ABOUT

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) is located on the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people in New York City. Live Arts acknowledges and pays respect to the Lenape people and to all Indigenous people past, present and future, here and everywhere. Led by world-renowned artist Bill T. Jones, New York Live Arts produces and presents dance, music, and theater performances in its 20,000 square-foot home, including a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square-foot studios. Live Arts offers an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people; it supports the continuing professional development of performing artists. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; it is the company’s sole producer, providing support and the environment to originate innovative and challenging new work for the Company and New York’s creative community.

PROJECT

New York Live Arts is partnering with 2021 SHIFT Awardee Emily Johnson (Yup’ik) to co-commission Being Future Being, a dance performance/process which asks audiences to consider stories with the power to sustain a world that must begin again. From desires for radically just, Indigenized futures emerges an inquiry into community processes flowing forward from performance. This process is supported by gatherings of experts: Branches of Knowledge, Scholarship, Making, Action—central partners who guide relational frameworks in this work and steward its values and impact. Being Future Being will also tour to Los Angeles and Portland, OR.