Villa Albertine’s 2023 Dance Season brings new global performances, talks, and collaborations to cities across the United States

New York, April 4, 2023 — Villa Albertine today unveiled the spring/summer programming for its year-long Dance Season 2023, a 360-degree program that caters to each stage of the artistic process from the conception of new work to performance to continuing professional development and learning in the industry.

As part of their ongoing efforts to foster the exchange of ideas and deepen cultural connections between the United States and the French-speaking world, Villa Albertine will create opportunities for the most acclaimed and exciting choreographers and companies from the French and Francophone world to explore new ideas, push boundaries, and reinvent the artform.

The Albertine Dance Season presents three types of programming throughout 2023:

1. Company tours and Dance Reflections Festival: The Dance Season will support the performance of new work from over a dozen established and emerging international dance companies in cities across the country, including six who will make their US debut. In New York City this fall Villa Albertine will also partner with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, a high-profile initiative in modern and contemporary dance, which sheds new light on the artform through both major repertory works and new productions.

2. Talks and collective learning: Artist talks, panel discussions, and on-campus lectures will bring new perspectives in dance to audiences across the country. In October in New York City, Villa Albertine will also host a symposium headlined by French and American performers, choreographers, directors, and educators, who will discuss challenges in the global dance landscape (sustainability, reciprocity, equity, access, precarity…) and workshop solutions. This will be the first major collective reflection by the global dance community on the impact of the pandemic on the artform.

3. Research residencies across the United States: Throughout the year, 17 dance professionals—choreographers, artists, scholars—will embed in the city of their choice for one- to three-month bespoke exploratory residencies, as part of Villa Albertine’s annual artist residency program. 

This year, Villa Albertine’s popular French film festival Films on the Green will also be curated around the theme ‘Dance in Film’. The free screenings will take place between June and September in local parks across New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC.

“We conceived this travelling, many-voiced Dance Season in response to the past three years, as relationships to our bodies, to public and private spaces, and to social responsibility have changed in fundamental ways,” said Gaëtan Bruel, Director of Villa Albertine. “How is dance evolving in a post-pandemic world? What new ideas are emerging, and from where? We hope that this Season will encourage a new generation of global-minded dance makers to consider and nurture new ideas around these questions and other developing areas of inquiry in dance.”

Albertine Dance Season is made possible thanks to the generous support of Ardian.

Coming this spring and summer

Performances

Raphaëlle Boitel – Compagnie L’Oublié(e) — “Ombres portées (Shadows Cast)”

• Montclair, NJ: March 23 – 26 @ Montclair State U. / Peak Performances
• oston, MA: March 30 – April 2 @ ArtsEmerson
• Easton, PA: April 6 @ William Center for the Arts, Lafayette College

Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) Ballet de Lorraine — “Cela nous concerne tous (This concerns all of us)” choreography Miguel Gutierrez and
 “For Four Walls,” choreographed by Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley, with pianist Vanessa Wagner

• New York City: April 21 – 22 @ NYU Skirball Center. Post-show discussion April 21

Compagnie Käfig – Mourad Merzouki in collaboration with Adrien M and Claire B — PIXEL

• Beckett, MA: August 23 – 27 @ Jacob’s Pillow Festival
• Washington, DC: August 30 – September 1 @ The Kennedy Center

Talks

“Dance Assembly: A Conversation Series” in New York City exploring international collaboration, transmission, equity, agency, and more in the art and industry of dance

• “Black Archives Dancing” with Villa Albertine resident choreographers Jay Pather and Nelisiwe Xaba, moderated by Candace Thompson-Zachary
  • April 6 @ Villa Albertine headquarters
• “This concerns all of us: A Somatics of (Political) Agitation” with choreographer Miguel Gutierrez and curator and academic Emma Bigé
  • April 17 @ NYU Skirball Center Online program “Office Hours”
• Cross influences in hip hop between France and the United States with Collectif FAIRE-E (Centre Chorégraphique National, Rennes)
  • Late May, location to be announced

Dancer, choreographer, educator, and Villa Albertine resident Léna Blou on indigenous Caribbean musical-choreographic culture

• Houston, TX: March 31 @ Rice University
• Evanston, IL: April 13 @ Slippage – Northwestern University

Artistic director, choreographer, dancer, and Villa Albertine resident Amala Dianor presents and discusses his film “Niounc Rec”

• Atlanta, GA: April 16 @ Atlanta Contemporary

Artists in residence

Spring and summer will bring 17 choreographers, artists and scholars in residence to more than a dozen US cities. Smaïl Kanouté will investigate Voodoo traditions in New Orleans and Miami; Marlène Saldana and Jonathan Drillet will explore adaptation and aesthetic-political interaction in Las Vegas; Ashley Chen and Peter Steven will rethink relationships to exterior space in Los Angeles; Wanjiru Kamuyu and Dirk Korell will explore post-modern dance inheritance and the body as a site of liberation and “healing justice” in Washington DC, Boston, and New York City. Each resident will meet with communities and peers, explore local archives and institutions, and infuse the experience of their surroundings into their work. The choreographers will join other French and Francophone creatives throughout the US participating in the second year of Villa Albertine’s unique residency program, which offers bespoke experiences to engage in creative exploration. Read about the residents and their projects here.

Coming this fall

The full lineup of fall performers, speakers, and event dates will be announced this summer. Highlights will include tours by Wanjiru Kamuyu, Compagnie Nacera Belaza, Nidal Abdo with Collectif Nafass, Dimitri Chamblas, Smaïl Kanouté, Leïla Ka, and several more, as well as talks centered on questions of violence, sustainability, access, and representation.