Joyce Theater

Heart of Brick

SEP 15-22

Three genre-defying artists join forces to tell the story of love and self-discovery in Heart of Brick, a theatrical dance and music production that captures the multi-generational spirit of the Black queer community. Experimental R&B musician serpentwithfeet embarks on his first theatrical stage work alongside multimedia artist Wu Tsang, whose art intertwines film, aesthetic performance, and political activism. Completing the team is choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, an artist whose surrealist aesthetics explore the intersections of popular culture and human desire. With a cast of seven dancers and live performance by serpentwithfeet, Heart of Brick follows the love that blossoms between two men in a Black gay nightclub. Beguilingly gentle and sincere, the work features music from serpentwithfeet’s newest album, weaving together music and dance into a theatrical experience.

BalletX

SEP 27-OCT 1

BalletX, Philadelphia’s Premier Contemporary Ballet whose dancers were named “among America’s best” by The New York Times and hailed as “technically brilliant…with vibrant personalities” by The Boston Globe, returns to The Joyce Theater with repertory that will surprise and delight you, including the New York premieres of Honey by Jamar Roberts and Exalt by Jennifer Archi-bald. Founded in 2005 by Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan, BalletX is led by Cox, whose tenure as Artistic & Executive Director has produced over 120 world premiere ballets by 70 choreographers, a record “few companies can match” (The New York Times). BalletX has been hailed as a “place of cho-reographic innovation” (The New Yorker) and an “epicenter of creation” (Dance Magazine), commis-sioning choreographers from around the world to create dance that is “fresh, inclusive, and connects to what people want” (Philadelphia Citizen).

Olivier Tarpaga Dance Project

OCT 3-8

Hailing from Burkina Faso, choreographer and composer Olivier Tarpaga presents Once the dust settles, flowers bloom, an evening-length work that gives voice to the refugees of his homeland. Tarpaga addresses the fragility of individual autonomy in the wake of religious extremism, chronicling stories of women and children fighting against oppressive systems of violence. Performed to a live score composed by Tarpaga, Once the dust settles, flowers bloom offers the promise of hope through unity.

Malpaso Dance Company

OCT 10-15

As an Associate Company of Joyce Theater Productions, Malpaso Dance Company returns to its second home for its eighth appearance. Established in 2012, Malpaso has become one of the most sought-after Cuban dance companies with an ever-growing international profile. Highlighting their dedication to nurturing Cuban artistic voices, the program will feature work primarily by Cuban choreographers. This special engagement includes the New York premiere of A Dancing Island, Artistic Director Osnel Delgado’s latest work which celebrates the social dances of Cuba from rumba to salsa and is set to a new score performed live by musicians from Cuba and the United States led by celebrated saxophonist and composer Ted Nash.

HopeBoykinDance

OCT 17-22

Through States Of Hope, a fully scripted, evening-length, new dance theater work, Hope Boykin shares experiences and insights in a multifaceted excavation of self-discovery, reshaping, and renewal—a dance memoir of sorts. Eight vocal bodies, including Boykin as narrator, will bring her movement-language to life with an original score by Ali Jackson, poetic moments, and prose. This contemplative work and personal narrative is a vulnerable exploration of the artist’s life.

Sankai Juku

OCT 24-NOV 5

Founded in 1975, the Tokyo-based company Sankai Juku offers contemporary Butoh creations characterized by their elegance, refinement, and emotional depth. The troupe returns to The Joyce with KŌSA, a compilation of reimagined excerpts from Sankai Juku’s vast repertoire. “By using no decor, only pure dance and the philosophical perception of images, I tried to bring everyone into my universe with as much curiosity as that which inhabited us at the first creation,” says choreographer and Sankai Juku founder Ushio Amagatsu. A sublime visual spectacle, KŌSA is a thought-provoking homage to the rich legacy of Japanese dance theater.

Kyle Marshall Choreography

NOV 8-12

Founded in 2014, Kyle Marshall Choreography makes its Joyce debut with three New York premieres. Ruin investigates humans’ physical relationship to sound and uses dynamic listening devices designed and monitored live by sound collaborator Cal Fish. Alice is a solo work about the spiritual journey to self-acceptance, dedicated to those on the verge of transformation, and guided by the music of Alice Coltrane. Onyx commemorates the Black and Brown artists who spearheaded the revolutionary genre of Rock and Roll, featuring a soundscape collage by Kwami Winfield, with samples from groundbreaking artists.

