Library for the Performing Arts Programs

Register In advance of their performances at the Joyce Theater starting January 8, the Ramaswamy family discusses their newest work, Children of Dharma, in a conversation moderated by Shanta Thake, the Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with performance excerpts. Ragamala Dance Company is internationally-lauded for their pioneering dance work centering ancestral wisdom to contextualize the immigrant experience. Children of Dharma explores life—forever…

**This event is online only** 53rd Street Library is continuing our successful remote music series in collaboration with the Library for the Performing Arts. This disc discussion will focus onThe ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe. We are offering a monthly music club (1PM & 5PM options) via Google Hangouts/Meetup selecting and focusing on a classic album with a distinct cultural impact. To give the club an intimate feel--Like a book club for music. An LP Club!--and for us to get to know one…

**This event is online only** 53rd Street Library is continuing our successful remote music series in collaboration with the Library for the Performing Arts. This disc discussion will focus onThe ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe. We are offering a monthly music club (1PM & 5PM options) via Google Hangouts/Meetup selecting and focusing on a classic album with a distinct cultural impact. To give the club an intimate feel--Like a book club for music. An LP Club!--and for us to get to know one…

Register 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. Remembered today for his fussy persona in sound films, Edward Ev…

Register 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. Remembered today for his fussy persona in sound films, Edward Ev…

Register Fresh from their recent Pulitzer wins for Drama, playwrights Eboni Booth (2024 for Primary Trust) and Sanaz Toossi (2023 for English) join three-time Pulitzer finalist David Henry Hwang in conversation (2020 for Soft Power, 2008 for Yellow Face, and 1989 for M. Butterfly). In this in-depth conversation, the playwrights reflect on craft, the creative process, and playwriting in fraught times. Anticipating the Broadway premiere of Sanaz Toossi's English on January 23 at Roundabout Theate…

Register Play Club is like a book club, but for plays! Whether you are familiar with the art of reading plays, or looking to expand your appreciation for dramatic literature, this book club is an opportunity to read plays you have been meaning to explore or have never considered reading before. Learn about new works, discover new playwrights, and make friends! This group will read one playscript from the Library for the Performing Arts circulating collection every month, and then come together…

Register In this month’s Dance Historian Is In, Nancy Dalva explores Gus Solomons Jr.’s life in dance with photos and video from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division archive. Solomons began his training in modern dance and ballet while studying architecture at MIT. Upon graduating he moved to New York City to dance, including an early stint with Martha Graham’s company, which he left to dance for Merce Cunningham from 1965 to 1968. Cunningham left a lasting influence on Solomons’ life-long choreog…

Register Commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year with an event that highlights the creative process behind current New York's Holocaust-related theater. In partnership with the National Jewish Theater Foundation's Holocaust Theater International Initiative, we are joined by NJTF President, producer, director, and educator Arnold Mittelman who will interview theater creators. This program illuminates how artists use a variety of source material to create unique works that i…

Register Play Club is like a book club, but for plays! Whether you are familiar with the art of reading plays, or looking to expand your appreciation for dramatic literature, this book club is an opportunity to read plays you have been meaning to explore or have never considered reading before. Learn about new works, discover new playwrights, and make friends! This group will read one playscript from the Library for the Performing Arts circulating collection every month, and then come together…

Join the Jerome Robbins Dance Division for its annual symposium, where the current class of Dance Research Fellows will present their projects on Mikhail Baryshnikov and his legacy. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s annual symposium is the culmination of the Dance Research Fellowship, an annual cohort of dance scholars and artists invited to research a specific aspect of dance. This year’s class features Marina Harss, Marcelline Mandeng Nken, Maria Vinogradova, Brian Seibert, Alessandra Nicif…

Register This program, which dates back to 1972, features films in the Reserve Film and Video Collection around issues of public concern and notable topics. The monthly series aims to provide information on and stimulate conversation through the screening of new and historic works in RFVC and discussion with special guests. Photo Credit: Still from International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but regist…

Register 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. This salute to some very funny comics who have gotten lost in th…

