The Joyce Announces 2019 CHOREOGRAPHERS & COCKTAILS Benefit

Continuing their decades-long commitment to cultivating appreciation of all varieties of dance, The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) will welcome arts patrons to its annual Choreographers & Cocktails event on Monday, October 28. Held at The Joyce Studio at Gibney Dance, the evening offers dance enthusiasts and supporters the opportunity to enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and a silent auction alongside celebrated dancers and choreographers while experiencing intimate open rehearsals. Tickets, priced at $150, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling Vernon Scott at 646-278-0442. Gibney Dance is located at 280 Broadway, with entrance at 53A Chambers Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

For more than thirty years, The Joyce Theater Foundation has embraced the entire spectrum of movement styles and traditions, bringing both time-honored dance and world premiere work to venues across New York City including its iconic Chelsea home. The Joyce's 2019 Choreographers & Cocktails brings audience members and patrons into the intimate rehearsal spaces at Gibney Dance, affording them invaluable one-on-one time with the artists they so fervently support. While enjoying drinks and light fare, patrons will be treated to open rehearsals from Joyce veteran Ronald K. Brown/Evidence; a sneak peek of Caleb Teicher's upcoming Swing 2020, a Joyce Theater Production; American Dance Platform 2020 company Urban Bush Women; and the boundary-breaking, genre-defying Christopher Williams Dance.
Throughout the evening, guests also have the opportunity to bid on incredible silent auction items, including prime tickets to some of Broadway's hottest shows, and exclusive private dinners with world renowned choreographers and dancers such as NYC Ballet principal Sara Mearns and Gallim Dance's Andrea Miller. All proceeds from the evening will benefit The Joyce Theater and its continued efforts to encourage, sustain, and educate a diverse audience for dance and the allied arts of music, design, and theater. Choreographers & Cocktails is generously sponsored by First Republic Bank.

The Joyce Theater Foundation ("The Joyce," Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for over three decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and The Joyce renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 400 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center, and to outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (K-12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce's annual season of about 48 weeks of dance now includes over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 150,000.

The Joyce Theater Foundation's Choreographers & Cocktails, an evening offering dance lovers and patrons the opportunity to mix and mingle with celebrated dancers and choreographers, observe open rehearsals, and bid on extraordinary auction items, will take place on Monday, October 28 at 6:30pm at Gibney Dance (entrance is located at 53A Chambers Street). Tickets, priced at $150, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling Vernon Scott at 646-278-0442. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.