ETERNAL CITY to Premiere via Kinetic Light and Resident Island Dance Theatre

Acclaimed disability arts organization Kinetic Light has announced a new international collaboration with physically-integrated dance company Resident Island Dance Theatre (RIDT) of Taiwan. Eternal City is a new co-creation developed by Resident Island Dance Theatre, Kinetic Light, and U.S. artist ONIKHO, with her music collaborators. Kinetic Light artists Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson contribute as performers, choreographic collaborators, and as access advisors and collaborators; KL team member Colin Clark serves as access technology collaborator. This iteration of Eternal City will have its world premiere November 27-28, 2026 as part of the Taiwan Dance Platform at Weiwuying.

RIDT is led by Chung-An Chang, a low vision dancer and choreographer. Based in southern Taiwan, RIDT is a contemporary dance company known for its sustained practice in physically integrated dance, disability arts, and international collaboration. This will be the third and final chapter of Eternal City, a cross-cultural dance work exploring democracy, access, and resistance through movement, music, and a cyberpunk aesthetic. Eternal City explores access as a core democratic value, challenging ableism by centering disabled artists and asking who truly gets to participate, lead, and be seen in a democratic society. As part of this international exchange, Kinetic Light is sharing its access culture and practices developed over the past 10 years, including audio description, haptics, and various other audience-centered offerings.

This is Kinetic Light's first formal collaboration with a physically-integrated company (disabled and non-disabled performers). While Kinetic Light is a disabled-led company with only disabled performers, both Lawson and Sheppard started their careers in integrated dance-performing with Full Radius Dance, Axis Dance Company, Marc Brew Company, among others-and have choreographed work for disabled and non disabled artists.

'We are excited and honored to be part of this international disability arts collaboration and to be welcomed into Resident Island Dance Theatre's artistic community. Disability dance and physically integrated dance are different art forms, emerging from different aesthetics, and so this collaboration is interesting and potent for Kinetic Light as an arts organization. It is deeply important to share and seed the values of disability arts and artistic access in new international spaces. Following our Taiwan premiere, we are hoping to bring Eternal City to the U.S.,' shares Alice Sheppard, Founder and Artistic Director of Kinetic Light.

'At Resident Island Dance Theatre, we believe international collaboration and cross-cultural exchange are essential to the future of the performing arts. Through our collaboration with Kinetic Light and ONIKHO, Eternal City brings together artists with diverse lived experiences to create a work where accessibility is not an addition, but a creative principle embedded in every stage of the artistic process. This journey has challenged all of us to rethink authorship, movement, and disability-not as limitations, but as sources of artistic innovation. We believe that through artistic practice, we can cultivate meaningful social transformation. By creating spaces for encounter, dialogue, and shared experience, art has the power to reshape perspectives, strengthen human connection, and inspire a more inclusive society. We hope audiences leave not only with a powerful artistic experience, but with a renewed understanding of how we can imagine and create our future together,' comments Shu-Lin Hsiao (Sasa), International Producer, Resident Island Dance Theatre.

Eternal City is co-produced by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), and funded by the National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan).

In April, Resident Island Dance Theatre and Kinetic Light came together in Taiwan for an in-person creative residency, marking an important phase in the development of the work. Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson joined the residency in person, deepening the artistic and access-centered exchange between the collaborators. During the residency, artists engaged in deep exchange across embodiment, culture, and artistic practice, while jointly developing the structure and creative language of the work. Before gathering again in the fall, collaborators will continue creating and rehearsing together online, carrying this evolving dialogue forward across distance.

ABOUT KINETIC LIGHT

Kinetic Light was founded by Alice Sheppard in 2016. Working at the nexus of access, queerness, disability, and race, Kinetic Light centers disabled people as experiencers, makers, and workers in the fields of dance, film, tech, and design. The company believes access is a creative, intersectional, political, and relational promise that connects us to each other.

Kinetic Light has performed across the U.S., has developed work through residencies at Jacob's Pillow, Gibney, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and has received funding from the Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, NEFA/National Dance Project, MAP Fund, and others. kineticlight.org

ABOUT RESIDENT ISLAND DANCE THEATRE

Resident Island Dance Theatre, founded in Pingtung by choreographer CHANG Chung-an, creates contemporary performance works that engage physical difference, social conditions, and emotional connection, while actively pursuing international collaboration and inclusive arts practice. The company's work centers disability arts, body politics, and environmental perception, bringing performers with diverse abilities and experiences into the core of its creative process. Its works have been presented at major international platforms including the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, Edinburgh Fringe, Avignon OFF, Unlimited Festival, and Istanbul Fringe, and the company was selected for the U.S. Department of State's Center Stage program.

###

Don't Miss a Broadway News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...