Featured
Saturday
Dec 5
Quarter Turn: Sidra Bell Dance NY
Saturday, December 5
6:00 PM
60 minutes, no intermission
$45 General Admission | $25 Student Admission (with student ID)
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex
A brief Q + A will follow the performance in the Blax Box Theater. Stay after for a post-performance reception in the Studio Complex Lobby.
Sidra Bell Dance New York celebrates 25 years in Quarter Turn, a special night of performance at Kaatsbaan. The dance company performs two seminal works, Bacchanale (iteration) and excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection. A brief Q&A and reception follow with objects on display from the company’s history and a toast in the Lobby Gallery.
Bacchanale (iteration) is a new work commissioned by the John Cage Trust and performed with a live pianist. In 1940, dancer Syvilla Fort asked John Cage to compose an African-inflected work, Bacchanale, to be premiered at the Cornish School in Seattle. With no room on stage for a percussion ensemble, Cage slipped screws, bolts, and weatherstripping between the strings of a grand piano, and the prepared piano was born.
The company will also perform excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection, a Bessie Award–nominated retrospective that spans its first two decades into a single composition. Bell calls it “a tapestry of the past with hints of the future.” It premiered at Gibney in October 2022 and earned Bell a 2023 Bessie nomination for Outstanding Choreographer.
Photo by Chris Facey
Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY) is a contemporary dance company founded in 2001 by choreographer Sidra Bell. The company is known for hyperkinetic movement and for combining dance, design, media, and fashion in a style all its own. Its immersive works explore identity, the human psyche, and the shape of time. SBDNY has performed throughout the US internationally, including serving as a cultural ambassador in Bulgaria and Turkey. Creative residencies include New York Live Arts, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh), ODC Theater (San Francisco), and Vara Konserthus (Sweden). SBDNY runs an extensive education and mentorship program for young artists and MODULE Laboratory offers an improvisation-based space for movement and theater artists of all generations.
This production has been made possible with funding from the John Cage Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, Danse Mirage Foundation, and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.
Sunday
Dec 13
Nut/Cracked by The Bang Group
Monday
Dec 14
Sunday, December 13, 4:00 PM
Monday, December 14, 6:30 PM
65 minutes, no intermission
$45 General Admission | $30 Student Admission (with student ID)
Black Box Theater
Nut/Cracked — The Bang Group’s beloved, witty response to The Nutcracker — returns to Kaatsbaan!
Choreographer David Parker draws inspiration from across the dance spectrum, blending tap, ballet, disco, and even bubble wrap to create a unique performance that reimagines Tchaikovsky’s iconic score. With renditions ranging from Duke Ellington to Glenn Miller, Nut/Cracked transforms the familiar into something delightfully unexpected.
Praised by The New York Times as “immensely entertaining” and “intensely musical,” this production combines humor and artistry in a way that will leave you seeing The Nutcracker in a whole new light.
Photo by Stephen Pisano
Saturday
Dec 19
Open rehearsal: Jessica Lang
Saturday, December 19
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Free with an RSVP
Studio Complex
Attendees are welcome to come and go through out the Open Rehearsal.
Join choreographer Jessica Lang for an open rehearsal that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process for O’Keeffe: Kiss the Sky, a new opera for Washington National Opera.
While in residence, Jessica Lang is choreographing O’Keeffe: Kiss the Sky, a ballet-opera that explores the life, relationships, and extraordinary visual world of Georgia O’Keeffe through the combined languages of opera and ballet.
Working with six dancers, librettist Kelley Rourke, and music by Christopher Tin, Lang will explore and develop the production’s dance sequences, giving audiences a rare glimpse into how movement, music, and storytelling begin to take shape in the studio.
This Washington National Opera production will premiere in March 2027 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC.
The residency is supported by Works & Process Residencies and other generous supporters.
Photo by Takao Komaru
Jessica Lang is an American director and choreographer based in New York City. She is Resident Choreographer at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Artist in Residence at Sarasota Ballet, Artistic Advisor at Kaatsbaan.
Since 1999, Lang has created more than 100 original works for companies worldwide, including American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among others. Lang founded Jessica Lang Dance in 2011 and served as Artistic Director through 2019, touring to more than 85 cities worldwide. Her work has also been performed by numerous educational institutions across the country. She is the recipient of a Bessie Award, Arison Award, and Martha Hill Mid-Career Award.
Originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Lang is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!, with which she toured internationally.