The Shed's Free Summer Programs Celebrate New Yorkers, Emerging Artists, And Contemporary Black Dance

The Shed's free summer-long, indoor and outdoor programs will feature local and regional artists in new works of dance, music, theater, movement, and visual art throughout The Shed in July and August. As part of the summer program, The Shed is collaborating with Nike to produce and present Summer Sway's outdoor dance and DJ sets and a new multidisciplinary exhibition by Tiona Nekkia McClodden exploring contemporary Black dance.

"It's a privilege to produce this exciting slate of artists and present their work to audiences for free this summer. An important part of our mission has been to support emerging artists, especially those based in NYC, alongside established artists," said Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO of The Shed. "We look forward to welcoming new and returning audiences, both inside The Shed and to the public space on our outdoor Plaza, to experience new dance, music, theater, movement, and visual art this summer through Open Call and Summer Sway. We're also excited to work with Nike in providing a platform for showcasing contemporary Black dance through Tiona Nekkia McClodden's multidisciplinary project as she brings that archive to life through her exhibition."

Troy Anthony and The Fire Ensemble

The Revival: It Is Our Duty
June 18, The Griffin Theater
Following a sold-out Open Call performance in 2021 and as part of a new three-year collaboration with The Shed, Troy Anthony's The Fire Ensemble presents The Revival: It Is Our Duty. This one-night-only music performance brings together the choir community with a live band to offer this musical event featuring original songs written by Anthony and performed through ritual to activate individual and collective liberation in celebration of Juneteenth. This event is a culmination of a series of choir community rehearsals that have taken place over the spring as part of the ongoing collaboration.

Summer Sway: Outdoor DJ and Dance Sets

Friday and Saturday Evenings in July and August on The Shed's Open-Air Plaza
On select Friday and Saturday evenings in July and August, Summer Sway will take over The Shed's public Plaza-created when The Shed's movable shell is nested-to feature DJ sets, dance performances, and specialty cocktails by Cedric's, The Shed's on-site bar. A schedule and roster of dance groups and DJs will be announced. This series is presented in partnership with Nike.

Open Call

July 8 - August 27, Level 4 Overlook and The Griffin Theater
Launched during The Shed's inaugural year, Open Call is The Shed's commissioning program for early-career NYC-based artists. Artists and collectives selected for the program receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000, production support, and other resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. This season, The Shed presents a series of live performance works in The Griffin Theater and the interdisciplinary space, Level 4 Overlook, including:

a-? Yo-Yo Lin: channels is a multisensory performance detailing experiences of isolation and togetherness, technology and the human body. (July 8 - 9)

a-? Eleanor Kipping: In Daddy Issues, Kipping's solo performance presents the artist's dating exploits as a queer Black woman new to New York City and pursues the impossible: to reconcile her family's memories of life in Brooklyn in the '80s and her childhood memories of Maine in the '90s, all within the context of the AIDS crisis. (July 14 - 16)

a-? Niall Jones: a n u n r e a l imagines how one space can exist within another in the blurred terrain between performance and installation. (July 21 - 23)

a-? JJJJJerome Ellis: BENEDICTION is a concert imagining what Black ancestors witnessed in the landscapes of Virginia. (July 28 - 30)

a-? Benjamin Akio Kimitch: In Tiger Hands, Kimitch brings together choreography, costume, and stage design in an original production that challenges assumptions about the relationship of East Asian art forms to American contemporary dance. (August 4 - 6)

a-? z tye: The Available Bodies builds on an ongoing performance series born from artist z tye's reaction to the growing number of trans/gender-non-conforming fatalities in America. As tye began conducting interviews on the subject with friends of trans experience, they responded to questions regarding genocide, safe houses, and more. (August 11 - 13)

a-? Justin Hicks: The song performances in Outside pull together stories and musings generated on hikes throughout the city and beyond, unpacking how "nature" lives in Black bodies and minds. (August 18 - 20)

a-? Kinetic Light: Wired is an immersive contemporary aerial dance experience of sound, light, and movement that traces the fine line between "us" and "them" while exploring the gender, race, and disability stories of barbed wire. (August 25 - 27)

Tiona Nekkia McClodden

The Trace of an Implied Presence
August 3 - 28, Level 2 Gallery
Tiona Nekkia McClodden's The Trace of an Implied Presence meditates on the living history and influence of Black dance styles in the United States. The exhibition, a multichannel video installation, will feature in-depth portraits of cultural producer and programmer Mikki Shepard; scholar and tap dancer Michael J. Love; dancer and choreographer Leslie Cuyjet; the Rod Rodgers Dance Company; and a portrait of dancers Audrey & June, a couple upholding the legacy of a Black social dance based in Philadelphia, the Philly Bop. These portraits are presented alongside four minimal yet distinctive dance floors, each prepared for the specific needs of each dancer, to be activated during scheduled performances throughout the course of the show. The exhibition is inspired by the artist's research into the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 1983 landmark festival, Dance Black America. The festival, curated by Mikki Shepherd, offered a dynamic presentation of American dance that brought together legendary Black dancers, choreographers, scholars, and dance companies. McClodden combines archival footage, film portraits of key figures involved with the festival, and her own documentation of the Philly Bop, a Black social dance from her native Philadelphia, to continue her ongoing work of exploring ideas belonging to the African diaspora. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Nike.

The Shed's multidisciplinary commissioning program is conceived by Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots with the senior program team, including Andria Hickey, Chief Curator; Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer; Madani Younis, Chief Executive Producer; and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Senior Program Advisor.

All summer events are free with advance ticket reservations strongly encouraged. Tickets will be available beginning later this month on The Shed's website. Please visit theshed.org for the latest information on ticket availability and safety policies.

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