92Y’s inaugural dance festival is in full swing this month, with three weekends of virtual performances from pioneering dancemakers.
The Future Dance Festival was conceived by the New York City venue during the COVID-19 quarantine as a way to link emerging dancemakers with dance company directors.
Following a call-out, 185 artists submitted their work to a panel of leading artistic directors, who then selected 21 finalists. Each piece during the festival, which runs until 25 April, is introduced by the director who chose it.
Performers for programme two (16-18 April) are Barkha Patel, Adrienne Lipson, Jessie Lee Thorne, William Ervin, Vera Kvarcakova & Jeremy Galdeano, Brian Golden, and Caroline Payne. Performers in the third and final programme (23-25 April) are Taylor Graham, Baye & Asa, Patrick Coker, Charly and Eriel Santagado, Jamal Callender, Beatrice Panero and Nicholas Ranauro.
Organisers write: “Their dances reflect on themes of loneliness, time, injustice, home, rage and more, expressed by some of the most exciting new talent in dance today, and the artists the world will be seeing more than a glimpse of tomorrow.”
The panellists are Janet Eilber, artistic director of Martha Graham Dance Company; Eduardo Vilaro of Ballet Hispánico; Jessica Tong, associate artistic director at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Kyle Abraham, AD of A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham; Victor Quijada, artistic director of RUBBERBAND; Jennifer Stahl, editor in chief of Dance Magazine; and Taryn Kaschock Russell, director of the 92Y Harkness Dance Center.
