Submissions Now Open for Future Dance Festival 2026

Submissions are now open for 92NY Harkness Dance Center’s Future Dance Festival. Now in its fifth year, the festival is establishing itself as a significant incubator of new talent and new work in the dance world — offering a dynamic platform for discovery, experimentation, and connection. This year, as part of the Women Move the World season, applications are limited to women and female identifying artists — making space for bold, new voices to step into the spotlight. 

12 emerging women and female-identifying choreographers will be selected to share their work in one of two split-bill programs at the 92NY’s historic Buttenwieser Hall on either Friday, April 17, or Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 7 pm ET. Eight emerging women and female-identifying dance filmmakers will be selected to share their original films in an online program available from April 16-23, 2026.

Curated by a panel of female and female-identifying industry leaders, the Future Dance Festival connects emerging choreographers and filmmakers with today’s artistic decision-makers. It’s a festival rooted in purpose: to invest in dance’s future by championing its most promising creators — and offering audiences a front-row seat to the future of the form. 92NY provided a home for modern dance pioneers such as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Pearl Primus, and the festival continues that legacy — spotlighting the next generation of trailblazers in choreography and dance filmmaking.

Since the festival’s launch in 2020, over 60 diverse choreographers from six continents have been selected to share their work. Each of these choreographers received access to a network of company directors and industry luminaries just as invested as 92NY in the future of dance. Participation in the festival has resulted in choreographic opportunities including commissions, grants, and residencies:

Dual Rivet (FDF ‘22 Selected Artist) - 92NY Harkness Mainstage Artist 2024, 92NY Artist in Residence '25-'26
MeenMoves (FDF ‘22 Selected Artist) - 92NY Artist in Residence ‘22-’23, 92NY Harkness Mainstage Artist 2024
Baye & Asa (FDF ‘21 Selected Artist) - Commissioned by The Martha Graham Dance Company 2023 at The Joyce; 92NY Artist in Residence ‘21-’22
Annie Rigney (FDF ‘21 Selected Artist) - Commissioned by The Martha Graham Dance Company 2023 at The Joyce; 92NY Artist in Residence ‘23-’24, 92NY Harkness Mainstage Artist 2023
Music for the Sole (FDF ‘21 Selected Artist) - 92NY Artist in Residence ‘22-’23, 92NY Harkness Mainstage Artist 2022
Barkha Patel (FDF ‘21 Selected Artist) - 92NY Harkness Mainstage Artist 2023

Future Dance Festival is open to female-identifying emerging choreographers 18+ who have only had one professional commission to date. For additional details and the submission form, please go to 92NY.org/FutureDanceFestival.
 
Submissions will be curated by an esteemed panel of female-identifying leaders in the dance field, and the final slate of selected artists will be announced on March 6, 2026.

LIVE PERFORMANCE CURATION PANEL – Additional panelists to be announced:
Linda Brumbach, Founder and Director, Pomegranate Arts
Caroline Cronson, Producer, Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Artistic Director, EMERGE125 
Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

PRELIMINARY LIVE PERFORMANCE CURATION PANEL:
Nikki Holck, Managing Director, Peridance Center
Brinda Guha, Artist, Administrator, Educator & Producer 
Elizabeth Yilmaz, Co-founder and Producer, Art Bath NYC