The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), an expansive program offering New York Metropolis choreographers and dance corporations with artistic residencies on CUNY campuses and past, pronounces the awarded artists for its 2025–26 cycle.
From July 2025 to June 2026, CDI is underwriting residencies for 25 early-to-mid-career choreographers at 14 CUNY schools and three accomplice arts organizations in all 5 boroughs. These NYC-based artists, chosen from an open name that drew a record-breaking 293 candidates, replicate the variety of NYC’s dance subject, and likewise mirror CUNY’s pupil demographics. They work in a variety of dance kinds and types — from ballet to avenue, faucet, flamenco, and up to date and culturally particular traditions. Along with offering area and monetary help for the event of recent and present tasks, all CDI residencies embody grasp lessons, visitor lectures, or open rehearsals to attach artists with CUNY communities.
“Over the previous 11 years, the CUNY Dance Initiative has constructed a consortium of CUNY schools in direct help of native dance artists and New York Metropolis’s artistic financial system,“ says Frank H. Wu, president of Queens Faculty, the place CDI is predicated. “The initiative offers choreographers with assets equivalent to rehearsal time, area and funding, all of that are important for advancing their careers. CUNY college students in addition to communities native to the campuses profit from the grasp lessons and performances that CDI sponsors. There isn’t a different residency program of this nature within the nation. We’re proud that it’s led by Queens Faculty.”
CDI has awarded residencies to 270 choreographers because the program started in 2014, launching corporations and choreographic careers. “Our a number of CUNY residencies have been invaluable components of Kizuna Dance’s inventive progress through the years, all the time coming in at pivotal moments — from our early tour prepping days to our tenth yr anniversary efficiency in 2024,” says Inventive Director Cameron McKinney. Kizuna Dance will premiere a brand new work at John Jay Faculty’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater in spring 2026.
With Hunter Faculty rejoining this system in 2025-26, CDI now companions with greater than half of the universities within the CUNY system. “The reciprocity {of professional} artists working in Hunter Faculty dance studios will reverberate throughout our neighborhood,” says Maura Donohue, Chair of the Dance Division. “These residencies will forge a pathway into and out of our curriculum, and supply a lot wanted help to artists we all know will profit from time and area on campus.”
Partnerships past the CUNY system are integral to CDI’s collaborative ethos and dedication to increasing alternatives for artists whereas constructing audiences for dance. CDI has cast a brand new partnership with Works & Course of this yr: the collectively chosen artist (Nubian Néné) has been awarded each a CDI rehearsal residency at Queens Faculty and a week-long, out-of-town Works & Course of residency. CDI’s two-year Arts & Social Justice Residency, established in 2021 with Brooklyn Faculty and Brooklyn Arts Change (BAX), welcomes its third artist this cycle: Chrybaby Cozie and The Breakfast Membership E.A.T., led by Daniel Holloway, the Harlem-born pioneer of the Hip-Hop freestyle style referred to as Lite-Ft. In Staten Island, CDI companions with Comfortable Harbor Cultural Middle & Botanical Backyard, and in Queens, York Faculty groups up with Jamaica Middle for Arts & Studying.
The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) is happy to unveil its 2025–26 Resident Artists and Host Companions.
At Baruch Faculty, Pigeonwing Dance takes the stage at Baruch Performing Arts Middle. BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Middle hosts NVA & Friends and Elodie Dufroux. Brooklyn Faculty, in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Change, welcomes Chrybaby Cozie & The Breakfast Membership E.A.T. and Kayla Farrish. The Metropolis Faculty of New York’s Metropolis Faculty Middle for the Arts options Gerson Lanza: To Dance Is To Be Free and Jeevika Bhat. The Faculty of Staten Island, alongside Comfortable Harbor Cultural Middle, presents MBDance. Hostos Group Faculty showcases Laura Peralta and The Knee–Coronary heart Connection at Hostos Middle for the Arts and Tradition. Hunter Faculty’s Dance Division hosts Kyle Marshall Choreography and Naomi Funaki.
John Jay Faculty’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater options Ephrat Asherie Dance and Kizuna Dance. LaGuardia Group Faculty’s Performing Arts Middle welcomes Solar Kim Dance Theatre and COLE JAZZ & The NEW Jack Cole Dancers. Lehman Faculty’s Division of Dance and Theatre presents Megan Curet. Medgar Evers Faculty’s Division of Mass Communications, Inventive and Performing Arts & Speech hosts Adia Tamar Whitaker & Àṣẹ Dance Theater and Claude Cj Johnson. Queensborough Group Faculty’s Dance Program options Barr Our bodies and Johnnie Cruise Mercer. Queens Faculty, via the Kupferberg Middle for the Arts and Division of Drama, Theatre & Dance, hosts A Girl within the Home Dance Firm/Nubian Néné (in partnership with Works & Course of) and Xianix Barrera Flamenco Co. Lastly, York Faculty, in collaboration with Jamaica Middle for Arts & Studying, presents Sheer Spectacle and Elinor Kleber Diggs.
This various lineup displays CDI’s dedication to inventive innovation and neighborhood engagement. Go to www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative for extra info.
