2025 National Dance Project Finalists

On behalf of the NDP Advisor Cohort, we are thrilled to share the 2025 National Dance Project (NDP) Production Grant Finalists. 

Approaching its 30th year, the NDP Production Grant was established to support the creation/development and U.S* touring/sharing of new dance projects. The unique framework of funding continues to be widely recognized as an investment in dance artists, companies, collectives, presenters, and communities to explore creative methodologies, redefine collaborative partnerships, and curate accessible, thought-provoking, and catalytic dance experiences.

The NDP Production Grant will provide the following to the 20 NDP grantees:

• $45,000 to create a new dance project;
• $10,000 in unrestricted general operating support;
• $10,000 to support a Production Residency in Dance and/or additional community engagement work; and
• $35,000 in tour subsidy that goes to U.S.* organizations that bring the new dance project and related engagement activities to their communities.**

Additionally, in recognition of their artistic rigor, those Finalists that do not receive an NDP Production Grant will receive a $10,000 NDP Finalist Award. These funds are unrestricted and can be used to support the continued creation/development of the Finalist’s proposed new dance project and/or other needs they believe can advance their artistic goals. We hope these resources also serve as amplification, and in some instances an introduction, of their creative praxis to others in the dance ecology. 

*NEFA defines U.S. as all 50 of the United States, as well as Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

** NEFA continues to embrace an expanded definition of touring to include virtual sharing. We understand that there are new opportunities and interest in artists and companies sharing their projects virtually, reaching a more global audience, and have remained flexible to support this kind of expansion and hybrid model.

NDP Advisors & Grant Panel Review Process

In late February, we received an awe-inspiring 306 eligible preliminary applications for the NDP Production Grant. This was a 39.7% increase from last year’s record-breaking number of eligible applications, speaking to the continued need for more resources that support dance artists’ creative desires from ideation to implementation. 

The NDP Production Grant review and panel process is stewarded by NEFA’s values and NDP program criteria, while being guided by NDP Advisors who are the sole collective decision-makers for the grant opportunity. In anticipation of the rise in preliminary applications, we increased the NDP Advisor Cohort from 12 to 15. This shift not only supported the division of labor for NDP Advisors during the first round of application review, but also provided an opportunity to expand the diversity of the 2025 NDP Advisor Cohort. 

In April, the NDP Advisors gathered virtually for a week-long grant panel review process that resulted in the 40 new dance projects that would become NDP Finalists. They prepare weeks in advance to immerse themselves in robust discussions via the evaluation and assessment of applications and lean into collective consensus with support from the NDP Team. This year’s application pool included: 

• Preliminary Applications Received – 323
  • Eligible Preliminary Applications – 306
  • Ineligible Preliminary Applications – 17
• We received applications from 34 states: Alabama (1), Arizona (1), California (54), Colorado (4), Connecticut (8), Florida (5), Georgia (4), Hawaii (2), Illinois (19), Kansas (1), Louisiana (5), Maine (2), Maryland (5), Massachusetts (16), Michigan (5), Minnesota (7), Missouri (2), Nevada (1), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (5), New Mexico (2), New York (96), North Carolina (9), Ohio (5), Oklahoma (1),  Pennsylvania (14),  Rhode Island (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (2), Texas (7), Utah (1), Vermont (2), Washington (9), Wisconsin (1), as well as Washington, D.C. (5).
• We received applications from all six regions of the United States (Learn more about the six regional arts organizations).
• We received two (2) international applications from Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
• 43 applications were first-time NDP Production Grant applicants.
• 19% of applications were from artists/companies that have previously received NDP Production Grant support. 

Of course, there was an overwhelming feeling of appreciation for the enthusiasm, vulnerability, and expansive ingenuity shared across the applicant pool of proposed new dance projects, and yet NDP Advisors continue to be met with the challenge of limited resources to support as many dance artists, companies, and/or collectives as they would like. Thus, their process remains rooted in deep inquiry to reach a diverse portfolio of 40 new dance projects that represent, uplift, and advance various dance forms, genres, practices, traditions, lineages, experiences, and/or identities reflected in today’s dance landscape.

What’s Next?

For NDP Finalists

Immediately following the panel meeting process, applicants who have advanced to the Finalist stage were notified and e-introduced to the NDP Advisor that will support them in developing their full proposal. The NDP Advisor will provide guidance and feedback on, but not limited to: narrative responses (including comments from the preliminary panel meeting), the project budget, in-person and/or virtual tour planning strategies, and work sample selections. 

In July, the NDP Advisors will reconvene virtually to determine the 20 new dance projects that will receive an NDP Production Grant and the 20 new dance projects that will receive an NDP Finalist Award. 

For 2025 NDP Production Grant Applicants

It has been NEFA’s practice to offer feedback from the panel’s review to all applicants to strengthen grant writing skills and work sample selections that can be applied to future funding opportunities. While our current resources limit the amount of NDP Production Grants and Finalist Awards we can provide, we understand how invaluable constructive feedback can be and are intentional about the care taken to prepare and deliver such information.

