BALLEZ: TRAVESTY DOLL PLAY to Return at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park
The performance features a live score by Lavinia Eloise Bruce and Scott Killian at the park's Black Box Theater.
Kaatsbaan Cultural Park presents Ballez: Travesty Doll Play (after Coppélia) on Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 3PM at the indoor Black Box Theater at 120 Broadway, Tivoli, NY 12583 as part of its 2026 Annual Festival. Tickets start at $15 and can be reserved here.
Based on the story ballet from 1870 about an eccentric toymaker who makes a lifelike mechanical doll, Ballez's choreographic reimaging exposes us to the interdependent relationship between the Doll-maker and the Doll creations. This retelling and redancing brings to light the tenderness and perseverance of new life, the joy and support found in desire and connection, and the love and humanity that transforms and thrives in our relations with one another. Live original score by Lavinia Eloise Bruce and Scott Killian. Featured in a PBS documentary, this is the first time the ballet has been presented live since it premiered in NYC in 2024.
Ballez was founded in 2011 by choreographer and educator Kade Pyle. Ballez has created four original, full-length story-ballets: The Firebird, a Ballez (2013, Danspace Project), Sleeping Beauty & the Beast (2016, La MaMa), Giselle of Loneliness (2021, The Joyce Theater) and Travesty Doll Play Ballez (after Coppélia) (2024, Chelsea Factory), and has been awarded grants from NYSCA, Harkness, Mellon Foundation, among others, and residencies at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Gibney, MTA, among others. By centering the experiences of trans, non-binary, and genderqueer dancers in practice and creation, Ballez demands that the form of ballet embrace the vitality of positive, inclusive change. Pyle currently teaches ballet at Eugene Lang and Marymount Manhattan Colleges, and for professional dancers at Gibney Dance.
About Tickets
One performance ticket is $25. ($15 for students). Performance tickets do not include evening concerts.
- Ticket Combo Packages for Same-Day Performances:
- - A two-performance ticket combo is $40. ($25 for students)
- - A three-performance ticket combo is $50. ($30 for students) *only available 8/29*
- - Add an evening concert ticket to your combo and receive a $10 discount. This all-day pass maximizes discounts!
About Kaatsbaan Cultural Park
The mission of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is to provide an extraordinary environment for cultural innovation and excellence by providing artists at any stage of their careers with creative residencies at state-of-the-art facilities, and presenting audiences and communities with annual festivals, educational programs, and events. As both an incubator for creativity and presenter for world-class artists in dance, theater, music, film, spoken and written word, and culinary and visual arts, Kaatsbaan provides artists with state-of-the-art dance studios, accommodations, an indoor theater, and outdoor stages. Sited on 153 Hudson River-adjacent acres, Kaatsbaan is free of urban facilities' space and time constraints, allowing for exciting levels of artistic exploration, creative action, and achievement-just two hours north of New York City.
Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is committed to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts as we aim to present, promote, and embrace programming that accurately reflects our society. We encourage a broadly diverse group of individuals to participate in our programs and join our Board and Staff, and insist on being inclusive of all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic background, or physical or mental ability.
