Sara Mearns News

Over 800 artists and supporters of the New York dance community had gathered to celebrate the nominees, winners, and The Bessies' 35th anniversary gala event on Monday, October 14. Obie and Bessie Award-winning performance artist Justin Vivian Bond hosted this year's ceremony, which was held at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

Oklahoma dancer, Gabrielle Hamilton wins a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer!

Jacob's Pillow announces this season's artist residencies offered at the Pillow Lab, its year-round incubator of new work. The annual season of customizable residencies supports U.S.-based and international dance artists during crucial development, research, and technical stages of choreography-driven projects. The 2019-2020 recipients include Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Brian Brooks, Milka Djordjevich, Alice Gosti, Kinetic Light, Stephanie McKee-Anderson, Aakash Odedra, RUBBERBAND, Didy Veldman, and Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. 

I think I've seen Jewels at least 200 times in my life. Notwithstanding all the performances-excellent, good, mediocre, or just beyond mention, the ballet always yields rewards in its seemingly abundant outpouring of music and dance. We all know Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky from so many Balanchine ballets. Who would have thought of Gabriel Fauré?

Continuing their decades-long commitment to cultivating appreciation of all varieties of dance, The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) will welcome arts patrons to its annual Choreographers & Cocktails event on Monday, October 28. Held at The Joyce Studio at Gibney Dance, the evening offers dance enthusiasts and supporters the opportunity to enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and a silent auction alongside celebrated dancers and choreographers while experiencing intimate open rehearsals. Tickets, priced at $150, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling Vernon Scott at 646-278-0442. Gibney Dance is located at 280 Broadway, with entrance at 53A Chambers Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announced today that Obie and Bessie Award winner Justin Vivian Bond, hailed by The New Yorker as “the best cabaret artist of their generation,' will host the 2019 awards ceremony. The performers and award presenters were also revealed.

Joshua Bergasse is in town making time for master class, discovering local talent and watching homemade flying contraptions dive into the Mississippi, as well as letting us in on a little secret that may or may not happen but is pretty fun to think about. Oh, and he choreographed and directed SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE, too.

In the Jacob's Pillow-exclusive production Sara Mearns: Beyond Ballet, New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns performs in multiple cross-genre collaborations in the Doris Duke Theatre, August 14-18.

Gallim makes its Ted Shawn Theatre debut with a Pillow co-commissioned world premiere, August 7-11. Under the direction of perpetually groundbreaking artist Andrea Miller, Brooklyn-based Gallim embodies human connection through bold, raw, transformative works. As New York Magazine attests, a?oeher viscerally physical movement wrings every inch of life from her dancersa?"and you'll be holding your breath, too.a??

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Fall 2019 season of dance, music, and multimedia presentations, running September 27 through December 6. Tickets from $15-$25 for all BAC Presents performances are on sale now at bacnyc.org or 866 811 4111. BAC also announces BAC Space Fall 2019, providing creative residencies to artists across disciplines to develop new works of dance, theater, music, and multimedia.

New York City Center today announced programming for the 2019 - 2020 season, which will include Mack and Mabel (Feb 19-23), Kurt Weill's Love Life (March 18-22) directed by Victoria Clark, and a 'new version' of Thoroughly Modern Millie (May 6-10), featuring edits by the playwright Lauren Yee and led by 2018 Tony nominee Ashley Park.

The School Of American Ballet hosted their Alumni Cocktail Reception at Lincoln Center on Friday, May 31th. See photos from the event below!

The School Of American Ballet is hosting their Alumni Cocktail Reception at Lincoln Center on Friday, May 31th. This event is for SAB alums who will toast the 2019 Annual Workshop Performances.

New York City Ballet (NYCB) has gone through some changes in the past year. In an interview with Jonathan Stafford, Artistic Director, and Wendy Whelan, Associate Artistic Director, Whelan said, 'Change is hard, but change is natural. It's not always easy, but it is informative. And ultimately, it's healthy. It's part of life.'

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) presents the 18th annual River To River Festival, Downtown New York City's completely free summer arts festival, June 18-29. The River To River Festival celebrates artistic and creative diversity across disciplines, presenting live art and installation in public spaces and in partnership with leading institutions in Lower Manhattan. All events are free and all are welcome.

New York City Ballet opened its spring season with a week of 21st-century ballets-no Balanchine, or Robbins, just anything that was created after 2000. Some prove eminently worthwhile and destined to remain in the company's repertoire for a long time; others, I'm not quite sure.

Jacob's Pillow announces the complete schedule of Festival 2019. Featuring more than ten weeks with of over 350 ticketed and free performances, off-site pop-up performances, exhibits, talks, classes, films, and dance parties, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2019 runs from June 19-August 25. Celebrating its 87th season, Jacob's Pillow is the longest-running dance festival in the United States, a National Historic Landmark, and a National Medal of the Arts recipient. Tickets to all performances are on sale now at jacobspillow.org or through the Box Office at 413.243.0745.

The new artistic director and co-director of the New York City Ballet looked a little nervous Tuesday as they awkwardly welcomed the Kennedy Center audience to their annual week-long residency.

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents a Works & Process dance and costume commission by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung with new choreography by Christopher Williams and Netta Yerulshamy in collaboration with NYU's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World's exhibition, Hymn to Apollo: The Ancient World and the Ballets Russes, on Sunday and Monday, April 28 and 29, 2019 at 7:30pm

The world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater April 2–14, 2019 with The EVE Project, the Company's season theme celebrating female empowerment and the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The season focuses on both historical and contemporary ideas of the feminine. Commissioned works from five of today's top choreographers will be presented, and the classic repertory features Martha Graham's heroines and anti-heroines—all with an underlying statement about female power.