For Future Interested NDP Production Grant Applicants

In September 2024, NEFA shared that both the National Dance Project and National Theater Project were entering their final grant cycles for each program in their current forms (see official announcement here). However, we want to affirm that there will be a 2026 NDP Production Grant cycle. While the framework of support will look different, we remain committed to stewarding another funding opportunity before exploring any next/new advancements for the program.

We encourage future interested NDP Production Grant applicants to stay tuned for more details regarding the application, grantmaking process, and framework of support later this year.

Special Thanks

NDP Advisors

This year was another record-breaking application cycle for the NDP program, and you each met the challenge of reviewing and assessing a combined 306 applications with deep exploration, excitement, and care for the future of dance. We can’t thank you enough for your contributions to our process and look forward to our continued work together. 

NDP Team

Each day, I have the pleasure of working in collaboration with Cheri Opperman, Senior Grants Manager for Dance, and Kristin Gregory, Program Manager for Dance, to support dance artists, presenters, administrators, and communities across the country in service to our love for dance. The work we do together is not always easy, and yet even through the challenges it is all worth it. Thank you both for never shying away from the hard discussions and bringing your full selves to every aspect of what we do.

NEFA Staff

In addition to the NDP Team, the full implementation of our grantmaking practices and processes would not be possible without the unwavering support of Jane Preston, Deputy Director of Programs, Abby Southwell, Technology & Data Director, and Elizabeth Timmerman, Senior Technology & Data Administrator. You each always listen deeply to strengthen everything we do, and for that we are grateful!  

Funders

NEFA's National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.

2025 National Dance Project Finalists 

Please Note: As one extension of NEFA’s land acknowledgment practice, we believe it is important to provide space for artists/companies to uplift the original caretakers of the lands they reside and/or create on. You will notice that this may be represented differently for each NDP Finalist. We respect the varied choices made by artists/companies in honoring and recognizing the original caretakers of the land(s), as well as the relationships that exist and are being fostered through these projects. In addition, the project descriptions below represent the current understanding of the project by the artist/company and are subject to change as part of the full proposal submission.

A Khmer Swan Lake (ក្ងានសួគ៌)

Merrimack Repertory Theatre | Lowell, MA

A Khmer Swan Lake is a groundbreaking adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s 1877 ballet, reimagined entirely through the storytelling and movement of Khmer classical dance. 

This production, a collaboration between Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) and the internationally recognized Angkor Dance Troupe (ADT), replaces traditional ballet with the expressive Robam Kenore, the celestial dance of Cambodia’s half-human, half-bird beings that embody grace, destiny, and transcendence in Khmer mythology to convey a story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice. 

Featuring an ensemble of Khmer classical dancers and musicians, A Khmer Swan Lake integrates intricate “kbach” (hand gestures), precise footwork, and a live score performed on traditional Cambodian instruments. The production, led by ADT's Artistic Director, Mrs. Phousita Serey Huy, and Composer, Mrs. Somaly Soth, honors the cultural depth of Khmer performing arts while bridging cross-cultural connections. 

Land Acknowledgement: Pawtucket, Agawam, Massa-adchu-es-et, and Pennacook Peoples.

adaku, part 2

Sweat Variant | Brooklyn, NY

The adaku trilogy is a speculative mythology about how one family in precolonial West Africa becomes entangled in the transatlantic slave trade. In part two of this mythology, we investigate the embodied impact of this violent rupture, while also considering the devastating consequences of the theft of artifacts designed to protect ancestral bonds. Part two sets us in the U.S. in the near future, where this history has been forgotten and where we excavate the consequences of erasure when events lead to sudden remembering. What is unleashed in the imagination of a young woman who's been led to believe she has no history worth remembering? What are the multitude of futures she can now imagine? Using text, sound, song, movement and spatial design, Sweat Variant’s multidisciplinary approach to the dance theatrical form considers cycles of ritual and repair. 

Land Acknowledgement: The Munsee Lenape and Canarsie Peoples

A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:' (I hope it will stir your mind)

Rosy Simas Danse | Minneapolis, MN

Created by Native choreographer and transdisciplinary artist Rosy Simas, A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:' (I hope it will stir your mind), is an evening length dance-theater work that reflects on what a world of relational balance with nature and all living beings might look and feel like. The work’s immersive, caring relationship with audiences (Native, BIPOC, and intersecting LGBTQIA+ and disability communities, as well as other audiences) and its in-depth range of community engagement activities aspire to actively engage in generating peace, peacefulness and building community amongst everyone it touches.

Land Acknowledgement: Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-chunk Peoples.

ADULTIFICATION

Jamal Jackson Dance Company | Brooklyn, NY

Jamal Jackson Dance Company (JJDC) is excited to develop ADULTIFICATION. Adultification refers to the racial bias in which people perceive black children as older and less innocent than other children. Black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when most boys still benefit from the assumption that children are innocent. This work will explore the joy we can and should see in young black lives and juxtaposes it with the forced adulthood that is set on these young black lives. 

