Launched a year ago, “Dance Out East” celebrates dance on the East End of Long Island, builds partnerships to support artists and their creative process, and illuminates for the public how works are created.
Each program follows a weeklong creative residency, providing insight into the creation of new choreography that will move directly into the Works & Process Dance Festivals at the Guggenheim Museum.
Duke Dang, the longtime executive director of Works & Process, told The Star last year, “Because we don’t have buildings to call our own, it makes so much sense for us to be partnering with Guild Hall’s and The Church’s residency programs, and the Watermill Center, because these three institutions have studio space, rehearsal space, and housing.”
While its local residencies have been scattered throughout the last several years, “We thought, why don’t we simultaneously have these commissioned projects at the same time on the East End? Why don’t we program a dance festival?”
The second iteration of “Dance Out East” will launch on Saturday with performances at The Church in Sag Harbor at 2 p.m. and at Guild Hall at 7 p.m. It will conclude Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Watermill Center.
During their residency at The Church, Kristine Bendul and Abdiel Jacobsen developed “The Lineage Project,” a new piece choreographed for the dancers by Ron De Jesus. Set to “Black Cream” (1974) by the Harold Wheeler Consort, the duet reimagines classic adagio patterns through a modern lens. Mr. De Jesus, who has worked with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Twyla Tharp, is known for his work in concert dance and musical theater.
Ms. Bendul and Mr. Jacobsen have worked on Broadway and Off Broadway theater productions including ballet and modern concert dance. They take a gender-neutral approach to ballroom partnering, exchanging the roles of leader and follower with each wearing heels.
Mr. Jacobsen is a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, which The Church will celebrate with its first exhibition of the new year. Ms. Bendul was the first professional Asian-American ballerina with the New Jersey Ballet Company. Together they comprise this country’s first professional gender-neutral ballroom couple.
Guild Hall will host “Ikigai,” a presentation of a work in process by Naomi Funaki that was developed during her residency there. The evening-length work reflects not only on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but also on personal experience, blending rhythm, live music, and narrative to explore “resilience, memory, and connection,” says a release. It will premiere at the Guggenheim on March 8 with Works & Process.
Ms. Funaki is a tap dance artist from Tokyo, living now in New York City and working with dance companies based there. A 2023 Princess Grace Award recipient in dance, named by Dance Magazine as one of its “25 to Watch” in 2024, and a 2025 Asian-American Jadin Wong Fellow, she has performed at New York’s City Center, Lincoln Center, the Joyce Theater, Radio City Music Hall, the Met Gala, and the Vail Dance Festival in Colorado, among others. She has worked with Music From the Sole, Ayodele Casel, and Dorrance Dance.
“Dance Out East” will conclude at the Watermill Center with “Palladium Nights,” a performance by the collective known as Sekou McMiller and Friends. Led by Mr. McMiller, it includes a group of professional dancers, musicians, composers, and club/street performers.
“Palladium Nights,” developed during the company’s residency in Water Mill, is a choreographic work that celebrates the cultural legacy and artistic impact of Manhattan’s Palladium Ballroom, a nightclub that opened in 1946 and closed 20 years later. The ballroom, on Broadway at 53rd Street, was where Afro-Latin and African-American communities helped shape what is now recognized as salsa/mambo dance. The work honors that history while engaging with its ongoing influence on contemporary dance and culture.
Based in New York and Chicago, Mr. McMiller’s fusion style has a strong Afro-Caribbean component blended with different dance techniques. He has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dance Chicago, Symphony Space, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, and the United Nations General Assembly.
The Watermill Center program is presented in memory of Robert Wilson and Michele Pesner, honoring their dedication to the advancement of culture, including dance.
The three residencies provide artist fees of $1,225 per week, 24/7 studio access, on-site housing, a transportation stipend, and health insurance enrollment access. When Works & Process events are presented in New York City, artists receive $450 per performance.
Tickets to each program are $25, $22.50 for members of the venues.
