New Victory Kicks Off VICTORY DANCE Initiative Today

The New Victory Theater, New York's premier performing arts venue for kids and families, announces Victory Dance, a pilot initiative to provide FREE dance performances to New York City kids this summer. A three-week series serving New York City day camps and school programs from today, July 16 to August 1, 2014, Victory Dance will feature a cross-section of New York choreographers and companies in more than a dozen pieces specifically curated for young audiences. Through Victory Dance, New York City kids will have the opportunity to meet with choreographers and dancers, as well as see these incredible artists and companies present their very best work.

Consistent with their mission to present world-class performing arts to kids and families, The New Victory Theater has selected highly-accomplished New York-based artists who perform a range of contemporary dance styles and share in the theater's goal of inspiring young people to embrace the art form. Victory Dance consists of three unique programs and will feature performances by Ballet Hispanico; Ballet Tech's Kids Dance; doug elkins choreography, etc.; Full Circle Souljahs; Gallim Dance; KEIGWIN + COMPANY; LAVA; Monica Bill Barnes & Company; and Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, in addition to solo performances by Lil Buck and Michelle Dorrance. Every performance will feature a one-hour program of three or more pieces immediately followed by a moderated panel discussion and Q&A with the audience.

"Season after season, we put good stuff on The New Victory Theater stage and this summer, for the first time, we're providing free access to good dance on the New Vic stage so that New York kids will have a chance to see the broad range of dance works created and performed by New York artists," says Cora Cahan, President of The New 42nd Street and The New Victory Theater. "Victory Dance is unparalleled for providing dance of this caliber on a mixed bill for young audiences with tremendous curricular support from the New Victory education programs."

"When we approached these artists, we discovered that they have a real desire to perform for this notoriously honest audience," adds Mary Rose Lloyd, Director of Artistic Programming at The New Victory Theater. "New York is home to so many extraordinary dancers, choreographers and companies who are thrilled to perform for young people from within their community."

Victory Dance will serve New York City students enrolled in NYC Department of Education summer school enrichment programs, such as Summer Arts Institute, and subsidized/City-run summer day camps. Students of Victory Dance Summer Education Partnership will attend daytime performances of Victory Dance free of charge and will also receive free dance-related workshops led by professional dance teaching artists before their visit to the theater. New Victory SCHOOL TOOL Resource Guides will also be provided for the summer school and day camp instructors to further incorporate the art form into the students' day-to-day curriculum. Through Victory Dance, The New Victory Theater looks forward to sharing live performances on stage, exploring the art form in classrooms and building relationships that will have an impact on NYC kids from summer to summer.

Each week, Victory Dance will feature three daytime performances free of charge for Victory Dance Summer Education Partnership students. Additionally, one evening performance will be made available for the general public at $10 per ticket.

Program A: July 16-18

School/Day Camp Performances: July 16-18 at 11am
Public Performance: July 17 at 7pm

• KEIGWIN + COMPANY Boys & Girls by Larry Keigwin
• Full Circle Souljahs Bach to the Future by Kwikstep & Rokafella
• Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE "Amen," an excerpt from Come Ye by Ronald K. Brown

Program B: July 23-25

School/Day Camp Performances: July 23-25 at 11am
Public Performance: July 24 at 7pm

• LAVA Heart Beat Hoops by LAVA
• Monica Bill Barnes & Company I Love Vegas and Anna's Interview by Monica Bill Barnes
• Lil Buck The Swan by Lil Buck
• Ballet Hispanico Sombrerísimo by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Program C: July 30-August 1

School/Day Camp Performances: July 30-August 1 at 11am
Public Performance: July 31 at 7pm

• Gallim Dance "Pupil Suite," an excerpt from I Can See Myself in Your Pupil by Andrea Miller
• Michelle Dorrance A solo tap performance created especially for Victory Dance
• doug elkins choreography, etc. An excerpt from Scott, Queen of Marys by Doug Elkins
• Ballet Tech's Kids Dance KYDZNY by Eliot Feld

Every performance will be followed by a talk-back with choreographers. All programs are subject to change.

Special thanks to The Jerome Robbins Foundation for its leadership support of Victory Dance.

Victory Dance Education Partnerships are available to New York City day camps and school programs for a participant fee of $100 to support the curriculum resources provided to the participating organization. For more information, contact education@new42.org.

The July 17, July 24 and July 31 public performances of Victory Dance at The New Victory Theater (209 West 42nd Street) are $10. Tickets for Victory Dance are available online (NewVictory.org) and by telephone (646.223.3010) beginning May 15.

About The New Victory Theater: The New Victory Theater introduces extraordinary performing artists from around the world to extraordinary audiences in New York City, bringing kids to the arts and arts to kids. Created in 1995 for young New Yorkers, their families and schoolmates, The New Victory Theater presents a diverse season of international companies at low ticket prices year after year. Through the theater's award-winning education programs, a dynamic combination of school and public programs, The New Victory continues to provide access to schools and communities of New York City who seek to experience and engage with the work on our stages, often for the very first time. These nationally-recognized programs exemplify the New Vic's long-standing commitment to the intrinsic value of cultural participation in the lives of young people and families. The theater's contributions to the cultural landscape of the city were celebrated by the prestigious New York critics' organization, The Drama Desk, which presented The New Victory Theater with a Special Award for "providing enchanting, sophisticated children's theater that appeals to the child in all of us, and for nurturing a love of theater in young people."

About The New 42nd Street: Building on the foundation of seven historic theaters, The New 42nd Street leads the dynamic evolution of the reinvented 42nd Street, cultivating a unique New York City cultural and entertainment destination through its three projects: The New Victory Theater, a performing arts theater devoted to kids and families; the New 42nd Street Studios, a state-of-the-art, 10-story performing arts complex for rehearsal, performance and arts administration; and The Duke on 42nd Street, an intimate black-box theater. An independent, nonprofit organization, The New 42nd Street is committed to the transformational power of the arts.