COMPLEXIONS Contemporary Ballet

NOV 14-26

The groundbreaking Complexions Contemporary Ballet celebrates its 29th season under the direction of co-founding Artistic Directors, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. The program includes works by guest choreographers Justin Peck, Abdul Latif, Ricardo Aramante, and Jenn Freeman. A premiere by Complexions Principal Choreographer Dwight Rhoden, set to the raw acoustic music of U2, rounds out the program. MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and celebrated poetjournalist, Aaron Dworkin will make his debut as Complexions’ Poet-in-Residence during the engagement.

Dancing with Glass

NOV 28-DEC 10

Over the course of his illustrious career, renowned composer Philip Glass conceived The Etudes as a set of solo piano works to expand his piano technique. Now amongst Glass’s most popular works, The Etudes have inspired performances and interpretations from artists worldwide. In Dancing with Glass, five new choreographic perspectives on The Etudes will be presented alongside a performance by guest pianist Maki Namekawa, one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Glass’s music. The evening will feature works by post-modern innovator Lucinda Childs, Chanon Judson of Urban Bush Women, Justin Peck of New York City Ballet, Brazilian tap artist Leonardo Sandoval, and Los Angeles-based choreographers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber.

American Dance Platform

JAN 9-14


Experience some of the best dance across the country with The Joyce Theater's eighth annual American Dance Platform, dedicated to the memory of Theodore S. Bartwink of The Harkness Foundation for Dance. Theodore S. Bartwink was a Joyce Theater Foundation Trustee from 1993 to 2014.

The American Dance Platform will feature one company per program selected by a guest curator, and each program will be performed twice during the course of the week. For the eighth edition of ADP, The Joyce has selected dramaturg, educator, choreographer, and scholar Melanie George as the curator.

Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE

JAN 16-21

Founded in 1985 and based in Brooklyn, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE seamlessly melds traditional African and Afro-Cuban dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word. The company returns for its home season at The Joyce with Walking Out the Dark (2001), a hauntingly beautiful quartet mirroring conversations amongst family, friends, and lovers. The program will also feature Torch (2012), a work created as a celebration of perseverance and self-determination, set to the music of various artists including DJ Zinhle. With a prolific career spanning almost 40 years, "Brown is one of a handful of choreographers rethinking what dance can do” (The New York Times).

Compagnie Hervé KOUBI

JAN 23-28

Led by the imaginative choreographer Hervé Koubi, Compagnie Hervé KOUBI returns to New York with the mesmerizingly kinetic Sol Invictus. Named after the “invincible sun” deity, the work upholds love as the guarantor of peace, that despite fracture, communion emerges as humanity’s saving grace. The music score includes a composition by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, with excerpts by Steve Reich and digital composer Maxime Bodson. “I want to talk about light, solidarity, and those bonds that unite us,” says Koubi. “Here, the sun and the dance will emerge victorious.”

Music From The Sole

JAN 30-FEB 4

Tap, percussive dance, samba, house, and original live music come together in I Didn’t Come to Stay, an evening-length work from New York City-based Music From The Sole. Commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim in 2020, the piece was first supported through a pioneering bubble residency in summer 2020. In this work, Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist/composer Gregory Richardson lead eight dancers and a five-piece band in a performance that explores tap’s lineage and connections to other Afro-Diasporic forms. Conceived as a Carnival fever dream, I Didn’t Come to Stay embraces shared roots across the diaspora to reflect on what shapes their cultural and artistic identity, and celebrates the joy, depth, and virtuosity of Black dance and music.

Sankofa Danzafro

FEB 27-MAR 3

Colombia-based Sankofa Danzafro returns to The Joyce with a program that promotes the legacy and traditions of the Afro-Colombian community, using dance to retell their history. Led by Artistic Director Rafael Palacios, Sankofa means "to return to the root," an African philosophy that proposes that the past is a lens through which to view the present. In Behind the South: Dances for Manuel (Detrás del Sur: Danzas para Manuel), the company pays tribute to Colombian writer Manuel Zapata Olivella’s “Changó, el Gran Putas,” which documents the African diaspora in South America. The work celebrates the vital force of the muntu (the African people) and their use of the dancing body and live music as ritual to invoke Changó, the son of Yemaja and the mother goddess, protector of birth in the Yoruba tradition.

Pontus Lidberg

MAR 6-10

Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg makes his return to The Joyce with the New York premiere of On The Nature Of Rabbits, a contemplation of the delicate balance between reality and imagination. Based on the true story of a young dancer embarking on life in a new city, the work interweaves a search for connection with a reflection on our relationship with nature in a time of rapid change. Lidberg collaborates with Emmy-Award winning animator Jason Carpenter, writer Adrian Guo Silver, and composer Stefan Levin to create an immersive, yet surreal world. On The Nature of Rabbits examines the lasting impact of childhood attachments and the complexities of desire.