JJDC in collaboration with young boys that identify as black will develop a complex movement structure devised from games that incorporate call and response, intricate footwork, body rhythms, and improvisation. The choreography within this movement structure will focus on the joy that we have as young black boys and men. We will also begin to develop moments of pressure that will pull a few of these young men away from this safe and playful group. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

Aluxes: Guardians of the Jungle

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company | East Elmhurst, NY

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company requests support for Aluxes: Guardians of the Jungle (working title), our first new full-length work created by Artistic Director Grisel Pren Monje. Aluxes explores the interplay between traditional Mayan spirit guardians of the jungle–the Aluxes, the sense of identity that exists in ancient connections to place, and what happens as technology changes our landscapes. It will premiere in May 2027. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape, Matinecock, and Canarsie Peoples.

Amina Mundi

Degenerate Art Ensemble | Seattle, WA

Anima Mundi is a constellation of dances and ceremonial activations that bring together embodied textured movement, cinematic imagery, public ceremony, vibrational voice and transforming sculptures, revealing a world of shadows and otherworldly beings. The work explores the disconnect between humanity and the rest of the natural world and how our society’s devaluation of sensorial experience contributes to our compromised relationship with the environment. 

It is also inspired by the animist traditions of director Haruko Crow Nishimura’s Japanese culture, which prioritize reciprocal relationships with nature. Degenerate Art Ensemble’s unique dance work is surreal, visually heightened, rebellious and defiant. Anima Mundi will exist as a full-length work for stage as well as have modular elements that can be performed as site specific and gallery iterations. 

Land Acknowledgement: Duwamish People.

Echoing Memories in a Distant Future

Vanessa Hernández Cruz | Tarzana, CA

Echoing Memories in a Distant Future is a new evening length experimental dance performance that will celebrate Disability artistry by showcasing themes of connectivity, a journey of finding internal liberation, and disability aesthetics. This groundbreaking work introduces an innovative performance modality of live streaming virtual Disabled dancers on stage with live performers. The work prioritizes & centers QTBIPOC Disabled artists who have yet to be seen and who haven’t had the privilege of performing on a stage due to societal barriers and/or disability related reasons. By integrating community engagement workshops into the process, we aim to unite Disabled communities in each city we tour, fostering connection and dialogue. Through this work, we strive to expand the dance field, creating space for Disability artistry to flourish and challenging the norms of who belongs onstage.

Land Acknowledgement: Tongva and Kizh Lands Peoples.

ELMO-MENTO

Miguel Alejandro Castillo | Brooklyn, NY

ELMO-MENTO is a multidisciplinary dance-theater work, centering the stories of immigrant New Yorkers who make a living as cartoon character street performers in Times Square. Conceived and choreographed by Miguel Alejandro Castillo and devised with a cast of seven street performers, this piece investigates notions of labor, anonymity, hybridity, and migration. By blending personal narratives with surreal embodiment, ELMO-MENTO immerses audiences in the lives and imagination of the performers, who reveal their perspectives on the costs and value of the American Dream. Premiering at Abrons Arts Center in Spring 2027, this visually striking and thought-provoking performance challenges audiences to consider who is seen, who remains invisible, and what it means to truly belong. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink

Joti Singh | Oakland, CA

Joti Singh's Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink merges dance, poetry, and live music to chronicle the Bay Area's Ghadar Party, a revolutionary force in India's fight for independence from British rule. Rooted in her training in Bhangra and Giddha—traditional Punjabi dances that embody both celebration and resistance—Joti pushes the boundaries of these forms to depict the enduring legacy of anti-colonial struggles. Drawing inspiration from her great-grandfather, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee, a prominent Ghadar leader and prolific poet, Joti collaborates with singer Ishmeet Narula to compose the soundtrack. Infusing her own poetry with her ancestor's verses, Joti illuminates the personal inheritance of her family's legacy of art, revolution and resistance. Ghadar Geet serves as a bridge, connecting generations through the rhythm of struggle and the enduring quest for liberation, revealing the living connections that bind our history to the present. 

Land Acknowledgement: Chochenyo Ohlone People.

Harlem Renaissance the Ballet: Chapter One

Theresa Ruth Howard | MoBBallet.org | New York, NY

Harlem Renaissance the Ballet: Chapter One that will be an exploration of the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) through the lens of musician turned prolific photographer James Van der Zee. With Van der Zee’s images as a backdrop, the ballet will move through the community of Harlem capturing its beauty, art, and a newly developing culture of prosperity and self-determination while highlighting the people of Harlem: society mavens, intellectuals, academics, shop owners, and artists. Esteemed dance maker Donald Byrd will be the lead choreographer of Harlem Renaissance the Ballet: Chapter One with an original score composed by Kennedy Center artist-in-residence Carlos Simon.

Land Acknowledgement: Lenapehoking (Lenni-Lanape People). 

I Grieve Different

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham | New York, NY

I Grieve Different (IGD) is the second work in a series of four works meant to highlight, celebrate, and love upon our community. 

The first, An Untitled Love, used the music of R&B legend D’Angelo to create an evening-length dance work centered around Black love. It sought to uplift the often-unspoken love and celebration therein. It ignited a warmth and a sense of pride in a way that I hope IGD can welcome space for healing and an understanding of the power mental health can bring beyond the singular individual. 

