PS21 Announces Summer Lineup Featuring Global Artists and Two Festivals

PS21 in Chatham has announced its summer 2025 season lineup, presenting a wide-ranging slate of performances across theater, dance, music, and contemporary circus. As new Artistic and Executive Director Vallejo Gantner hits the ground running, the organization says this year’s performances will continue to focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and PS21’s investment in both internationally recognized artists and regional creative communities.

“We are incredibly excited about this summer of ambitious work,” the organization says in its season announcement, noting that the upcoming schedule spans “visionary artists from around the world and right here in our backyard.”

The season opens May 30–31 with “Hatched Ensemble” by South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza. Performed by nine classically trained ballet dancers and accompanied by an opera singer and traditional African instrumentalist, the piece is an expansion of Nyamza’s 2008 solo work “Hatched,” and addresses themes of identity, motherhood, and gender roles.

“Hatched Ensemble” by South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza. Photo Courtesy of PS21.

June performances include the return of the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, featuring Kronos Quartet on June 12. Their concert includes world premieres of pieces by composers Jungyoon Wie, inti figgis-vizueta, Pascal Le Boeuf, and Peter Askim.

On June 21, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus presents “PORT(AL),” a choral-theater work developed in part during a residency at PS21. Co-created by Jad Abumrad, Paola Prestini, Jessica Grindstaff, and Ogemdi Ude, the piece explores women’s labor histories at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, reimagined through the voices of 50 young singers.

Two new festivals debut this season, beginning with GROUNDTONE July 18–20, which offers a weekend of immersive concerts and installations set across PS21’s grounds. Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelyte presents “Study of Slope,” a durational work featuring nonprofessional singers moving through nettle-lined fields. Other featured artists in GROUNDTONE include Matthew Aucoin, Miranda Cuckson, and Julia Kent.

On July 11–12, Kyle Marshall Choreography performs “Femenine,” set to Julius Eastman’s 1974 score of the same name. With six dancers and live music by the BlackBox Ensemble, the work celebrates queer Black and Brown identity through geometric formations and emotive solos.

The second festival, COMMONGROUND, August 30–31, brings contemporary circus to the fore. Compagnie Basinga presents “Soka Tira Osoa,” a participatory tightrope performance in which the audience quite literally holds the rope. Kaleider’s “Arch,” a work performed by two individuals constructing and deconstructing a freestanding arch of ice and concrete, closes out the season with a reflection on human systems and fragility.

Kaleider’s “Arch.” Photo courtesy  of PS21.

On August 7–9, the Paul Taylor Dance Company returns with four repertory works and the final major dance performance of the season is the US premiere of “Life in This House is Over” by Samantha Shay on August 15–16. Developed in collaboration with dancers from Tanztheater Wuppertal and the Grotowski Institute’s Teatr ZAR, the piece uses the structure of a wake to explore themes of loss, absurdity, and human connection.

PS21 Artistic and Executive Director Vallejo Gantner sees the season as a continuation of the organization’s mission to challenge form and context. “After a winter of a kind we needed but had almost forgotten—here comes the sun,” Gantner says. “Summer 2025 brings us on journeys of individual and artistic evolution—dancing ever-forward across classical traditions, gender, sexuality and racial identities. Collaboration between disciplines and cultures is a hallmark of PS21, and this year delivers—as artists cross-pollinate in delightful, surprising ways. Our histories, of site and social progress are interrogated.”

For the full schedule and ticketing information, visit ps21chatham.org.