CUNY Dance Initiative Unveils 2025–26 Awarded Artists
From July 2025 to June 2026, CDI is underwriting residencies for 25 early-to-mid-career choreographers at 14 CUNY colleges.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 23, 2025
The CUNY Dance Initiative, an expansive program providing New York City choreographers and dance companies with creative residencies on CUNY campuses and beyond, revealed the awarded artists for its 2025-26 cycle.
From July 2025 to June 2026, CDI is underwriting residencies for 25 early-to-mid-career choreographers at 14 CUNY colleges and three partner arts organizations in all five boroughs. These NYC-based artists, selected from an open call that drew a record-breaking 293 applicants, reflect the diversity of NYC's dance field, and also mirror CUNY's student demographics. They work in a wide range of dance styles and forms -- from ballet to street, tap, flamenco, and contemporary and culturally specific traditions. In addition to providing space and financial support for the development of new and existing projects, all CDI residencies include master classes, guest lectures, or open rehearsals to connect artists with CUNY communities. The full roster of awarded artists is listed below, and details on public performances, including world premieres, will be announced later this year.
"Over the past 11 years, the CUNY Dance Initiative has built a consortium of CUNY colleges in direct support of local dance artists and New York City's creative economy," says Frank H. Wu, president of Queens College, where CDI is based. "The initiative provides choreographers with resources such as rehearsal time, space and funding, all of which are critical for advancing their careers. CUNY students as well as communities local to the campuses benefit from the master classes and performances that CDI sponsors. There is no other residency program of this nature in the nation. We are proud that it is led by Queens College."
CDI has awarded residencies to 270 choreographers since the program began in 2014, launching companies and choreographic careers. "Our multiple CUNY residencies have been invaluable parts of Kizuna Dance's artistic growth over the years, always coming in at pivotal moments -- from our early tour prepping days to our 10th year anniversary performance in 2024," says Artistic Director Cameron McKinney. Kizuna Dance will premiere a new work at John Jay College's Gerald W. Lynch Theater in spring 2026.
With Hunter College rejoining the program in 2025-26, CDI now partners with more than half of the colleges in the CUNY system. "The reciprocity of professional artists working in Hunter College dance studios will reverberate across our community," says Maura Donohue, Chair of the Dance Department. "These residencies will forge a pathway into and out of our curriculum, and provide much needed support to artists we know will benefit from time and space on campus."
Partnerships beyond the CUNY system are integral to CDI's collaborative ethos and commitment to expanding opportunities for artists while building audiences for dance. CDI has forged a new partnership with Works & Process this year: the jointly selected artist (Nubian Néné) has been awarded both a CDI rehearsal residency at Queens College and a week-long, out-of-town Works & Process residency. CDI's two-year Arts & Social Justice Residency, established in 2021 with Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), welcomes its third artist this cycle: Chrybaby Cozie and The Breakfast Club E.A.T., led by Daniel Holloway, the Harlem-born pioneer of the Hip-Hop freestyle genre called Lite-Feet. In Staten Island, CDI partners with Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, and in Queens, York College teams up with Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.
2025-26 CUNY Dance Initiative Resident Artists and Host Partners
Baruch College: Baruch Performing Arts Center (Manhattan)
Pigeonwing Dance
BMCC: Tribeca Performing Arts Center (Manhattan)
NVA & Guests
Arts & Social Justice Residency at Brooklyn College in partnership with
Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX)
Chrybaby Cozie & The Breakfast Club E.A.T.
Brooklyn College: School of Visual Media and Performing Arts (Brooklyn)
The City College of New York: City College Center for the Arts (Manhattan)
Gerson Lanza: To Dance Is To Be Free
Jeevika Bhat
College of Staten Island in partnership with Snug Harbor Cultural Center (Staten Island)
MBDance
Hostos Community College: Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture (Bronx)
Laura Peralta
The Knee-Heart Connection
Hunter College: Dance Department (Manhattan)
Kyle Marshall Choreography
Naomi Funaki
John Jay College: Gerald W. Lynch Theater (Manhattan)
Ephrat Asherie Dance
Kizuna Dance
LaGuardia Community College: LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (Queens)
Sun Kim Dance Theatre
COLE JAZZ & The NEW Jack Cole Dancers
Lehman College: Department of Dance and Theatre (Bronx)
Megan Curet
Medgar Evers College: Department of Mass Communications, Creative and Performing Arts & Speech (Brooklyn)
Adia Tamar Whitaker & Àṣẹ Dance Theater
Claude CJ Johnson
Queensborough Community College: Dance Program (Queens)
Barr Bodies
Johnnie Cruise Mercer
Queens College: Kupferberg Center for the Arts and Department of Drama,
Theatre & Dance (Queens)
A Lady in the House Dance Company/Nubian Néné (in partnership with Works & Process)
Xianix Barrera Flamenco Co.
York College, in partnership with Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (Queens)
Sheer Spectacle
Elinor Kleber Diggs
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