IGD isn’t about trauma bonding. Its focus is to bring exposure to narratives rarely discussed while highlighting the evocative storytelling and artistry of Kendrick Lamar’s catalog. Throughout the choreographic process and performance life, the company will work with national mental health organizations to bring awareness and opportunities to engage on a deeper level in hopes of bringing about a systematic shift.

Land Acknowledgement: Lenape People.

Infinite Slow Drive / Obsidians in the Wild

Brownbody | St. Paul, MN

Infinite Slow Drive is a multi-sensory, multi-site, interdisciplinary dance work that choreographically traces, embodies, and multi-sites Blackness through slow stroll cultures of Florida and other US regions. Choreographed for ice and stage by Lela Aisha Jones for Brownbody, this work is an ode to the Southeastern US city of Tallahassee, Florida, and the spontaneous events of stroll culture and adorned processionals, including embodied invention, vehicular augmentation, and sonic remix of the 1990s that offered alternate potentials of existence. 

Infinite Slow Drive reignites these memories and events as nomadic sanctuaries, maroons, quilombos, hush harbors, palenques, and sacred groves through performance that weaves together car show, circus, installation, durational exhibition, and sideshow. We seek refuge in bringing this work of Black stroll culture across ice (arena, rink) and earth (wood, soil) and celebrate adaptability in an environmentally and socially divisive world. 

Land Acknowledgement: Wahpekute People.

Land and Us -- Future Ritual

Dohee Lee | Oakland, CA

Dohee Lee will lead the creation of Land and Us: Future Ritual, a new work blending contemporary dance, acoustic and digital sound and installation art. Land and Us will explore the vital importance of land-human connections in Asian mythology and ancestor practices, as well as the harm done by breaking bonds to land/homeland through war and environmental degradation, and the experience of seeking refuge in new lands. 

Through Land and Us, Dohee will bring to life mythological figures from her homeland of Jeju Island, Korea, like Sulmundae Halmang, the creator goddess of the Earth, and Gangnim the death messenger. She will also collaborate with Asian immigrant/refugee community artists to create ensemble choreography evoking land-linked mythology from their own cultures, alongside historical and personal stories. A concluding new ritual for healing the land and the people will inspire hope in a challenging time for both our environment and our refugee communities. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lisjan (Ohlone) People.

LOOK/OUT

Fox Whitney | Seattle, WA

LOOK/OUT is a psychedelic blend of autobiography and metafiction, weaving together image-making practices, experimental drag and dance, meditation techniques, and influences from the West Coast’s queer nightlife and indie music scene. This interdisciplinary performance invites a group of QT collaborators to explore structured and improvised movement inspired by queer art history, somatic techniques, and the ever-evolving practices of culture and community building. 

Rooted in my lived experience as an anarchistic, multi-disciplinary performance maker and artist who has been socially and medically transitioning in the public eye for over a decade, LOOK/OUT delves into the surreal nature of transformation. It interrogates personal and collective identity as an ever-shifting landscape. The project unfolds across multiple formats—live performance, film screenings, movement and sound workshops, and Houseparty, a pre-event series, inspired by my QT artist house The Palace. 

Land Acknowledgement: The Coast Salish and Duwamish People.

MAN WOMAN

The Vangeline Theater | Brooklyn, NY

MAN WOMAN is a duet about love articulated through the language of Butoh. 

Inspired by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s eponymous photo book from 1960, this dynamic dance encounter between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline disrupts normative expectations of dyadic relationships. The iconic poses from Hosoe’s work serve as inspiration and leitmotifs for this sculptural piece; like photographs coming to life, the dancers weave in and out of the poses without making physical contact. The tension found in negative space rises, a commentary on distance and connection in intimate relationships that culminates in a single touch. 

Lavish costumes created by Machine Dazzle bring this piece into a fresh and unexpected context for Butoh, which Dazzle affectionately calls BUTOH MAXIMALISM. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: creating something new and original choreographically, carrying Butoh into the 21st century. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenape People.

(may there be) Good Atmosphere Between Us: The Parables of NOW

amara tabor-smith | Oakland, CA

(may there be) Good Atmosphere Between Us: The Parables of NOW is a site-responsive dance and ritual performance exploring our collective response to the global climate crisis. The project weaves together community narratives, African and Indigenous mythologies, and biblical parables through movement, storytelling, land-based practices, and divination traditions. Guided by the question, “How can we activate our shared wisdom to survive, adapt, and heal?”, this ongoing performance series will unfold across the U.S. and beyond over the next four years, culminating in a full presentation of “The Book of Parables” in 2030. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lisjan Ohlone Territory.

meet-sue-BEE’-she (working title)

Benjamin Akio Kimitch | Brooklyn, NY

Japanese Gagaku court music and its component dance form, “Bugaku,” informs a vivid, world-building contemporary dance by Japanese American director and choreographer Benjamin Akio Kimitch. Bugaku, which has been preserved since the 7th century, is also the title of George Balanchine’s 1963 American neoclassical ballet, which was loosely inspired by the Japanese form and set to a commissioned orchestral work by a Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi. These two contrasting Bugaku’s set the scene for Kimitch to confront personal heritage and mid-century Japanese American life, post-war and post-incarceration. It’s in this disorienting space of chasing reality, memory, and imagination that Kimitch creates a tragic and playful dream world through new and ancient dance vocabulary and expansive traditions. The work is commissioned to premiere at New York Live Arts in fall 2026. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenape People.

