Part of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance

 

Photo by Lawrence Sumulong

 

New York, NY (October 22, 2026) – Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) announces the return of the Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival for its first winter season. Part of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance, this iteration of the Festival highlights the works of New York City-based companies, featuring pieces by choreographers Hannah Garner, Omar Román de Jesús, Heidi Latsky, Shamel Pitts, Netta Yerushalmy, Caili Quan, and Rosie Herrera.

 

The Lincoln Center Presents 26/27 Season continues to shine a spolight on dance with pieces from Soles of Duende, Aszure Barton and Ambrose Akinmusire, and Michela Marino Lerman, as well as an evening in honor of Carmen de Lavallade, with additional activities designed to enhance and expand an audience’s experience of dance at LCPA.

 

All events are Free or Choose-What-You-Pay, continuing the institution’s bold commitment to arts accessibility for all—a trailblazing model that helps ensure Lincoln Center Presents season events can be experienced by everyone. Since 2022, LCPA’s Free and Choose-What-You-Pay model has helped bring nearly 3 million people to the Lincoln Center campus through performances, educational events, festivals, and open-air experiences.

 

A new, biannual festival offered each summer and winter, the Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival establishes a consistent and ambitious home for contemporary dance at Lincoln Center, including commissions and new education initiatives. The festival launched in June 2026, featuring five international companies that presented cutting-edge works exploring different dance forms through themes of personal heritage and origin, identity, and transformation by choreographers from the United Kingdom, South Korea, Belgium, Spain, and France.

 

Beginning January 6, 2027 in Alice Tully Hall, the Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival  celebrates choreographers presenting boundary-pushing works, including a world premiere, two New York premieres, and two works commissioned by the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance.

• Opening the festival, Netta Yerushalmy’s MOVEMENT synthesizes over 100 citations from an expansive range of dances across genres and cultures.
• In the world premiere of Days of Awe, a Pasculano Collaborative commission, Heidi Latsky creates a powerful meditation on disruption, transformation, and resilience.
• Hannah Garner's 2nd Best Dance Company presents a reimagined Slumber, which walks the fuzzy line between dance and play, with commissioning support from the Pasculano Collaborative.
• Omar Román de Jesús and his company BOCA TUYA present the New York premiere of Sombreristas, which invites audiences to shed the skin of adult decorum.
• The New York premiere of Marks of RED by Shamel Pitts' TRIBE creates a world of magical realism exploring Black embodiment, featuring scenic design by Tony Award-winner Mimi Lien (Lincoln Center Artist-in-Residence 2022-2024).
• Juilliard Dance celebrates its 75^th anniversary, honoring a legacy of artistic excellence while showcasing the next generation of dance artists. The evening will include first year students performing a new work by Juilliard Arnhold Creative Associate Caili Quan, and one by Guggenheim Choreographic Fellow Rosie Herrera performed by fourth year students.

 

The institution’s expanded commitment to contemporary dance continues throughout the 26/27 Lincoln Center Presents Season with additional presentations made possible by the Pasculano Collaborative:

• Soles of Duende takes the stage during Lincoln Center’s Open House programming, bringing together tap (Amanda Castro), flamenco (Arielle Rosales), and Kathak (Brinda Guha) in David Geffen Hall's Wu Tsai Theater, offering excerpts from Can We Dance Here?

• In Aszure Barton and Ambrose Akinmusire’s A a | a B : B E N D, two visionaries come together to create an intimate yet wildly provocative world where music and dance coexist onstage.

• In the David Rubenstein Atrium, ALBA Musik: Contemporary Flamenco blends traditional Latin dance and music with contemporary instrumentation, vivacious poetry, and modern songwriting and Michela Marino Lerman offers Sole Blue, a captivating exploration of tap dance as a living extension of the blues featuring Love Movement.

• An evening dedicated to honoring the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of Carmen de Lavallade, featuring dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

 

Beyond the stage, contemporary dance comes to life through pre-show conversations, exhibitions, education programs for the next generation of dance artists, and original scholarship that advances the field.

• In January, contemporary dance scholar, writer, artist, and public programs collaborator Sarah Cecilia Bukowski will provide dramaturgical and research support for the Footnotes initiative, including participation in pre-show talks, creation of notes in the playbills, and the creation of an exhibition in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall designed to provide context for audiences about this history of contemporary dance at LCPA.

• A new program, NextGen Choreographers, will share work by four high school student dancers training to become choreographers as they explore dance as a medium for civic expression.

 

Established from the largest single programming gift in LCPA’s history, the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance is bringing the most dynamic and innovative contemporary dance from here in New York City and across the globe to join the cultural crossroads of Lincoln Center, honoring the distinguished legacy of dance on campus and investing in the next generation of dance artists.

