New York Live Arts To Present LIVE ARTERY 2026, Featuring 21 Events Across 11 Days

New York Live Arts will present the 2026 edition of Live Artery from January 7–17, 2026, marking the organization’s largest festival to date.

Events will take place in the Live Arts theater, studio, and lobby, with additional performances co-presented at partner venues throughout the city. The festival will support 26 lead artists across 21 events, including fully produced works, works-in-progress, and an artist salon.

Tickets begin at $20 or $30 with limited Pay-What-You-Wish opportunities, available at NewYorkLiveArts.org, by phone at 212-691-6500, or in person at 219 West 19th Street. Presenter tickets are also available.

FULL-LENGTH PRODUCTIONS

Live Artery will open with MAJOR by Ogemdi Ude (January 7–10), a dance theater project exploring the physical, historical, and sociopolitical lineage of majorette performance. Tere O’Connor will mark 40 years of choreographic work with a program pairing his new ensemble work The Lace with a reconstruction of his first dance, Construct-A-Guy (January 9–10). The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company will present the New York City premiere of Collage Revisited, a reimagining of 1988’s The History of Collage, alongside Story/ (January 10–12). Returning artist Ruth Childs will perform fantasia (January 11–12), a work developed through physical responses to classical music from her childhood. Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein will conclude the onsite productions with Friday Night Rat Catchers (January 14–17), a work previously seen in the 2024–25 Live Arts season.

OFFSITE CO-PRESENTATIONS

Co-presentations will include Ishmael Houston-Jones’ OO-GA-LA Reimagined at Danspace Project (January 8–10). At The Chocolate Factory Theater, Juliana F. May will present Optimistic Voices (January 8–10). Kimberly Bartosik | daela will perform bLUr at L’Alliance New York (January 9 and 12). Triskelion Arts will host The Closties Variety Hour by Kashia Kancey (January 11–12). Sweat Variant Studio will invite presenters to an in-process showing of adaku, part 2 by Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born (January 12).

PUBLIC STUDIO SHOWINGS

Public studio showings will run January 10–12 and include Maree ReMalia’s WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER, Abby Zbikowski’s All Purpose Room, and Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre’s Shabaab. Additional showings include new work by Raja Feather Kelly and the feath3r theory, Faye Driscoll, Ain Gordon/Pick Up Performance Co., and Brandon Kazen-Maddox.

INVITATION-ONLY SHOWINGS & ARTIST SALON

Invitation-only programs will include Joanna Kotze’s this is the beginning, this is the end and excerpts from two new evening-length works by A.I.M by Kyle Abraham. The annual artist salon will feature presentations by Kenyon Adams (K7N), Annie Dorsen, Juliana F. May, Dean Moss, and Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener.