Beneath the shimmer of a disco ball, lucky contestants dance like they have the world on a string. The year is 1976, an irresistible bassline drives, and the martinis never run dry. What could go wrong? While the contestants nearly lose their minds with the pleasure of being selected, The Host has reconfigured the game. Ripped headfirst from their shrimp cocktail, gameplay unfolds at breakneck speed. Cement punctures the dancehall, the party grinds to a halt, and an inky night belches to the surface.

vildwerk. Presents Dancing for Our Wonderful World at New York Live Arts
EIGHT Works — FOUR Nights Only | December 17–20, 2025

In its highly anticipated second season, vildwerk. presents Dancing for Our Wonderful World, a four-night celebration where acclaimed choreographers and world-class dancers illuminate the beauty and urgency of our planet.

Featuring eight breathtaking works — including two world premieres created with inspiration from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF®) and in collaboration with Nature and Culture International — the season merges exceptional artistry with a call to
environmental action.

Opening Night — December 17 Very limited tickets available.

The season launches on December 17 with a spectacular Opening Night performance and VIP Reception Party, where audiences are invited to celebrate with the artists and conservation leaders shaping this unique collaboration of art and purpose.

Guests will mingle with stars from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Buglisi Dance Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, LA Dance Project, Miami City Ballet, and The Joffrey Concert Group, alongside figures from leading environmental organizations.

Charity Auction • Live Music • Exclusive Access

TICKETS

Program:

Christopher Wheeldon OBE – After the Rain
A much-loved masterpiece performed by stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Cast 1 (Dec 17–18): Mira Nadon & Preston Chamblee
Cast 2 (Dec 19–20): Isabella Boylston & Craig Hall

Gianna Reisen – Network
A contemporary quartet with an original score by David K. Israel and imagery by Samantha Bass, exploring the
symbiotic world of mycorrhizal fungi. Created in collaboration with the Mycorrhizal Fund.

Jacqulyn Buglisi – Moss Anthology #5
With a score by Jeff Beal, performed by members of Buglisi Dance Theatre.

Bradley Shelver – World Premiere for Joffrey Concert Group
A new ocean-inspired work created with World Wildlife Fund (WWF®) and a score by David K. Israel.

Antonia Franceschi – World Premiere
Created on Royal Ballet legend Edward Watson MBE, in collaboration with Nature and Culture International.

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa – Symbiotic Twin
Performed by former San Francisco and Miami City Ballet principals Benjamin Freemantle and Renan Cerdeiro.

Virginie Mécène – FLOES
A collaboration with composer Judith Shatin and visual artist SoHyun Bae, performed by Martha Graham
Fellowship dancer Grace Sautter.

Henning Rübsam – Monarcas (excerpt)
Performed by Megan LeCrone (NYCB) and Renan Cerdeiro (Miami City Ballet).

As part of the season, vildwerk. proudly introduces #TheRubyInitiative, a moving photo exhibition presented in the lobby of New York Live Arts, featuring portraits by Samantha Bass, Martin Broen, and Stephanie Diani.

At its center is Ruby, a Burmese Roofed Turtle from Myanmar — one of the rarest turtles on Earth. Smuggled to a Hong Kong wet market, Ruby spent 20 years confined in a basement cage, stunted to a third of her natural size. Since her rescue, she has been thriving under the care of U.S. conservationists, yet her species remains critically endangered due to poaching and illegal trade.

Through #TheRubyInitiative, vildwerk. is raising funds to build Ruby a protective greenhouse and to support long-term conservation efforts ensuring the survival of her species.

“Through dance, we connect art and activism — inspiring audiences to care, reflect, and act,” says Chiara Gorodesky, founder of vildwerk. “Ruby’s story is a testament to resilience and to what’s possible when compassion meets creativity.”

The annual Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program for emerging movement-based artists will continue to celebrate its 60th year with five sublime artists: Dorchel Haqq, Ariel Lembeck, Cristina Moya-Palacios, Dahlia Qumhiyeh and Sacha Vega. Featuring current Artistic Advisor Juliana May, the program originated at Dance Theater Workshop in 1965 to bring new choreographic artistry to the forefront. New Works is a fully produced shared evening featuring pieces created during the residency. More details to be announced in 2026.

Gibney Company, New York City’s dynamic creation-based repertory company, brings its fearless dancers and emotionally charged storytelling back to New York Live Arts, October 30–November 1, for its annual Up Close series.