MOTHER

GALLIM | Brooklyn, NY

MOTHER is a 35-min new contemporary dance work by Andrea Miller. It is an origin story of humanity that explores the mother figure and humanity as her child. In this imagined womb, the dancers give shape to new life. MOTHER is an intimate reflection on Miller’s experience of pregnancy and motherhood as well as a mother’s role in humanity's birth story and imagined destiny. MOTHER celebrates bodies as the origin of humanity in an investigation of stamina, physicality, and intimate connection. It asks what we might lose if disconnected from our physical wisdom.

Created for 9 GALLIM dancers, MOTHER features an original score by by French composer Frédéric Despierre, Colombian Afro-Indigenous (Wayuu) vocalist, Lido Pimienta, and original set/costume design by Colombian artist Orly Anan. Premiering at The Joyce Theater in Nov. 2025, to reach 2,360 attendees, including a free community performance followed by touring worldwide. 

Land Acknowledgement: Land of the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape People.

Nature Sounds While the IV Drips

Jacob Jonas The Company | Santa Monica, CA

Nature Sounds While the IV Drips is a live performance work by Jacob Jonas that explores the physical, emotional, and psychological landscapes of cancer treatment. Structured in eight sections—mirroring his eight rounds of chemotherapy for Stage 4 lymphoma—the work embodies the cyclical intensity, isolation, and resilience of the treatment experience. Featuring 12 dancers and an original score by Imogen Heap, the piece juxtaposes the sterile sounds of a hospital room with organic sonic landscapes, questioning movement’s role as both an art form and a survival mechanism. 

Nature Sounds While the IV Drips will tour theaters, hospitals, and wellness spaces, engaging audiences through performances, discussions, and movement workshops. JJTC is collaborating with medical professionals, including Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology and Art Pharmacy, to bridge dance, science, and healing—offering a space for reflection, connection, and catharsis. 

Land Acknowledgement: Tongva and Chumash People.

New Work by Chitra Subramanian/chitra.MOVES

Chitra Subramanian | Washington, DC

The dance work I am proposing brings attention to the urgent need for the "village" in today’s world. In a time of growing vulnerability, many institutions that once provided support are becoming increasingly fragile. This performance will demonstrate that collective care, protection, and solidarity are not just ideals, but necessities for survival and well-being. By reconnecting to the concept of the village as a powerful collective institution—rooted in shared responsibility, mutual care, and intergenerational bonds—I hope to inspire a deeper understanding of how we can rebuild these protective ecosystems. 

The work will integrate my movement aesthetic intersecting Indian Classical dance with Hip Hop culture, while honoring the diverse movement foundations of the dancers. The project will weave together narrative storytelling, visual projections, archival footage, original soundscapes/song, writing, and audience participation to frame the stories and elevate the dances. 

Land Acknowledgement: Nacotchtank (or Anacostans), Piskataway, and Pamunkey Peoples.

New Work by Diego Vega Solorza

JOSE LIMON DANCE FOUNDATION | New York, NY

The José Limón Dance Foundation (JLDF) proposes a groundbreaking project pairing José Limón's The Emperor Jones (1956) with a new work by choreographer Diego Vega Solorza. The Emperor Jones – Limón’s adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play – explores power, race, and the psychological descent of a man grappling with his past. This new piece will build on this discourse by interrogating the hegemonic constructs of masculinity within Mexican culture, drawing from Vega Solorza’s personal experiences and contemporary social perspectives while incorporating design elements from Mexican modernism. The Joyce Theatre in New York City and Artis-Naples in Florida will provide financial and creative support, with an October 2025 premiere at the Joyce followed by touring and a March 2026 presentation at Artis-Naples. With its innovative programming and cross-cultural dialogue, this collaboration will expand Limón’s legacy while amplifying a powerful contemporary voice in the field of dance. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

Overflow Radio

Emily Johnson | Hobart, NY

In a monumental tribute to Indigenous thrivance, Overflow Radio gathers in-person and remote audiences for 24 non-consecutive hours of dance and storytelling in an event that transcends colonial borders, languages and time.  In-person audiences arrive at a powerful gathering site, on and among a 4,000 sq-ft textile design that carries messages from hundreds of co-creators—a breathtaking celebration of shared commitment to conjuring better futures. 

Over the course of this expansive program inclusive of dance and performance, meals, intentional rest, skill shares and participatory actions—Overflow Radio broadcasts voices and visions of a multitude of Indigenous call-in contributors from regions around the globe. They offer spoken scores, readings, poems, star and ghost stories interwoven with live performance created by Johnson. Simultaneously, remote audiences and partners are offered a toolkit, so they can gather anywhere to co-create localized, listen-in Overflow Radio experiences. 