Register Join filmmaker, producer and actor Grace Chang on a most special journey through her family legacy, most notably her father Bao Ting Chang, a legendary figure in Chinese entertainment history. Chang, who acted in The Joy Luck Club and other films, brings us on a family adventure over many decades, exploring the performance art form known as Xiang Sheng, including through the work of The Mushroom Brothers of China, who combined comedy, music, and singing with full production des. The C…

Register Classic ballets from the 19th century may be household names, but what does their original history tell us about how they were first performed and what we can learn from the past that is useful for today’s stagings? Marian Smith and Doug Fullington discuss long-forgotten aspects of some of the most well-known ballet classics with the dance writer Marina Harss. The two dance historians recently published Five Ballets from Paris and St. Petersburg, a book that provides an in-depth look a…

Register Since 2014, the Library for the Performing Arts’ summer musical theater writing program has brought together lyricists, composers, bookwriters, and performers to form new collaborations and write 20-minute musicals with advice from experts in the industry. At the end of each program, the artists present their new musical theater works to the public. Join us for this special first performance of these works! Photo Credit: Liza Minnelli, John Kander, Fred Ebb rehearsing Flora the Red Me…

Register Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition and dance network, designated by the U.S. Senate as America's National Youth Dance Competition. As the number one source of talent for the world's dance schools and companies, YAGP's mission is to support and develop world-class dancers of all economic, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds - ensuring the future of dance by traveling the world and auditioning more than 15,000 talented young dance…

Register In collaboration with the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY, the Library for the Performing Arts is pleased to offer a preview of some of the most exciting Latinx theater in New York this season. Participants from local Latinx theater companies will discuss their work and offer samples of some of the work on their stages. 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 guest…

Register Barbara A. Jones is the Founder and Executive Director of The Harlem Swing Dance Society, the premiere Harlem non profit organization with the purpose of promoting, preserving and protecting the Lindy Hop dance and various forms of Swing Dance culture in its Harlem birthplace. The mission is to see the Harlem area once again embrace their signature cultural dance and energize community youth to be future innovators of this historic art form. While the Savoy Ballroom closed in 1958, a n…

Register Robert Joffrey was a renowned and sought-after teacher who attracted students and dancers from very different backgrounds. His admirers included international ballet stars like Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, and Erik Bruhn, modern and postmodern icons such as Carmen de Lavallade and Yvonne Rainer, and young aspiring dancers —even Madonna, Patrick Swayze, Ann Reinking, and Charlize Theron. Joffrey was known for his logical, anatomically sound, eclectic approach, which differed from th…

Register What if one of the greatest stories in American classical music was hiding in plain sight? Featuring long-forgotten treasures drawn from the archives of the Library for the Performing Arts—including works by Mary Howe and Helen Crane—cellist Juliana Soltis explores the lost legacy of some of these American women composers in a special performance with pianist Ruoting Li. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minut…

Register 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. Although Sydney Chaplin’s solo work has always been over shadowe…

Register Since the 1930s, the 92nd Street Y has provided a home for modern dance—a space for experimentation, discussion, demonstration, and community interaction. Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, and Anna Sokolow were among the dance center’s founding faculty when it opened in 1935. Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Pearl Lang, and many others developed important work here. In 1960, Alvin Ailey debuted his most famous work, Revelations, in…

Register Former New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay presents a selection of live film footage of the ballerina Suzanne Farrell in George Balanchine’s choreography, showing both her versatility and her unpredictability. He is joined by Robert Greskovic, dance critic of the Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Suzanne Farrell in Jewels. Photo by Martha Swope / © The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registr…

Register Based in NYC, Twelfth Night is an ensemble of historical performance specialists led by David Belkovski and Rachell Ellen Wong, formed with the firm belief that art is best explored as a meeting place of the past, present, and future. Inspired by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, the ensemble strives to invoke a spirit of boundless revelry, celebration, and community in their programming. The two co-founders are regarded as key young representatives of early music: Rachell is the…

Register This program, which dates back to 1972, features films in the Reserve Film and Video Collection around issues of public concern and notable topics. The monthly series aims to provide information on and stimulate conversation through the screening of new and historic works in RFVC and discussion with special guests. Photo Credit: Still from International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss. SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but regis…