Furloughed Artists Of The Met Announce Upcoming Outdoor NYC Concert

Dancers of the Met, an independent collective of dancers who have performed with the Metropolitan Opera throughout the seasons, is joining with furloughed members of the Met Orchestra and Met Chorus Artists to produce an outdoor NYC concert on Sunday, May 16. The all-day exhibition is part of New York City's Open Culture, a new citywide program that brings arts and culture to the five boroughs' streets.

Open Air Opera: Street Dances will take place on 75th street between Broadway and West End Sunday on Sunday, May 16 beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET and concluding at 7:00 p.m. ET. The event will include a morning of short demonstrations of dance and opera music for the public and afternoon performances by Dancers of the Met featuring a collaboration with members of the Met Chorus Artists and the Met Orchestra. The afternoon also includes an outdoor all-ages family dance class and dance party.

The limited-ticket program will be emceed by well-known author, lecturer, and commentator William Berger heard on Met Opera Radio's Sirius/XM broadcasts and the podcast series "In Focus." Met dancers Cesar Abreu, Natalia Alonso, Réka Echerer, and Maria Phegan are leading the production effort, along with a team of fellow Met dancers, to create opportunities that connect and support members of The Metropolitan Opera community and celebrate their diverse artistic backgrounds.

Choreography will be led by Met dancers and choreographers, including Juilliard graduates Michelle Vargo and Belinda McGuire. Vargo, a 20-year Met veteran who has danced in over 40 productions, will choreograph a new piece to "Lascia Ch'io Pianga" by Handel. Soprano Anne Marie Nonnemacher, a Met Opera Chorus member, is the featured soloist, accompanied live by members of the Met Orchestra: Violinists Sarah Vonsattel and Laura McGinnis, Violist Mary Hammann, and Cellist David Heiss. Belinda McGuire, who has performed with the Limón Dance Company and has taught at Harvard, Marymount Manhattan College, and Canada's National Ballet School, will be presenting selections from Verdi's La Traviata. New York University's Tisch School of the Arts alumnus Jacoby Pruitt, whose past credits include Ailey II, Company XIV, and who is featured in the upcoming highly anticipated film In The Heights, will also be premiering new work to "Glück, das mir verblieb" from Die Tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Danielle Russo, whose choreography has been presented nationally at the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, and The Yard, and whose work concentrates on unconventional formats and environments, will set a site-specific piece to an audio recording of "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco, performed by members of the Met Orchestra and Met Chorus Artists, conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The event is supported in part by DRA: Dancers Responding to AIDS

Ticket and Venue Information: www.DancersoftheMet.com

While this will be an outdoor event, there will be a limited amount of tickets available through Eventbrite. Audiences can also offer support by visiting Dancers of the Met's fundraising campaign on Fractured Atlas Ticket sales as well as all donations will go towards the production expenses for this special event, as well as supporting the future endeavors of the Dancers of the Met.

*Artists will follow stringent COVID-19 safety protocols and will be masked and distanced. Guests will also be encouraged to follow these guidelines.

*Program is subject to change.

The May 16 presentation will be the second collaboration by the furloughed Met Artists. It follows a sold-out presentation performed back in early March, which included a week-long creative residency at the women-led downtown organization Arts on Site.