For the 21st annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, Apr. 9-May 10, at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre and The Downstairs Theatre, and The Club and Community Arts Space, dance artists at all stages of their careers will experiment, collaborate, and share new work. Curated by Nicky Paraiso, the festival will include 12 productions across La MaMa’s four venues, and up to four in-person community workshops and public discussions. This year’s festival line-up features dancemakers Donald Byrd, Beth Corning with guest puppeteer Tom Lee, Vangeline, Patricia Hoffbauer, Dancers Unlimited, Sun Kim Dance Theatre, Green Cow, Iver Findlay, BamBam Frost & Ori Flomin, Pioneers Go East Collective, and ms. z tye & Mina Nishimura in a shared evening curated by La MaMa Curatorial Residents Martita Abril & Blaze Ferrer, and so March more. For more info, visit lamama.org.
Apr. 2: As part of the BAAD! Ass Women Festival, in the program titled “Decolonize The Pelvis: A Discussion,” Awilda Rodríguez-Lora, Priscilla Marrero, and Megan Curet will discuss works rooted in Caribbean traditions. For more info, visit baadbronx.org.
Apr. 10-11: The Kitchen presents Jonathan González: “Swerve Fatigue,” a new performance work unfolding at the boundaries of dance and sound. González will be joined by Ananda Naima González, India Lena González, Marguerite Hemmings, Kingsley Ibeneche, AJ Wilmore, and Wayne Arthur Paul, plus sonic practitioners Alexis De La Rosa (Delabae) and GENG PTP. For more info, visit thekitchen.org/on-view.
Apr. 10-11: In “Legends & Visionaries (2026)” at Judson Church, New York Theatre Ballet’s spring season will offer works by Antony Tudor, Merce Cunningham, plus world premieres by Julian Donahue and Kevin Iega Jeff. For more info, visit nytb.org.
Apr. 11: Danspace Project’s “Conversation Without Walls” returns with Jasmine Hearn, Victoria Lynn Awkward, Myssi Robinson, and Charmaine Warren offering a long-form, roundtable discussion centered on Black femme dance writing and archiving. For more info, visit danspaceproject.org.
Apr. 12: As part of the BAAD! Ass Women Festival collection at BAAD!, comes the student-designed recital led by Maya McGuire (Juilliard), highlighting underrepresented female creatives and inviting dialogue around womanhood, representation, and the future. For more info, visit baadbronx.org.
Apr. 14-15: Clark Center NYC and The American Dance Guild join forces to present “The Politics of Movement: When Dance Speaks Out,” at the Theater at the 14th Street Y. Eight companies and choreographers will represent generations, aesthetics, and cultural lineages: Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble, Dances We Dance, Francesca Todesco, Catherine Gallant (Dances by Isadora), Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, H.T. Chen & Dancers, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Eleo Pomare, Monét Movement Productions, Arthur Avilés Typical Theater, Ted Shawn, and Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet. For more info, visit clarkcenternyc.org.
Apr. 14-19: Choreographers Jamar Roberts, John Heginbotham, Caili Quan, and Melissa Toogood come together with violinist Johnny Gandelsman in the New York premiere of “Johnny Loves Johann” at The Joyce, pairing Johnny’s folk-inspired violin interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete Cello Suites. For more info, visit joyce.org.
Apr. 16-18: A.I.M by Kyle Abraham brings the New York premiere of “Cassette Vol. 1” to NYU Skirball. Abraham “weaves together the pop, R&B, and New Wave sounds of his youth, to craft “Cassettee Vol. 1,” which moves between camp and critique, honoring the influences that shaped him,” notes the release. For more info, visit nyuskirball.org.
Apr. 16-19: Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to New York City Center with their take on the legendary “Firebird,” the classic Russian folk tale of love, but in a Caribbean setting. It was originally created in 1982 by John Taras with sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder. The program also includes new and recent works by DTH Artistic Director Robert Garland. For more info, visit nycitycenter.org.
