Featured Events in Enter in April 2025 (April Updated)

New York City’s Dancemobile was a groundbreaking project in African American dance, created by Carole Y. Johnson and produced by the Harlem Cultural Council. For over two decades, between 1967 and 1989, this flatbed- truck-turned-stage traversed the city’s five boroughs, bringing free performances by Black choreographers to streets, parks, and community spaces. Reaching more than 1 million New Yorkers, Dancemobile showcased the work of choreographers Eleo Pomare, Rod Rodgers, Louis Johnson, George Faison, Garth Fagan, Dianne McIntyre, and many others. In this session of The Dance Historian is In, Dr. Emily Hawk delves into Dancemobile’s history and legacy, sharing rare documents, videos, and oral histories from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. She explores Dancemobile’s significance for choreographers, dancers, and audiences alike, revealing how the program transformed the way dance could educate, entertain, and engage communities across New York City. For more than 10 years, The Dance Historian Is In at the Library for the Performing Arts has highlighted a diverse range of dancers and choreographers across history. This series began when archivist and historian David Vaughan started volunteering at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Vaughan began a monthly program showing his favorite dance films from the Division's extensive collection, through which he unearthed many treasures, and helped acquire even more. Vaughan continued the series until the end of his life. Today, we honor his memory and work by inviting dance historians from all over the world each month to carry on the tradition of highlighting dance history through the Dance Division's moving image collection. Photo Credit: The Feet, Vol 1, no. 10, May-June 1971. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. This event will take place online via Zoom as well as in person at The Library for the Performing Arts. *A streaming link will be emailed to everyone on the morning of the event for those wishing to attend virtually. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff. STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at alexteplitzky@nypl.org. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library. Information Source: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | eventbrite

Mark Broomfield’s new book,Black Queer Dance, examines one of the most visible crucibles for masculinity—the male dancer—and illuminates the contradictory and conditional acceptance of Black gay men’s contributions to American modern dance. The book questions the politics of coming out and situates a new framework of doing out for understanding marginalized black LGBTQ people in the 20th and 21st century. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in New York City, Black Queer Dance features contributions by acclaimed dancer-choreographers Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden Co-Artistic Directors of Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Ronald K. Brown, Artistic Director of Evidence, who offer an expansive vision of masculinity. Looking at imagery, video footage, live performance, and readings, this program features Broomfield in conversation with Duane Cyrus, Carlos Jones, and Aubrey Lynch, as they discuss nuanced perspectives of how Black masculinity functions in the lives of professional male dancers that expose the illusions of gender performance. Photo Credit: Elizabeth Roxas and Desmond Richardson in Donald McKayle’s Rainbow 'round My Shoulder. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc., Photography by Jack Mitchell, © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution, All rights reserved. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff. STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at alexteplitzky@nypl.org. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library. Information Source: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | eventbrite

The Silent Clowns Film Series is New York’s longest-running regularly scheduled silent film showcase. Our programming reaches the serious film buff by including rarely-screened titles and rare prints, yet it also introduces kids and new audiences to the classics of the silent screen. Screenings feature live piano accompaniment by MoMA’s Ben Model, with an introduction and Q&A by film historians Model and Steve Massa. When Charlie Chaplin became famous as “The Little Tramp,” he wasn’t content to just have his character be a figure of fun, so he turned Charlie into a comic underdog with real emotions. A big step in this development was his first feature The Kid (1921), a film made “with a smile – and, perhaps a tear,” which made a huge star of little Jackie Coogan. Our extra added attraction, The Kid Reporter (1923), stars Baby Peggy, one of the child stars that followed in Jackie Coogan’s success. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff. STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at alexteplitzky@nypl.org. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library. Information Source: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | eventbrite

The Melville Theatre Company has been entertaining us for decades and have just celebrated their 40th year. Join members of MTC to learn about the history of the theatre, their productions and awards won. Then sit back and be entertained with excepts from their upcoming production, the perennially popular, The Sound of Music. The theatre is always looking to welcome new members so whether you’re keen to act or usher, this could be the inspiration to get involved. Information Source: City of Melville | eventbrite

Deepening Student Musicianship through Diverse Repertoire Playing with songs, dances, and games from around the world, attendees will gain experience with new repertoire to engage elementary students, especially bilingual learners. By approaching this repertoire through a Kodály lens, Mari Scott and Brenda Bush will demonstrate how to incorporate this repertoire and relevant cultural context into your instructional sequence. Mari will focus on Spanish repertoire with music from Latin America and Spain. Brenda will be sharing musical gems from around the world. Get ready to play - ¡en español! Information Source: Kodály Chapter of Minnesota | eventbrite

Bharatanatyam is one of the oldest classical Indian dance forms that originated in the temples of Tamil Nadu in South India over 2,000 years ago. In a class led by Bharatanatyam experts and practitioners, Aparna, Ranee, and Ashwini Ramaswamy, founders of the Ragamala Dance Company, introduce students to Alarmél Valli’s lineage of Bharatanatyam, focusing on the percussive, poetic, and expressive vocabularies that are the underpinnings of the form. The Ramaswamys discuss the concept of lineage and how it informs their creative aesthetic. The class offers students of all levels, from beginner to advanced, the opportunity to discuss and experience how culturally-rooted art forms evolve and reinforce their relevance in the 21st century. Photo Credit: Ragamala Dance Company. Left to right: Ashwini Ramaswamy, Aparna Ramaswamy, Ranee Ramaswamy. Photo by Graham Tolbert. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff. STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at alexteplitzky@nypl.org. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library. Information Source: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | eventbrite

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division and the nonprofit dance history organization Our Steps welcome dance artists Jean Butler and Colin Dunne to revisit their iconic Irish dance production Dancing on Dangerous Ground which had its premiere 25 years ago in London’s Drury Lane and went on to a sell-out run in New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Described in the New York Times as “channeling Irish dance into genuine artistic expression,” Dancing on Dangerous Ground achieved cult status amongst Irish dancers the world over. This moderated discussion between Butler and Dunne accompanies a screening of never-before-seen footage from the archival recording of the show in 2000 at Radio City Music Hall. Photo Credit: Dancing on Dangerous Ground, courtesy of the artists, Jean Butler and Colin Dunne. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff. STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue. AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library. PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at alexteplitzky@nypl.org. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library. Information Source: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | eventbrite