Land Acknowledgement: Emily Johnson / Catalyst is based on Mannahatta in Lenapehoking. We work to pay respect to Lenape homeland, people and ancestors past, present, and future by organizing to build pathways for Lenapeyok return.

Phoenix Paradox

Sozo Impact | Oakland, CA

Phoenix Paradox reimagines the classic Phoenix myth through the dynamic interplay of Babatunji Johnson’s choreography and the character-driven poetry of Maddy Clifford. The story follows the Phoenix as they confront the Stranger, an external adversary threatening their healed, triumphant self—challenging the glorified ideals of resilience, individualism, and self-reinvention. Only later does the Phoenix recognize the Stranger as a reflection of themselves, revealing that true transformation is relational and lies in embracing, not vanquishing, our hidden complexities. 

Phoenix Paradox emerges from a collective inquiry, engaging youth and elders to shape its characters: Can we hold space for both the contradictions and the truths within ourselves? Can the pursuit of true belonging—to ourselves and to one another—be an act of collective healing? Infused with the hip-hop aesthetics of its Oakland creators, the performance aims to inspire deep reflection and communion. 

Land Acknowledgement: Ohlone, Muwekma, Confederated Villages of Lisjan, and Miwok People.

Porch Portal Blues

Rashida Bumbray | Baltimore, MD

Porch Portal Blues is a site-specific sculpture, dance, and song-cycle work inspired by the life and artistry of North Carolina Blueswoman Algia Mae Hinton (1929–2018). Renowned for her Piedmont finger-picking guitar style and dynamic buck dancing, Hinton’s porch parties—captured in the 1980s by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax—epitomized the convergence of music, dance, and community.

Rashida Bumbray reimagines Hinton’s porch as literal and metaphorical architecture: a liminal space of memory, creativity, and resistance. Drawing on Zora Neale Hurston’s participant observation strategies, the performance transforms the porch into a portal, a site of ritual and transformation. Through live improvisational music, dance, and archival projections, an ensemble of musicians, vocalists, and dancers convenes to engage the ghosts of Hinton and her contemporaries, channeling the spirit of the Blues to confront the ruptures of our current sociopolitical moment. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lumbee, Piscataway, and Cherokee Peoples.

Post-Failure Potentials

Makisig Akin and Anya Cloud/The Love Makers Company | Denver, CO

Post-Failure Potentials (PFP) queers and disrupts the binary relationship between failure vs. success, collaboration vs. competition, and performer vs. audience through experimental dance. Failure is the technology of transformation. Co-directed by Makisig Akin and Anya Cloud, PFP is a 70-minute choreography that is built as a mobile structure for 3-9 diverse intergenerational performers, emboldened by extensive community engagement. Utilizing dance and martial arts practices, the work straddles the in-between spaces of performance, competition, fight, and celebration. What if failure is not the end, but the beginning? How can the queerness of dance and our dancing bodies save us in the wake of our own and collective failure? What if embodied queerness can be an ally for racial justice work? PFP invites high-stakes and invested interface between performers and audience to cultivate a transformative and sustainable community.

Land Acknowledgement: Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute tribes.

Resent(ME)nt

DANCE IQUAIL! | Philadelphia, PA

RESENT(ME)NT [RE], an evening-length dance-theater work by Iquail Shaheed, delves into the physical and emotional toll of parental abandonment. Inspired by Iquail’s own discovery of his biological father’s 39-year absence, RE unfolds as a raw, autobiographical exploration of abandonment, isolation, and resentment. RE offers a poignant meditation on abandonment, fostering empathy and understanding on the journey to self-love and forgiveness. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenni Lenape People.

RoCoCoCoCo & exquisite corpse

Heather Kravas | Seattle, WA

This project is a two-part performance consisting of the dances RoCoCoCoCo and exquisite corpse. Devised as conceptual opposites, the choreography becomes an act of collective fate for the performers and audience. 

Land Acknowledgement: The Coast Salish People, specifically The Duwamish.

SERMON

Tommie Waheed-Evans | Philadelphia, PA

SERMON is an immersive dance experience by Tommie-Waheed Evans that transforms performance into ritual, movement into a testament of lived experience, and sound into a vessel of collective memory. Rooted in Black queer spirituality, the work draws from the traditions of the Black church—gospel music, call-and-response, and acts of praise—while embodying gestures of longing, loss, and devotion. A core ensemble of dancers moves through cycles of lamentation and jubilation, propelled by a soundscape that blends original music by Omar-Frederick and Devotion with the ethereal choral minimalism of Arvo Pärt and the soaring voices of gospel legends James Cleveland and Walter Hawkins.

Produced by Philadelphia Dance Projects, SERMON extends beyond the stage, flourishing through community storytelling, artist residencies, and public interventions. It creates spaces where movement, faith, and queerness converge in radical new possibilities for belonging. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenni-Lenape People.