This year’s program celebrates acclaimed Swedish choreographer Johan Inger, whose work moves from  gritty, poetic intensity to luminous joy. His raw meditation Rain Dogs, set to the unmistakable voice of Tom Waits, and his audience favorite Bliss, danced to Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert, and are bridged by the world premiere of When It Was, a new work created for Gibney Company described by the choreographer as “an elegy for beauty remembered, and for what slips away.”

More than a performance, UP CLOSE draws audiences into the Company’s creative world. With post-show conversations featuring Inger, his collaborators, and Gibney’s artistic team, the series offers a rare opportunity to experience the virtuosity, intimacy, and daring spirit that define Gibney Company.

Experience Gibney Company UP CLOSE — just four performances at New York Live Arts.

“The evening will not be a story, but a journey: from earth to elegy, from memory to possibility. A meditation on what remains, and what can still be found.” – Johan Inger

The 2025-2026 Season Artistic Associates: Graham Feeny, Amari Frazier, Madison Goodman, Tiare Keeno, Lounes Landri, Andrew McShea, Jie-hung Connie Shiau, Zack Sommer, and Madi Tanguay. Season Guest Artists: Joan Dwiartanto and Destinee Jimenez.

PROGRAM

Rain Dogs

Choreography: Johan Inger

Music: Tom Waits

Set & Costume Design: Johan Inger

Lighting Design: Peter Lundin

Duration: 35 minutes

World Premiere: September 30, 2011, Basel Ballett, Switzerland

A dog ventures beyond its territory, only to lose the scent of home—its trail washed away by rain. This image sparked Rain Dogs, Johan Inger’s reflection on disorientation, identity, and the often-contradictory nature of human connection. Set to the gravelly soundscape of Tom Waits, the work unfolds with irony, grit, and emotional depth.

When It Was

WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography, Costume and Set Design: Johan Inger

Music: Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber (Berlin Philharmonic, Director Simon Rattle) 

Lighting Design: Peter Lundin

Conceived as a farewell, When It Was is a poignant duet as an attempt to grasp what unexpectedly shifts and might never return. Set to the aching strains of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, the work captures the unspoken strength and dependency in a partnership, up until a fragile and sudden place, where trust and balance are questioned, redefining the sense of identity.

These fleeting moments of intimacy and loss are bridging the exuberance of Bliss and the grit of Rain Dogs with quiet reflection and emotional depth.

Bliss

Choreography: Johan Inger

Music: Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett

Costume Design: Johan Inger and Francesca Messori

Set Design: Johan Inger

Lighting Design: Peter Lundin

Duration: 27 minutes

World Premiere: April 2016, Aterballetto, Italy

Set to Keith Jarrett’s legendary “Köln Concert,” this large-scale ensemble work channels the music’s free, soaring spirit into beautifully crafted movement, capturing its ecstatic energy and leaving audiences in a state of bliss.

About JOHAN INGER

The Swede Johan Inger (Stockholm, 1967) joined Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 1990 and was a high-profile dancer of the company until 2002.

His debut as choreographer (1995), also for Nederlands Dans Theater, quickly became promising with immediate recognition: for his ballets Dream Play and Walking Mad he received the Lucas Hoving Production Award in October 2001. Walking Mad was later also awarded the Danza & Danza Award 2005.

Johan left Nederlands Dans Theater to take on the artistic leadership of Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm in 2003 where he created numerous works.

Since 2008, Johan works as freelance choreographer and creates for many companies around the globe such as GoteborgsOperan, Ballet Basel, Swedish National Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza, Aterballetto, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Ballet BC and of course Nederlands Dans Theater, holding the position as Associate Choreographer from 2009 to 2016.

Between 2016 and 2023, among other creations, Johan also choreographed his own versions of the narrative pieces Petrushka (Ballets de Monte Carlo) and Sleeping Beauty (Aurora’s Nap) for the Stuttgart Ballet, and full evenings such as Carmen (CND), Peer Gynt (Ballet Basel), Don Juan (Aterballetto) and A Swan Lake for SemperOper Ballett Dresden.

He was honoured in 2016 with the Benois de la Danse Prize for his Carmen (CND- Madrid), the piece One on One (NDT2), and with the Danza & Danza award for his piece Bliss, as well in 2020 for his Don Juan as best Italian production. 

In 2022, Johan Inger also became artistic director of Take Off Dance, a training program for pre-professional dancers between the ages of 18 and 24 based in Sevilla.

