returned with UNA Productions for the NYC premiere of his evening length COLORING in the fall of 2019.

YURIKO, A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

In Person - Thu, Oct 27, 7:30 pm, FREE
Yuriko Kikuchi, known as a dancer, choreographer and performing artist under the single name Yuriko, will be celebrated for the trailblazing path she created over her 102 years of life. As a natural dancer from birth, Yuriko began performing at the age of ten but gained wide recognition and prominence as the first Asian American dancer in a major company during her years with Martha Graham between 1944 to 1967. Yuriko headlined her first solo choreographic concert on the Kaufmann Concert Hall stage at the 92nd Street Y in 1946 where her company later returned to perform almost every year between 1964 and 1971. In originating the role of Eliza in Roger's and Hammerstein's The King and I she once again broke barriers not only as a performer on stage and in a major motion picture, but as director for a long-running revival of the musical. A program of historic footage, spoken tributes and performances from artists including members of the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrate this iconic artist.

SETH PARKER WOODS & RODERICK GEORGE

Difficult Grace
A World Premiere in Collaboration with 92NY Tisch Music
Seth Parker Woods, cello & Roderick George choreographer/dancer
In Person - Sat, Nov 19, 7:30 pm, from $25
Online - from 7:30 pm Sat, Nov 19 - 7:30 Tue, Nov 22, from $25
A breathtaking multimedia work centered on the Great Migration from the astonishing Seth Parker Woods in the triple role of cellist, narrator and movement artist. First performed in Seattle in 2020, Difficult Grace has now expanded to a collaboration with acclaimed choreographer-dancer Roderick George. This performance marks its world premiere. Difficult Grace features film, visual art, the poetry of Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randall, and music written for and with Woods by Freida Abtan, Monty Adkins, Fredrick Gifford, Michael Gordon, Nathalie Joachim, and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. This production also includes newly commissioned music by Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes, a.k.a. Blood Orange. An evocative, theatrical, genre-bending production reflecting on immigration, displacement and the marginalized, Difficult Grace is a riveting new work from two of today's most remarkable young artists.

Harkness Dance Center Artists in Residence

MUSIC FROM THE SOLE - LEONARDO SANDOVAL & GREGORY RICHARDSON

Partido (2021)
In Person - Thu, Dec 22, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online -from noon Fri, Dec 23 - noon Mon, Dec 26, from $20
Partido is an evening-length work of tap dance, body percussion, and live music, that explores the convergence of percussive dance with contemporary urban dance and music in the US and Brazil. Developed for Music From The Sole, and initially spurred by Leonardo Sandoval's experience as an Afro-Brazilian immigrant in the United States, the piece celebrates and highlights the deep connections between Afro-rooted culture in both countries, connecting tap with styles like samba and house dance through shared rhythms and footwork.

Music From the Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap's Afro-diasporic roots, particularly its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music, and its lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk). Led by Brazilian dancer/choreographer and 2022/23 Harkness Dance Center Artists in Residence Leonardo Sandoval (2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise) and composer Gregory Richardson, their work embraces tap's unique nature as a blend of sound and movement, incorporating wide-ranging influences like samba, passinho, Afro-Cuban, jazz, and house.

PETER CHU

In Person - Thu, Jan 19, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri, Jan 20 - noon Mon, Jan 23, from $20
Peter Chu, whose storied career as a performing artist, educator and choreographer has received accolades and honors both nationally and internationally, will be creating a brand-new work which will have its world premiere on our Kaufmann Concert Hall stage.

JOHNNIE CRUISE MERCER

Revival 2023: to those who have seed in the ground
In Person - Thu, Feb 2, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri, Feb 3 - noon Mon, Feb 6, from $20
Choreographer, educator, and producer Johnnie Cruise Mercer brings together two generations of artists with the intention of calling upon (and embodying) collective inner will. Inspired by William McDowell's "Spirit Break Out," to those who have seed in the ground propels itself conceptually from the weight of yesterday, guiding an ensemble of movement artists through a series of meta-physical practices rooted in black spiritual tradition, and movement history.

to those who have seed in the ground marks Mercer's company TheREDprojectNYC's third year producing Revival, an annual concert/event curated around communal breath, revitalization, and freedom.

MAURYA KERR

black calls to dark calls to deep underneath
World Premiere
In Person - Thu, Mar 9, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri, Mar 10 - noon Mon, Mar 13, from $20
Maurya Kerr, Bay Area-based choreographer, poet, performer, educator, and the artistic director of tinypistol brings a world premiere to the 92nd Street Y. Much of Maurya's work-across the disciplines of movement, language, and film-is focused on black and brown people reclaiming their birthright to both wonderment and the quotidian.

FLOCK & ARTISTS

Somewhere Between
New York Premiere
In Person - Thu, Apr 20, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri, Apr 21 - noon Mon, Apr 24, from $20
FLOCK returns to perform again at 92NY after kicking off our inaugural Harkness Mainstage Series in September 2021 for the New York premiere of their brand-new touring show Somewhere Between featuring a cast of world-renowned dance artists.

