EMERGE125's 2025 NYC Season Begins In May At El Museo Del Barrio

EMERGE125's 2025 season program has been announced. The show is a celebration of the company, its supporters, and the entire community. 

Following three successful years as the resident company of The Flea Theater, has announced its transfer to El Museo del Barrio. Located at 5th Avenue and 104th Street, the transition to El Museo provides us with a larger stage, more seats for audiences, and a recommitment to its uptown roots. EMERGE125's 2025 performance season is scheduled for May 29 and 30 at 7:30pm with a family matinee on Saturday, May 31 at 4:00pm.

The 2025 season will include a selection of classic EMERGE125 repertoire, each one uplifted by the power of music. Set to a soundtrack composed by E125 board member Paul Ukena, 1:3:4:1 was originally created for an all-male-identifying cast, but the piece takes on new life this season with all-female and mixed-gender casts as it explores the physicality of a visual artist in the act of creation. For Joy, featuring music by Fred Kennedy, maps the topography of resilience and happiness as a vital and under-appreciated foundation for growth. A longtime favorite in its repertory and a traditional closer, Heart of Glass is a visually epic and emotionally charged finale. In addition to the production of these three dances, the May performance season will include the first major encore restaging of the 2024 premiere work I Want You, a dance centered on the immense challenges of unrequited love, both physical and spiritual.

As part of this program, we are also excited to present the 2025 premiere of two new dances choreographed by Artistic Director, Tiffany Rea-Fisher. The first, Pre-Show Jitters, dramatizes the final breaths before a performer reaches the stage. More often than we would admit, that journey is a battleground of adrenaline, doubt, and sheer will. As Rea-Fisher tells us, “When audiences ask how we do what we do as dancers, the answer is that it isn't easy. It requires a person with relentless attention to detail, an unshakable love for the art form, and enormous courage.” Alongside the company, this courage will be personified on stage by special guest performer and vocalist, Jo Lampert (Joan of Arc: Into the Fire at The Public Theater, Transparent: The Musicale Finale on Amazon), who also penned the work's spoken text.

The second premiere, an untitled piece, is a full-company work that acts as a metaphor for unity, tension, and release. Eight dancers move in strict unison, pushing the limits of physicality, connection, and support through intricate partnering. At its core, the piece is built around duets, with two dancers moving to break away from the group before being inevitably drawn back into a world of shifting dynamics, where individuality and community constantly negotiate their importance.

Our May 31 family matinee will begin with an exciting opening set of performances that showcases E125's education programming and the lively art's next generation. Young dancers from the Stars of Tomorrow Project and The Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts who have benefited from EMERGE125 classroom programs will show and prove their skills. In keeping with the mission of providing accessible dance to all audiences, we will be offering subsidized tickets for this matinee performance to local schools, educators, students and their families.

Cementing a pair of longtime creative relationships with the company, designer Rachel Dozier-Ezell has been commissioned to provide original costumes for Pre-Show Jitters, For Joy, and the untitled piece; while Production Manager and Lighting Designer Chris Brusberg will provide new lighting design for the entire performance.

The EMERGE125 performing company members for the 2025 season include Jenna Kulacz, Madelyn LaLonde, Alyssa Manginaro, Briana Marsiello, Caitlyn Morgan, Trey Singletary, Tiffany Terry, Travon Williams, and additional guests TBA.

To post a comment, you must register and login.