Shine

Sekou McMiller | New York, NY

Shine, a new installment within McMiller’s repertory series entitled Afro Latin Jazz and Soul Experience.  Accenting partnered dances including salsa, mambo, and cha-cha-cha, “shines” are expressive sequences of footwork and body movements performed during musical breaks, enhancing the dance experience and inspiring friendly competition among social dancers. Inspired by the golden age of Mambo at the Palladium nightclub in New York City during the 1940’s, 50s and 60s, this new work critically explores how individuals separate to express their unique voices, fostering motivation and progress in everyday life, relationships, and communities. 

This series Afro Latin Jazz and Soul Experience takes a rhythmical journey through African American, Afro Latino and other African Diasporic cultures. Based in community, movement and sound fusing dance and music that stem from the African Diaspora that were cultivated throughout the Americas, celebrating and exploring new exciting fusion. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenni-Lenape People.

Shrouded//The End of Dances

jaamil olawale kosoko | Philadelphia, PA

Shouded//The End of Dances is an immersive dance installation and living sculpture that invites audiences to move through the space, mirroring the performers’ gestures as they navigate shifting states of metamorphosis. Draped in rich brown silks and scattered across the space, bodies become veiled landscapes and act as conduits for hidden bodily truths, revealing and concealing a living archive of memory, grief, and transformation. The work examines how physical form holds emotion and history, engaging viewers in a communal act of remembering and reimagining.

Rooted in Black queer embodied temporalities, Shrouded //The End of Dances asks: How do we alchemize a multi-generational inheritance of war-stricken negative space, extraction, and disinvestment into a thriving, abundant coexistence? Through choreography, materiality, and audience participation, the work expands traditional notions of time, presence, performance, and embodied storytelling. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenni-Lenape People.

Soles of Duende's "The Kitchen"

Soles of Duende | New York, NY

Soles of Duende is three female dance practitioners, working in different percussive dance legacies, accompanied by three live musicians. With each of our cultures valuing post-meal gatherings, we arrive in our communal kitchen to ask the question: when conflicts are present, how do families continue to gather? In The Kitchen, we write the musical recipes that we’ve always needed, for the meals that nourish our bodies and the ideas that center our diversity and keep us returning to the table time and time again.

The Kitchen is a joyous full-evening work featuring the percussive dance forms of Tap, Flamenco & Kathak accompanied by live music. The dancers and musicians share and adapt rhythms through music and movement, creating expansive worlds of intimacy and connection. Performance exchanges shift from a six-beat partner-facing Sevillanas into a trio composition, morphing into an emotional 16-beat character gat, to a play on the world-renowned communal Shim Sham, and more. 

Land Acknowledgement: Lenape People.

STONE BELLY

Marie Lloyd Paspe | Brooklyn, NY

STONE BELLY is a biomythographical performance ritual that re-turns the queer, dis-placed, brown body back home. It combines dance, vocals, and choreography by Marie Lloyd Paspe, live music score by Sugar Vendil and treya lam, dance by core group of dancers, set design by Cate McCrea, mentorship with yuniya edi kwon, and dramaturgy by Jay Carlon. 

The work is an interdisciplinary offering that re-calls the myths of the Philippine babaylans from the Visayas and Batangas, Philippines. Babaylans were persecuted during Spanish colonization in acts of genocide, yet their traditions still persist today. The work provides AANHPI communities in the rot of the U.S. empire a safe space to re-connect to their bodies for collective healing and transformative action. It is a ritual that holds loving space for the void between the immigrant and her home. STONE BELLY is a cross-disciplinary and cultural project of exchange between the U.S. and the Philippines. 

Land Acknowledgement: Canarsie and Munsee Lenape Peoples.

THE 24/7 DINER

Courtney "Balenciaga" Washington | Brooklyn, NY

THE 24/7 DINER is an evening-length work by Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington, a Black trans femme leader in the ballroom community and creative director of MasterZ at Work Dance Family. Drawing from street dance, ballroom, jazz, and hip-hop, the piece explores resilience, survival, and chosen family in the setting of a diner, where people gather for joy, refuge, and connection. 

Beyond dance performance, this work claims space for the visibility and recognition for ballroom and street dance, challenging long-standing biases that have excluded these forms from mainstream dance institutions. Developed collectively with MasterZ artists, THE 24/7 DINER uplifts the cultural legacy and central role of these communities and art form in our cultural and social fabric, while opening doors and directing resources from traditional arts spaces to underground dance culture. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

The Graves' Tears

kNoname Artist – Roderick George | New York, NY

The Graves’ Tears is a full-length choreographic work that examines the lasting impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the erasure of the LGBTQIA+ community. It confronts themes of isolation, societal oppression, and resilience while expanding on past artistic investigations. Inspired by icons like Tina Turner and Diana Ross, this highlights the shared struggles of gay men and women and underscores the deep emotional bonds within marginalized communities.

More than a performance, The Graves’ Tears is a reclamation of identity, a meditation on pain, and a celebration of resilience. It bridges past and present, honoring the voices of Black queer pioneers while offering a universally resonant story of survival and strength. 

