PS21, PERFORMANCE SPACES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, a state-of-the-art venue on 100 acres of unspoiled meadows, trails, and woodlands in the heart of the Hudson Valley in New York state, has announced its 2023 SUMMER SEASON. Running from June 1 through October 21, this program features more than 40 events in their open-air Pavilion Theater, in the fields and meadows, and throughout the region. A constellation of celebrated and emerging dancers and choreographers, musicians and singers, actors, directors, and international circus and street artists will appear to breathe life into traditional genres and create new ones.

With a well-earned reputation as “a Hudson Valley outpost of the avant-garde” (The New York Times, June 2022), PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is home to a state-of-the-art, green, 350-seat theater offering resident makers and performers the tools and flexibility for successful innovation and collaboration in developing and presenting sophisticated multi-media work. Just five of PS21’s 100 acres of grounds are developed; the rest are meadows and woodlands.

Founded in 2006, PS21 is the mecca for innovative programming by leading and emerging artists in music, dance, theater, contemporary performance, and the visual and multimedia arts in the Hudson Valley. The organization supports artists’ creative endeavors, connects them to a broad, diverse audience outside the conventional urban setting, and offers the region’s year-round inhabitants the opportunity to engage with the arts regardless of economic status, age, or cultural background. Throughout the year, PS21 hosts residencies for dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, actors, and creators of unclassifiable innovative and multimedia theater pieces.

Under the artistic direction of Elena V. Siyanko,  PS21 has since its conception been a great supporter of the circus arts. This season’s programming offers multiple contemporary circus experiences for the audience, such as Runners, an invigorating work of Czech New Circus from Cirk La Putyka. A hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Guardian calls Runners “a moving exploration of time . . . through dance, music, acrobatics and dialogue.” Amoukanama Circus, Guinean acrobats, dancers, and musicians come together in another feature, FA (“To Come”), a joyous enactment of migration from Conakry to Europe and beyond in search of education and opportunity. The PATHWAYS program will also feature in partnership with Crellin Park Day.

2023 FULL SEASON AT A GLANCE

May 21

Apple bloom Members Party in the PS21 orchards, with a special performance by Nuevo Flamenco luminary Patricia Guerrero, the recipient of a Spanish Ministry of Culture National Dance Award in 2021.

May 25-June 3

The NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists, with a June 2 preview performance, including five World Premieres.

June 17

The Resistance Revival Chorus celebrates Juneteenth at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park, with a workshop and a panel discussion at Lightforms Art Center, Hudson, NY.

June 21

PATHWAYS | Make Music Day.

June 22-23

Paul Taylor Dance Company: Mercuric Tidings, A Field of Grass, & Piazzolla Caldera.

July 14

Global Music: Andalusian band La Banda Morisca (Spain).

July 16

House Blend concert I: Leo Ornstein; Claude Vivier; Lili Boulanger; Igor Stravinsky; Rebecca Saunders.

July 21-22

The North American Premiere of Runners, an invigorating work of Czech New Circus from Cirk La Putyka. A hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Guardian calls Runners “a moving exploration of time…through dance, music, acrobatics and dialogue.”

July 29

PATHWAYS DAY, which features both the Processional Arts Workshop performing Invisible Cities, a roving installation inspired by Italo Calvino’s fiction; and Save the Last Dance for Me, Italian theatermaker Alessandro Sciarroni’s inventive reincarnation of the polka chinata, a nearly lost Bolognese courtship dance from the last century.

August 4

PATHWAYS | Movement Workshop with Save the Last Dance for Me dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini. Participants dive into the polka chinata, helping to rescue an art form from the brink of extinction.

August 19

PATHWAYS | CRELLIN PARK DAY | Amoukanama Circus, Guinean acrobats, dancers, and musicians in FA, with Amoukanama artists leading workshops on Aug. 18 & 20.

August 26

House Blend concert II: Ruth Crawford Seeger; Johannes Ockeghem; Tania León; Sofia Gubaidulina; Anthony Cheung; Luciano Berio.

August 27

House Blend concert III: Gérard Grisey; Allison Loggins-Hull; Lou Harrison; Johanna Beyer; Annea Lockwood.

September 2-3

ANIMA, an immersive multidisciplinary performance installation about Earth’s climate future by visual artist/photographer Noémie Goudal, director Maëlle Poésy, circus artist Chloé Moglia, and composer Chloé Thévenin. A Festival d’Avignon 2022 highlight.

September 16

An Immigrant’s Story, Wanjiru Kamuyu (Kenya/France).

September 30

Never Twenty One, SmaÏl Kanouté & Compagnie Vivons! (France).

October 13-14

L’Etang (The Pond), Gisèle Vienne’s adaptation of Robert Walser’s bitter family drama. With Pina Bausch dancer Julie Shanahan and César winner Adèle Haenel and music by doom metal band Sunn O))) frontman Stephen O’Malley.

October 20-21

Pauline Oliveros: Intensity 20.15: Grace Chase by Claire Chase, paired with This Is Mary Brown by actor/director Winsome Brown.