Apr. 17-18: 92NY’s Future Dance Festival, now in its fifth year, continues to spotlight new talent and new work. This year, as part of 92NY’s Women Move the World 2025/26, featured artists are: Madeline Maxine Roman, Laura Coe, Grace Yi-Li Tong & Stephanie Shin, Lu Wang, Jessee Leigh Robinson, Miho Ryu, Jeevika Bhat, Imani Gaudin, Rylan Joenk, Solenn Etienne, Victoria L. Awkward, Hannah French, Avery Renee, and Savea Kagan. The program will stream Apr. 16-23. For more info, visit 92ny.org.
Apr. 17-25: Symara Sarai presents “Angelic Architectures,” “a dance play that showcases the inner anarchy of Black queer femininity,” according to the release. Featured will be Kentoria Earle, Kashia Kancey, CHIMI, and Sarai. For more info, visit abronsartscenter.org.
Apr. 18-19: The Joffrey Concert Group, NYC, brings back their ICONS Dance Festival with performances by The Joffrey Concert Group, Limon2, and BH2 (Ballet Hispanico) at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. Featured will be works by José Limón, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and more. For more info, visit joffreyconcertgroupnyc.com.
Apr. 19: At CPR, “Open AiR” artist Yiseul LeMieux offers a participatory evening of performance, titled “Die Cute,” that “uses cuteness to gently disarm people and guide them through grief in a way that is both playful and deeply empathetic,” notes the release. For more info, visit cprnyc.org.
Apr. 20-27: The annual E-Moves Festival at Harlem Stage returns with a masterclass and conversation with Camille A. Brown, CEO & Artistic Director of Harlem Stage Dr. Indira Etwaroo, emerging choreographers Kamani Abu, Derick McKoy Jr., Naia Neal, and Kasey Orava, a screening of “Paris Is Burning” with a post-show conversation, and “Black Men in Dance,” a conversation with Donald Byrd, Robert Battle, and Lil Buck, alongside live performance. For more info, visit harlemstage.org/.
Apr. 21-26: Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana returns to The Joyce with the premiere of “QUINTO ELEMENTO (Fifth Element),” an evening-length work by Patricia Guerrero that explores the fifth element of the earth. For more info, visit joyce.org.
Apr. 23-25: Mufutau Yusuf returns to the Irish Arts Center with “Impasse,” a duet with
Shafiki Sseggayi, “that seeks to understand the politics and representation of the Black body in contemporary Western society,” notes the release. For more info, visit irishartscenter.org.
April 23: An “Open Door” program at CPR, Tesora Garcia and Zacarías González come together to build an evening that questions our physical and spiritual nourishment inside of extractive, colonial systems. For more info, visit cprnyc.org.
Apr. 24-25: jaamil olawale kosoko comes to Lincoln Center with “//shrouded\\,” a new work integrating dance, poetry, visual art, original music, and ceremony “to recast the body as an archive of memory and transformation,” according to the release. For more info, visit lincolncenter.org.
Apr. 23-25: At Danspace Project, Stacy Matthew Spence brings the solo “With in, Around, With out… me,” continuing Spence’s interest in navigating internal and external terrains. For more info, visit danspaceproject.org.
Apr. 23-26: Ballet Hispánico presents “MUJERES: Women in Motion” — the company’s second program dedicated to female choreographers. Included are two world premieres: “Trança (Braid)” by Brazil’s Cassi Abranches, and “Reactor Antígona (Reacting to Antigone)” by Cuba’s Marianela Boán. Also on the program is “Línea Recta” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Stephanie Martinez’s “Otra Vez, Otra Vez, Otra Vez.” For more info, visit ballethispanico.org.
Apr. 26: Each “Sundays on Broadway” performance is a unique, one-time-only event, curated by Cathy Weis with co-curators David Guzman and Zo Williams. Marguerite Hemmings, Jonathan Matthews-Guzmán, and Jodi Melnick share an afternoon. For more info, visit cathyweis.org.
Apr. 30-May 2: EMERGE125 celebrates 10 years under Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher at El Museo del Barrio. On the program are new works by Rea-Fisher and collaborators. For more info, visit emerge125.org.
Apr. 30-May 2: At Trisk, Dorchel Haqq will present “the underscore,” “an immersive physical theatre work…offering a lens into the Black fragility, Afropessimism, Afrofuturism, and more,” notes the release. For more info, visit triskelionarts.org.