This fall, discover a sweeping panoroma of French contemporary creation across New York with productions supported by our dedicated performing arts programs, F.U.S.E.D and Theatre & New Forms.
From Wanjiru Kamuyu’s Fragmented Shadows, a journey through memory and healing, to Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s LACRIMA, a global tale of craft and secrecy, catch a sweeping panorama of contemporary dance, theater, and cross-disciplinary creation at venues across New York. Other highlights include Compagnie Dyptik’s Le Grand Bal; Kaori Ito, Paul Lazar, Makoto Yabuki, and Yoshi Oïda’s reinvention of a timeless Japanese fable with The Silk Drum; and By Heart, an intimate and participatory play by Avignon Festival director Tiago Rodrigues that explores memorization through the story of his grandmother.
Learn more about the upcoming performances below and reserve your tickets today!
Fragmented Shadows by Wanjiru Kamuyu
October 15 – 17, 2025
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New York Live Arts
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Kenya-born, French-American choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu explores the body’s ability to question the stories and emotions it holds. How do we break free from the memories stored in our cells, our muscles, our tissues, our organs, and our blood? How do we reclaim our life stories? In this piece, three performers come together to investigate the body’s capacity to liberate itself from the entanglement of inherited, lived, and repressed stories.
Part of the Crossing the Line Festival.
Photo: © metlili.net
LACRIMA by Caroline Guiela Nguyen
October 22-26, 2025
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BAM
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LACRIMA, which premiered at the Festival d’Avignon in 2024, follows the secret creation of a Princess of England’s wedding dress by a Parisian haute couture house. The play centers on the “shadow laborers”—seamstresses, pattern makers, and embroiderers—whose extraordinary craftsmanship hides deep personal struggles. Under Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s direction, LACRIMA unveils the human drama behind the glamour of high fashion.
Part of the Crossing the Line Festival.
Photo: © Jean Louis Fernandez
The Silk Drum by Yoshi Oida and Kaori Ito
October 24-25, 2025
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Japan Society
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Le Grand Bal by Compagnie DYPTIK
October 28 – November 1, 2025
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The Joyce Theater
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In this intense production, ten isolated, immobile dancers gradually pulse back to life with powerful energy, mirroring society’s recovery from the pandemic’s standstill. The choreography fuses dance and music, urging the body to rebel as the only path to freedom. Compagnie Dyptik, a Saint-Étienne-based company founded by Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari, is renowned for its dynamic hip-hop performances often exploring social issues and collective identity.
Part of the Crossing the Line Festival.
Photo: © Romain Tissot
By Heart by Tiago Rodrigues
November 3-4, 2025
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L'Alliance
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In By Heart, writer, director, and performer Tiago Rodrigues teaches a poem to ten audience members onstage, uniting them in the act of memorization. The piece explores the profound importance of transmission and the role of memory as a safe hiding place for words and ideas—guaranteeing the survival of culture even in desolate times. Rodrigues, the renowned Artistic Director of the Festival d’Avignon, is internationally celebrated for blending the personal and the political in his work.
Part of the Crossing the Line Festival.
Photo: ©Christophe Raynaud de Lage
