Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri's LUNCH DANCES is Coming to NYPL Library

  The New York Public Library is welcoming back Lunch Dances, a theatrical intervention using movement and storytelling to bring patrons and the Library’s vast research collections to life. Due to popular demand, the Library is doubling the length of its run so that more people have the opportunity to experience it. Information about securing free tickets is available below.  

Interdisciplinary at its heart, Lunch Dances weaves together literary touchpoints, theatre, and dance for a performance set in a most unexpected setting—true to the mission of Monica Bill Barnes & Company to “bring dance where it doesn’t belong.” Lunch Dances travels through the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, taking audiences on a journey through the iconic building. 

Created by dance and theater artists Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri, Lunch Dances draws its title from Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, a collection of lively, spontaneous poems written during the poet's lunch breaks from his job at the Museum of Modern Art. Audience members wear headphones listening to an engaging soundtrack mixed with a live reading of an original script written by Saenz de Viteri. The stories depict the interior lives of fictional patrons as they go about their day of research and work among the Library’s approximately 50 million research items. 

The performance is a piece of fiction inspired by a year of research between 2024–2025 in which the artists Barnes and Saenz de Viteri engaged with the Library’s collections and staff. It presents a number of collection items tied to literary culture and local history, including the first edition of The Ladder, a mid-century lesbian civil rights magazine, and the butterfly drawings of Vladimir 

Nabokov, among others. 

Monica Bill Barnes & Company introduced Lunch Dances to the Library last year through a sold-out, limited run that received wide acclaim. 

The performance was recognized as one of the Best Performances of 2025 by The New York Times. 

How to attend Lunch Dances 

Ticket reservations will first be available to the general public via NYPL’s Public Programs on March 8. For early access to reservations sign up for Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s mailing list or check the calendar page on their website for updates. 

Schedule and details for the performances: 

Schedule: March 16-28 and April 13-25 (both are Monday – Saturday), twice a day at 11:30am and 1:30pm 

Duration: One hour 

Accessibility: Audience members will move during the performance. The performance route encounters two sets of stairs but also accommodates audience members who require an elevator. 

Location: The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018.