Brimming with fervent energy and luscious intimacy, The Next TiMes is Kinetic Light’s stunning new multimedia disability arts experience. Collaborating Artists Kayla Hamilton and Tatiana Cholewa join Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson in this enthralling universe — an exploration of resilience, love, power, and connection. The Next TiMes opens into the near future, a place swirling with ghosts and premonitions, and a space where survival and relationships are tenuous. This world is about secrets– what we know, what we think we know, and what can be revealed.

Featuring an original score, novel audience technology, otherworldly video projections, and vivid multitrack audio description, The Next TiMes embodies Kinetic Light’s core belief that access is art.

ACCESS: rich spatial audio description via Audimance, expanded accessible seating, dedicated haptic experience, ASL interpretation pre- and post-performance, curated tactile display, audience welcome to exit and enter during performance, quiet space, sensory kits

Masks are required for all performances, (K)N95+ preferred. 

Get your tickets here!

Cast: Tatiana Cholewa, Kayla Hamilton, Laurel Lawson, Alice Sheppard

Composer: Josh A. Loar

Projection Design: Carlos Johns-Davila with Kate Freer

Lighting Design:  Annie Wiegand

Production Manager: Steve Zakszewski

Production Stage Manager: Liz Weber

Production Design: Laurel Lawson

Access Technology: Laurel Lawson and Colin Clark

Audio Description Artists: Tatiana Cholewa, Kayla Hamilton, Laurel Lawson, Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Mo Pickering-Symes (using The Rationale Method), Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alice Sheppard, Brad Smith

Co-organized by Queer|Art and Lite Brite Neon, madder and madder and hotter and hotter brings together artworks that cite, transmit, remix, and illuminate queer, trans, and feminist lineages for an urgent now. The exhibition’s title comes from Audre Lorde’s daughter, who insisted on speech, knowing that censored or repressed language grows madder and hotter inside one’s body; the language on walls, here, glows. Offering balms, songs, chants, and signs, the works in this show mix the concrete qualities of words and sculpture with the ineffability of light.

Artists in this exhibition include former Queer|Art Mentors Jeffrey Gibson, Lola Flash, Demian DinéYazhi’, and Nelson Santos, alongside Glenn Ligon, Ja’Tovia Gary, and others. Anchoring the show are three Queer|Art Artist Editions, commissioned annually to celebrate the work of contemporary artists in Queer|Art’s community while paying homage to the queer trailblazers who came before them—all co-created with Lite Brite Neon, the queer and trans-led neon fabrication studio responsible for collaboratively producing the works on view. Surrounded by ephemera from Lite Brite Neon’s studio, the luminous pieces cite historical icons from Marsha P. Johnson to the collective ACT UP, as well as pop cultural references and ancestral wisdom. Together, they interpellate queer subjects in a bright, warm shout.

Queer|Art connects and empowers LGBTQ+ artists across generations and creative disciplines. Founded in 2009, Queer|Art is an artist-led and community-centered organization—united by shared values of collective care, creative resilience, and the preservation and advancement of queer legacies and queer futures. The devastating loss of a generation of artists to the ongoing AIDS epidemic has created a profound longing for cross-generational connections, mentorship, and community. Queer|Art serves as a ballast against this loss, seeking to highlight and address a lack of both economic and institutional support for queer and trans communities. Ongoing programmatic initiatives include a year-long Mentorship program and a wide array of awards, grants, and offerings that provide direct support to LGBTQ+ artists.

Lite Brite Neon Studio is a queer trans-led collective of craftspeople that specializes in the production of neon art, display, luminous visual props and architectural lighting through a collaborative approach. They seek to transform and transmit the power of light art and display as a viable medium to convey the mystical truths that surround us in everyday life. Their work has graced the facade of the Venice Biennale; appeared on the cover of The New York Times, Artforum, and Print Magazine; in the windows of MoMA, Tiffany & Co., and Bergdorf Goodman; and can be found in museums, galleries, and other visual displays worldwide. They also serve as a resource for the preservation and restoration of historic neon art and displays for many private and public collections including the Dia Art Foundation, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of Art.

Choreographed by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Maxwell, with your sweet fragrance integrates a multi-species and multidisciplinary perspective that urges viewers to reflect on their own relationships with the Earth and its resources. Audiences are invited into a lush environment that unfolds the complex layers of relationships between humanity, flora, and fauna. with your sweet fragrance aims to facilitate a visceral and tender experience that leads to a deeper awareness of humanity’s role within the climate crisis, and generate activation towards both individual and collective climate reparations.

Hivewild’s with your sweet fragrance is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.