Land Acknowledgement: Mohican Wappinger, Munsee Lenape, and Schaghticoke Peoples.

THE LACE

Tere O’Connor Dance | New York, NY

Tere O’Connor is creating a new dance work entitled, THE LACE, for six dancers: Heather Olson, Aaron Loux, Natalie Green, Liony Garcia, Tim Bendernagel and Gabriel Eng Gonzalez; with music by James Lo and lighting by Michael O’Connor. It will premiere in December 2025 at New York Live Arts (NYC). This new, full-length dance will be presented as the final work on an exceptional evening that begins with a performance of O’Connor’s 1983 solo, CONSTRUCT-A-GUY, (the first dance he ever made), followed by a performative lecture given by O’Connor himself, and culminating in a performance of THE LACE. 

The project is a multi-faceted look at his unique work that has held queer affinities from day one, and an opportunity to examine how the repression, potential personal harm, and outsider status of a closeted life might shape movement explorations. This project will center on the massive power the closet holds in shaping choreographic structures and the temporal “stitchery” of his dances. 

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

this is the beginning, this is the end

Joanna Kotze | Brooklyn, NY

this is the beginning, this is the end interrogates the phenomenon of history repeating itself through a two-part, unison, non-unison, non-hierarchical, canon dance. The current social and political challenges facing this country and the world at large–a threatened democracy, white supremacy, lack of public health strategy–are nothing new, so contextualizing and reflecting on history’s patterns and cycles is essential. This piece examines personal, artistic, and historical patterns and how context and time moving forward inherently create change. Performed by an ensemble of 6 dancers and 2 musicians, this work considers these socio-political challenges and the cyclical arc of my own artistic history, through cascading waves of intricate and personal movement, holding space for order and chaos, familiar and unfamiliar, building up and tearing down as we move forward.

Land Acknowledgement: Munsee Lenape People.

To Leave You

Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists | Chicago, IL

To Leave You is a new interdisciplinary performance acknowledging the fragility of life and the impressions we leave in and for one another as we live and pass on. Movement, shadow puppetry, music, and film will be overlaid to create a tapestry that investigates the idea of the trace—a mapping of the essences, memories, and messages we leave behind when we exit this world. 

Land Acknowledgement: Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Myaamia, Kaskaskia, Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), and Peoria Peoples.

TRACKING PARALLEL 

Heidi Latsky Dance | New York, NY

TRACKING PARALLEL is a physically charged internal combustion engine that exposes the surreal, harsh, explosive and quiet world of sudden upheaval with nine dancers who've experienced such upheaval. TRACKING PARALLEL’s genesis is the 55-year gap between my mother’s and my brain surgeries. But it is not about illness or disability but rather about the universal experience of dealing with upheaval; about each dancer tracking parallel with themselves, their relationships, their circumstance; about letting go because we have to and letting go because we want to; about never touching in our separate journeys but intermittently connecting very intimately. A shift for me, half the cast has non-apparent disabilities rather than apparent ones. Through live durational dance and surreal lighting and projections, this cinematic hypnotic work uses beauty in all its facets to champion diverse voices and the power of dance to convey a tapestry of strong emotions and turbulent internal life. 

Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge that Heidi Latsky Dance is located in Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland. We offer our gratitude and care for its land and waters, and we acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape peoples, and to all Indigenous people.

Tropical Depression

Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre | Miami Beach, FL

Tropical Depression investigates the force of nostalgia within the exile community and its ramifications in the personal, social, and political realm. This evening-length subversive cabaret/dance theater/drag performance by Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre sees her returning to her roots in cabaret for a work that explores the complexities of identity, memory, and preservation. This modular performance is set to premiere at the historic Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida and then travel to The American Dance Festival. 

Conjuring Deși Arnaz, David Lynch and Pina Baush, this work gathers world class performers in drag, dance, cabaret and theater for a joyful, surrealist celebration of immigrant life. Set against the current backdrop of political persecution and demonization of immigrants, Tropical Depression celebrates the glamor and beauty of the Caribbean, allowing for a provocative commentary on the ways in which cultural narratives shape collective identities over time.

Land Acknowledgement: The traditional homelands of the Tequesta, Calusa, Seminole and the current lands of the Miccosukee. 

Zafra: A Tribute to Afro-Puerto Rican Heritage

Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda | Kissimmee, FL

Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda proudly presents Zafra: A Tribute to Afro-Puerto Rican Heritage—a groundbreaking dance production that transcends performance, immersing audiences in the soul of Puerto Rico’s rich cultural legacy. More than just a showcase, Zafra: A Tribute to Afro-Puerto Rican Heritage— is a bold, dynamic tribute to the resilience, artistry, and spirit of our ancestors. Through electrifying Bomba and Plena rhythms, masterful storytelling, and powerful dances, this production illuminates the profound impact of Afro-Puerto Rican traditions on global music, from salsa to reggaeton. Experience an unforgettable journey where history, culture, and innovation collide—honoring our past, celebrating our present, and shaping the future through the universal language of music and dance. 

Land Acknowledgement: Miccosukee, Seminole, and Mascogo Peoples.