Lenio Kaklea's "The Birds" Makes Its New York Premiere at PS21

Friday–Saturday, September 18–19, 7:30pm | Chatham, NY

Choreographer Lenio Kaklea's "The Birds" makes its New York premiere at PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance on September 18 and 19, co-presented by L'Alliance New York as part of the 2026 Crossing The Line Festival. Kaklea, who returns to the festival after 2024's "Αγρίμι / Fauve," continues her exploration of ecology through dance, this time drawing on the ways birds structure their behavior through dance and song—mating rituals, hunting patterns, and the deep instinct to be seen and heard, which she frames as shared across species. Bright colors, acrobatics, energetic movement and a precarious balance between freedom and subjugation.

Kaklea was born in Athens and trained at the Greek National Conservatory of Contemporary Dance there, studying classical ballet alongside American modern techniques including Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and José Limón repertories. She relocated to France in 2005 after winning the Pratsika Foundation Prize, joining the CNDC in Angers under Emmanuelle Huynh, and went on to collaborate with major figures in European dance including Boris Charmatz, Alexandra Bachzetsis, and Claudia Triozzi. In 2011 she completed Sciences Po Paris's SPEAP program, a master's in art and politics led by philosopher Bruno Latour—training that shows up directly in work grounded in feminist and postcolonial questions about how identity and subjectivity get produced.

PS21, 2980 Route 66, Chatham, NY. Tickets at ps21chatham.org.