Maleek Washington

In Person - Thu, Jun 8, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Fri, Jun 9 - noon Mon, Jun 12, from $20
Maleek Washington, a 2021 New York Live Arts Fresh Track grantee, who was also nominated for a Bessie as an "Outstanding Breakout Choreographer" in the same year will be closing out our Mainstage Season by bringing his compelling creative voice to the 92nd Street Y, New York stage for the first time.

HARKNESS STUDIO SERIES

Buttenwieser Hall

Annie Rigney
"...she was becoming untethered."
In Person - Fri, Mar 17 & Sat, Mar 18, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Sat, Mar 18 - noon Tue, Mar 21, from $20

Annie Rigney was first introduced to the 92nd Street Y as a finalist in the 2020 Future Dance Festival. ...she was becoming untethered . paints a surrealistic portrait of a woman in both ecstasy and constraint. The work explores points along a continuum of beauty and the grotesque; the mundane and the absurd. The process began by asking if the overwhelming emotion of opera music could be matched and explored through extreme sustained movements and at what point does heightened emotion tip over the edge from expression, to absurdity, and even into comedy? The dance also serves to ask and answer the questions: what supports us? What uplifts us? And what holds us back?

***Online Program***

FUTURE DANCE FESTIVAL '23

Streaming from noon Fri, May 31 - noon Mon, Apr 3 - FREE with registration
The Future Dance Festival builds on 92NY's rich legacy of presenting the work of pioneering dance artists who propel the art form forward. In the festival's first two years, 42 diverse choreographers were selected from six different continents to become finalists. Each choreographer received access, through the Future Dance Festival, to a network of company directors and industry luminaries who are all invested in the future of dance. This investment in our collective future has led to choreographic opportunities such as commissions, grants and residencies for our past finalists.

FUTURE DANCE FESTIVAL '23

In Person - Fri, Apr 14, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Sat, Apr 15 - noon Tue, Apr 18, from $20
The Future Dance Festival builds on 92NY's rich legacy of presenting the work of pioneering dance artists who propel the art form forward. In the festival's first two years, 42 diverse choreographers were selected from six different continents to become finalists. Each choreographer received access, through the Future Dance Festival, to a network of company directors and industry luminaries who are all invested in the future of dance. This investment in our collective future has led to choreographic opportunities such as commissions, grants and residencies for our past finalists.

BARKHA PATEL

In Person - Fri, May 19, 7:30 pm, from $30 / $10 student
Online - noon Sat, May 20 - noon Tue, May 23, from $20
Barkha Patel was first introduced to the 92nd Street Y as a finalist in the 2020 Future Dance Festival. Join us as we take a journey into the works and world of a kathak choreographer whose works often lives within two realities: upholding the lineage that was passed down to her and uncovering new movement possibilities within the form. Barkha and her company will be premiering traditional and contemporary kathak solo and ensemble dance works.

LAYERHYTHM

Third Thursdays Off-Site Programs September - December
First Fridays at 92NY March - June

Works & Process and 92NY present LayeRhythm (On the Move)
Four fall third Thursday evenings of unique improvisational performances with movement, live music, and audience interaction. Events also feature choreographed work from guest companies.

Works & Process and 92NY present LayeRhythm (On the Move)
Four fall third Thursday evenings of unique improvisational performances with movement, live music, and audience interaction. Events also feature choreographed work from guest companies.

Thu, Sep 15, 7:30 pm, Theater Tickets $35, Choose What You Pay
LayeRhythm (On the Move) with Passion Fruit Dance Company - Hip-Hop, House, Waacking, Popping
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Peter B. Lewis, 1071 Fifth Ave

Thu, Oct 20, 7:30 pm, Tickets free, RSVP required
LayeRhythm (On the Move) with Sun Kim Dance Theater - Popping
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Café, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza

Thu, Nov 17, 8 pm, Tickets $35, Choose-What-You-Pay
LayeRhythm (On the Move) with The Hood Lockers - Locking, House, Hip-Hop, Popping
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, The Theater (Studio H), 280 Broadway

Thu, Dec 15, 7:30 pm, Tickets $35, Choose-What-You-Pay
LayeRhythm (On the Move) featuring STASIS - FlexN
Lincoln Center, Clark Studio Theater, Samuel B. and David Rose Building, 165 West 65th St, 7th Fl

For more information and tickets visit worksandprocess.org.

LayeRhythm & Grooves

Mai Lê Hô and Guests
Fri, Feb 3, Mar 3, May 5 & Jun 2, 7:30 pm, $20 general admission / $10 student
Acclaimed improvisational street/club dance & music performance design LayeRhythm returns to 92NY for a series of theatrical experiences co-created by audiences and artists. Each month, LayeRhythm will invite a different street dance company/collective to bring their unique freestyle skills and flavors to the stage. The guest ensembles will perform choreographed excerpts from their body of work - featuring house dance, litefeet, flexN, popping, locking, hip-hop. Improvised sets based on ideas from the audience, typical of an evening with LayeRhythm, will also take audiences on a journey through interactive creativity, community building and artistic play .

Harkness Dance Center - 92Y School of Dance and DEL (Dance Education Laboratory)

We offer opportunities each year for all of the artists in our performance series to connect directly with our broader Dance Center community either by leading classes and workshops for the students in our School of Dance or work closely with dance educators through DEL's professional training programs to extend their impact and reach into the New York City public school system.