 

Donald Borror began as Director of the Collaborative in December of last year and spearheads the biannual Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival alongside a variety of programmatic resources and collaborations to support dancers, choreographers, and companies in New York City and beyond.

 

“Lincoln Center is uniquely positioned to draw on the creative power of a campus where contemporary dance has been part of the story from the very beginning,” said Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of LCPA. “As we shine a focus this January on New York City-based dance companies, our artists are supported not just to present work, but to create, develop, and sustain creativity that meets the moment today and engages in cultural dialogues across artistic and civic spaces.”

 

“We are proud to build on the success of Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival’s first summer season, presenting some of the most engaging and unique of New York City’s choreographic voices to kick off 2027,” said Donald Borror, Director of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance. “Investing in the creative pipeline for artists is a priority for our work and we are so excited to share and support these powerhouse choreographers as a snapshot of New York City’s incredible contemporary dance community.”

 

A link to the online event calendar for all dance events can be found here. The full Lincoln Center Presents 26/27 Season can be found here.

 

Imagery may be accessed here.

 

About the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance

The Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance was created in March 2025 following an unprecedented $50 million founding gift from Lynne and Richard Pasculano—the largest single programming donation in LCPA’s history. An ambitious initiative that expands contemporary dance across the Lincoln Center campus, the Collaborative paves the way for the most dynamic and innovative contemporary dance performances from across the globe to join the cultural crossroads of Lincoln Center, honoring the distinguished legacy of dance on campus and investing in the next generation of dance artists. Envisioned are two dance festivals annually, as well as a variety of resources and collaborations to support dancers, choreographers, and companies in New York City and beyond.

 

An Artistic Advisory Committee was established in March 2025 and worked with the LCPA programming team, led by Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer Shanta Thake, to shape the foundational vision for the Collaborative’s activities for greatest impact and inclusivity within the ever-expanding contemporary dance sphere. Members included Kyle Abraham, Jody Gottfried Arnhold, Misty Copeland, Alicia Graf Mack, Alice Sheppard, Lane Sugata, and Eduardo Vilaro. Donald Borror was appointed to the newly created position of Director, Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance in December 2025.

 

Series in both the winter and summer, new commissions, opportunities for emerging dance artists, and investments in audience engagement will all be part of a holistic vision to expand the global dance community’s home at Lincoln Center—including collaborations with The Juilliard School, New York City Ballet, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the School of American Ballet—while collaborating with industry colleagues to complement the vibrant work happening across New York City.

 

About Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center is a premier performing arts center and iconic civic cultural campus. A beacon for the arts in New York City and around the world, Lincoln Center believes the arts are fundamental to our humanity and should be accessible to all—connecting us to one another, expanding our individual and collective imaginations, and elevating our spirit. Opened in 1962, the 16-acre campus is home to eleven resident arts organizations dedicated to uplifting the role of art and artists in our society, providing a destination for global artistic voices, training the next generation of great artists, and creating unforgettable experiences for all New Yorkers: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and School of American Ballet. Lincoln Center welcomes millions of people for thousands of performances each year, anchoring New York City’s legendary creative life and greatly impacting its civic and economic wellbeing.

 

About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the Lincoln Center campus is a destination that welcomes all—where every visitor, whether a native New Yorker or New Yorker for a day, can find inspiration, artistic innovation, and community in the creative achievements realized on campus. Year-round, we offer robust seasons of programming, representing a broad spectrum of performing arts disciplines and complementing the artistic and educational activities of the 10 fellow resident arts organizations with whom we share a home. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, all offered for free or Choose-What-You-Pay, helping ensure that the arts are at the center of civic life for all. 

 

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Contemporary Dance is made possible by the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance - Lynne and Richard Pasculano, Founding Donors

 

Major support is provided by The Shubert Foundation

 

Additional support is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance

 

Endowment support is provided by the Blavatnik Family Foundation Fund for Dance

 

Choose-What-You-Pay and the Footnotes educational series for the Contemporary Dance Festival are presented by The Ann L. Hicks Initiative for New Audience Development

 

Lead support for Choose-What-You-Pay is provided by the Family of Robert Wood Johnson III

 

Major support is provided by the Scully Peretsman Foundation

 

NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

 

United Airlines is the Supporting Airline of Lincoln Center Presents

 

Steinway & Sons is the Preferred Piano Partner of Lincoln Center

 

Additional support for Lincoln Center Presents is provided by Park Lane New York

 

We are grateful to our Board of Directors for their leadership and generous support in making our work possible

 

Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds provided by the City of New York

 

Programs are made possible, in part, with public funds provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor, Mayor of the City of New York, the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council

 

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For more information, please contact:

Michelle Tabnick

[email protected]

646-765-4773