CANTO XII to Return for Annual Pride Performances at Chez Bushwick

Jonah Bokaer Choreography will present its annual New York City season, with a doubling of public performances and program services, timed to offer robust offerings of Dance during New York City Pride 2026, gifting five public performances in Bushwick, and one to benefit Chez Bushwick, where Bokaer has worked since 2002.

JBC's international multi-ethnic dancers, its staff, its crew, and its Board Of Directors rejoice at the occasion to appear at Chez Bushwick once again, a venue and safe space which Bokaer founded at age 20 while predicting the ascent of the creative neighborhood, now cited globally for its diverse arts activity, including the arts, nightlife, and LGBTQIA+ culture. JBC was founded in 2002 by the Tunisian-American choreographer as the banner program of Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation (JBAF), a nonprofit organization spanning the dance company, its programs, and its creative real estate in New York City, and world-wide. JBC rose quickly to international acclaim, often touring abroad 35 weeks annually pre-pandemic, remaining artistically and economically stable since 2002, with innovations in visuals, choreography, technology, and humanitarian focus.

JBC's return to Chez Bushwick with a steady NYC Performance Season marks continual expansion of local dance program services in New York City, and represents a return home to our audiences, supporters, patrons, fans, and local LGBTQIA+ communities. One year ago in May 2025 during the creation of this work, a remarkable and growing Board Of Directors and Officers achieved a rare 10-year extended term securing the Chez Bushwick space, a coordinated effort which cements the overall nonprofit organization in the firmament of New York Dance properties, programs, and profiles for the communities served. “Amidst domestic and international turmoil, it's an honor to support JBAF in securing a space to celebrate diverse artistic voices in Bushwick and beyond. Now more than ever, we stand in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community and promote the transformative power of performances that embody their lived experiences” shares Brandon McNamee, Esq. whose arrival as a Board Member, Officer, and ally of JBAF and the community has matched his own ascent as one of America's leading immigration specialists at the helm of McNamee Law.

Along those same lines, Bokaer had the vision to restate Canto XII during New York City Pride 2026, which makes direct reference to the value of gay, trans, queer, and non-binary life while dramaturgically overlaying the 14th century epic poetic structures of Dante Alighieri onto the cast, while invoking the 12th verse in which Dante & Virgil encounter the Minotaur, along with a variety of other spirits, monsters, and challenges within an epic voyage through purgatory-like states in time. Bokaer's Minotaur is digital, is metaphysical, and deftly depicts the homoeroticism of the 14th century Italian verse, whose text he also translated in an iconoclastic manner. An additional overlay is the music for which Bokaer tapped longtime friends and allies of the Pulse Nightclub: a small group of DJs (and survivors) who prefer to remain anonymous, but contributed a staggering nightclub score, Un-Disco Me, for the dance company to interpret, full of queer joy, myth, sensuality, realness, violence, and digital ghosts.

Canto XII marked the 75th work by JBC, staged in Bushwick during New York City Pride 2026, and is a carefully crafted 60-minute evening of transcendent dancing, music, visuals, technology, reflection, and commemoration of queer gathering, across cultures, embracing the power of live bodies staged with an unwavering dedication to visual choreographic craftsmanship.

Company dancers, who are also credited as collaborators in the work, include Angel Glasby, Lorenzo Guerrini, Isaiah João, Raymond Pinto (original cast, and stager), Cecilia Whalen, and Jonah Bokaer who also designed the visuals of the work, and one technology operating element, as well as a very subtle upgrade of the venue environment integrating sunset, light, seating, air cooling, and perspectival space. The collaborating dancers are also emblematic of the populations that the organization serves, and many have enjoyed a relationship with the nonprofit for over a decade.

JBC seasons in New York City are funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Prospect Hill Foundations, the Producers Circle of the Board Of Directors, a special grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and an increasing base of New York City funders that are growing awareness of the JBC repertory and programs on American soil. Major funding for Jonah Bokaer, JBC, and JBAF is provided by the president of the Ford Foundation Darren Walker and its Freedom Of Expression Program Staff which awarded a 2025-2026 discretionary award for its leadership, Board, and programming.

Run time is 1 hour without intermission. Youth friendly, but most appropriate for ages 18 and up. After Dinners for the New York City recovery of Jonah Bokaer Choreography and its dancers, do follow the evening's performance, upon reservation.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Canto XII

• Choreography, Direction, Visuals, Lighting, & Translation: Jonah Bokaer Choreography
• Music: Un-Disco Me
• Where: Chez Bushwick branch of JBAF
• 304 Boerum Street #23, Brooklyn, NY 11206
• 718-418-4405 (Ops Hours: 11:00am-4:00pm)

Tickets: Via Homepage:
Via Customized Box Office:
https://jonahbokaerartsfoundation.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SRc0000050vJZMAY
Via Landline:
718-418-4405 (Ops Hours: 11:00am-4:00pm)
718-418-4405 (Box Hours: 5:00pm-8:30pm)

Transportation: L Train to Morgan Avenue
Rear Exit, 1 Block Left

Original Mix: DJs of Pulse Nightclub (Anonymous)

PERFORMANCE ROLES

• Virgil: Lorenzo Guerrini
• Dante: Jonah Bokaer
• Chiron: Isaiah João Da'Silva Schmitt
• Pier Della Vigna: Cecilia Whalen
• Nessus: Angel Glasby
• Fire: Tara Babylon
• Contrapasso: The Company & Guests
• Flocks Of Centaurs: The Company & Guests
• Apparitions Of Minotaurs: The Company & Guests
• Drone Operator: Isaiah João Da'Silva Schmitt

† 'Chiron is noting that Dante is able to move things with his body as he walks, a result of the flesh-and-blood character of his existence. By contrast Virgil, a spirit, looms incorporeally over the infernal terrain.' — Stephen Holliday

SYNOPSIS

• Scene 1 - Lies
• Scene 2 - Un-Disco Me
• Scene 3 - Body
• Scene 4 - Night (Notte, Nacht, Nuit)
• Scene 5 - Over My Dead Body
• Scene 6 - Plagues
• Scene 7 - Secrets
• An Ark (Exeunt)

PUBLIC PERFORMANCES (NEW YORK CITY PRIDE 2026)

• Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 7:30pm-8:30pm
• Thursday, June 25th, 2026 at 7:30pm-8:30pm
• Friday, June 26th, 2026 at 7:30pm-8:30pm
• Saturday, June 27th, 2026 at 7:30pm-8:30pm
• Sunday, June 28th, 2026 at 7:30pm-8:30pm
• Pride Benefit Performance for Chez Bushwick: June 29th, 2026 at 6:00pm

RUNNING TIME

• Location: JBAF, Bushwick Branch, Chez Bushwick
• House Opens: 7:00pm
• Run Time: 7:30pm-8:30pm (60 Minutes)