It’s Danspace Project’s 40th anniversary year and we’re celebrating over four seasons with all-new commissions, performances, and special events.

Danspace Project was co-founded in 1974 by Barbara Dilley, Mary Overlie, and poet Larry Fagin. The artistic community was rich with innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration which still resonates in today’s contemporary context.

Our fall season opens with three artists who employ ballet technique and history as material for postmodern experimentation: visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra launches the season on September 27th with the New York premiere of Little Dot, a twelve-hour marathon dance installation, followed by all new premieres in October by choreographers Jillian Peña and Yanira Castro/a canary torsi. The fall season also features artists who got their start at Danspace Project as emerging choreographers and who continue to call Danspace home: Luis Lara Malvacías, Julian Barnett, Netta Yerushalmy, Hilary Easton, Keely Garfield, and Tere O’Connor Dance.

Glimpse new works in-progress by Ori Flomin, Marjani Forté, Joanna Kotze, Chris Masters, Kitty Sailer, and Ni’Ja Whitson at DraftWork this fall. Bring 2 cans and $5 to our food drive series, Food for Thought, and you’ll be in great hands with our guest-curators Andrew Dinwiddie, Lindsey Dietz-Marchant, and Jen Rosenblit.

Production residencies in the sanctuary at St. Mark’s Church this season include Yanira Castro and Laurie Berg, who is developing a new commission set to premiere at Danspace this spring.

Join us for a special Conversation Without Walls in the sanctuary at St. Mark’s Church on October 11. Baroque scholar Mark Franko will present his influential essay Dance and the Political States of Exception followed by a conversation with Suzanne Bocanegra, Jillian Peña, and Yanira Castro. We’ll also discuss our upcoming Platform, which is inspired by New York’s rich cultural environment during the 1970s, the era of Danspace Project’s founding. Platform curator Claudia La Rocco and Platform participants Kaitlyn Gilliland and Will Rawls will talk about their collaboration in-process for the Platform. There will also be a special mini performance by Melissa Toogood choreographed by Pam Tanowitz. We hope you can make it!

The best 40th anniversary gift we could give ourselves? Come visit our office in St. Mark’s Church and see our freshly-painted walls and shiny new floors! Check out the before and after pics.