Gibney Company Returns To The Joyce Theater With Three New Works

Gibney Company, New York City’s dynamic creation-based repertory company known for its rigorous physicality and responsive, humanistic storytelling, will return to The Joyce Theater May 6-11, 2025, with a striking program of world premieres and company debuts. The evening features bold new works by legendary choreographer Lucinda Childs, movement innovator Peter Chu, and internationally acclaimed dancemaker Roy Assaf, each offering a distinct lens on movement, form, and emotional depth. 

Lucinda Childs’ Three Dances (for prepared piano) John Cage embraces the rhythmic intensity of John Cage’s 1944-45 composition Three Dances, exploring the intricate interplay between music and movement. Childs’ signature postmodern minimalist precision and deep reverence for structured repetition take center stage in this stunning new work for eight dancers. This world premiere exemplifies Childs’ lifelong fascination with transdisciplinarity and formalism, harkening back to her Judson Dance Theater roots.

Peter Chu’s Echoes of Sole and Animal draws upon qi gong and taiji principles, inviting dancers to surrender to the intangible and let internal sensations shape their movements. Rooted in traditional Chinese practices that cultivate energy flow, balance, and breath control, these movement philosophies embrace the dynamic interplay of opposition—strength and softness, expansion and contraction, stillness and motion—reflecting the yin-yang concept of harmony. Set against a richly immersive soundscape, Chu’s work and creative process deepens the dancers’ connection to their environment, creating a dynamic space where pulse and rhythm intertwine.

Roy Assaf’s A Couple makes its company premiere, offering an intimate and evocative study of human connection. Adapted from his full-length Figure No. 16, A Couple is a poetic meditation on relationships—perhaps romantic, perhaps platonic, perhaps something beyond definition. Set to the expressive piano compositions of Johannes Brahms as performed by Glenn Gould, the duet distills the shifting complexities between two people, revealing a narrative that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant.

“This season at The Joyce embodies what Gibney Company stands for—bringing together choreographers with distinct voices, movement languages, and artistic philosophies to shape a program that challenges, inspires, and moves us,” says Gina Gibney, Founder, Artistic Director, and CEO of Gibney. “Lucinda Childs, Peter Chu, and Roy Assaf each bring a unique lens to dance, offering profoundly different yet equally compelling perspectives on how movement can communicate, resonate, and evolve."

“Gibney Company is built on the idea that dance is a conversation—between artists, disciplines, traditions, and generations,” adds Company Director, Gilbert T. Small II. “This program brings together choreographers whose work is shaped by their histories, their influences, and the questions they explore through movement. We are honored to collaborate with such extraordinary artists whose work expands the boundaries of contemporary dance."

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