Friday, December 19, 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 20, 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 21, 2:00 PM SOLD OUT
$45 General Admission | $30 Students with ID
90 minutes
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex

Join us for Nut/Cracked — The Bang Group’s beloved, witty response to The Nutcracker — returning to Kaatsbaan after sold-out performances last year.

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 Nicholas Burnham

Friday, January 9, 6:00 PM
Free Admission, RSVPs encouraged
2 hours (no intermission, includes a post-performance Q&A)
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex

See artistic risk-taking in action as Juilliard presents an informal showing of works created during the Juilliard Risk Lab Residency. Over the course of a week at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, three student projects—each selected for its innovative and interdisciplinary collaboration—have taken shape in a boundary-pushing creative space.

Guided by a team of mentors, including vocal arts faculty member John Matsumoto Giampietro, Arnhold Creative Associate Caili Quan, and Arnhold Creative Associate at Large and chamber music faculty member Nadia Sirota, student creators Derek Jackson (Group 56, drama), Yuxuan Lin (MM ’27, composition), and bassist Daniel Song (BM ’27, jazz studies) have spent five days developing original performance pieces.

Join us for an exclusive first look at their new work.

2025 Juilliard Risk Lab showing. Photo by Deborah Lopez

Saturday, January 24, 7:00 PM
$30 General Admission
$15 Student with ID
70 minutes
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex

In this new multidisciplinary venture by harp innovator and composer Maeve Gilchrist, time is slowed down through the process of careful observation and imagination. The performance is the culmination of a year-long residency at Kaatsbaan in 2025, during which Maeve wrote a solo-harp composition each month. Into 12 Dances, she interweaves site-specific recordings, poetry, and visual stimulation she gathered each day while at Kaatsbaan.

I believe that we live in an over-stimulated society and a lot of the busyness that clouds or cushions our day-to-day feels vapid in substance. There is little incentive to make room for the stillness that breeds reflection or imagination. This project is my personal commitment to a monthly observation of where we are: me and the world. A modest sonic snapshot of the most ordinary kind of beauty. The type of joy that is only noticed once taken away.

Known for her ethereal soundscapes, intricate-interweaving voices, and dynamically rhythmic compositions, Maeve leads us carefully through her own reverent cycle of nature, color, and humanity. In a time of political and environmental shifts, this project is a marked noticing of the absolute wonder of our ordinary world, one month at a time in her adopted home of the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Photo by Josh Goleman