Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet Premiere Opens Works & Process Underground Uptown Dance Festival at Guggenheim New York
Company:
Works & Process
Works & Process presents the 5th Underground Uptown Dance Festival January 13-18, 2027, gathering audiences at Guggenheim New York for a dynamic celebration of ballet, dance-theater, modern, and tap, featuring artists supported from studio to stage with fully funded Works & Process creative residencies.
The premiere of Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet, opens the festival. The Works & Process production and commission based on the acclaimed short story by Annie Proulx will feature choreography by Pontus Lidberg and music by David Conte. The festival also includes works by David Dorfman Dance, Orlando Hernández & The Knee-Heart Connection, Julia Antinozzi, and John Manzari. Limón Dance Company’s The Moor’s Pavane Reimagined by internationally acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan closes the festival. Part of JanArtsNYC, the festival illuminates the creative process behind new work, bringing audiences closer to the artists, ideas, and collaborations shaping the future of the performing arts.
Also in January is The Minotaur by Luis Quintero, directed by Lisa Peterson, a Hudson Valley Shakespeare commission developed through a Works & Process residency at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and presented in collaboration with Under the Radar – Under Construction.
Tickets starting at $15. worksandprocess.org
Peter B. Lewis Theater
Guggenheim New York
New York, NY 10128
WORKS & PROCESS UNDERGROUND UPTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL
Works & Process Production
Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet - PREMIERE
Choreography by Pontus Lidberg
Music by David Conte
Based on the short story by Annie Proulx
Jan 13, 14, 15, 8 pm
When words fail, dance speaks.
Set in the American West before same-sex marriage was legal, Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet follows the tragic romance of Ennis and Jack, two shepherds, lost for words, caught between desire, fear, conflict, and intimacy…burdened with the unspoken depths of longing.
See the premiere of this one-act ballet, choreographed by Pontus Lidberg with music by David Conte and based on Annie Proulx’s iconic short story. World-class dancers bring to life the emotional restraint, rugged beauty, and tragic yearning that has made the story a cornerstone of literature and film.
All are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda.
Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet was commissioned by Works & Process and Green Box Arts. The work was developed during Works & Process residencies at Bethany Arts Community, Green Box Arts, Modern Accord Depot, and The Campus at Marlboro Music.
Music commissioning is supported by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation and The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.
Support provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy, SHS Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Maureen Footer.
David Dorfman Dance: The Front Line
Orlando Hernández & The Knee-Heart Connection: Too soon to discover planets, too late to discover islands
Jan 16, 7 pm
David Dorfman and Orlando Hernández & The Knee-Heart Connection share excerpts of new works developed, in part, through Works & Process residencies.
Ahead of its premiere at the 2027 American Dance Festival, see highlights from David Dorfman Dance’s newest work, The Front Line, a PAC NYC Democracy Cycle commission examining the state of American democracy today. Set in a middle school gymnasium turned polling site on an imagined Election Day in 2040, the work brings together movement, song, and word. David Dorfman Dance dancers portray poll workers and interact with community cast members embodying the roles of voters and campaigners. Together, cast and audience unravel the hopeful act of voting amid deep disillusionment, anger, and division. Intended for audiences of all ages, The Front Line invites dialogue and seeks to foster a more connected, informed, and engaged citizenry. A party for democracy, if you will!
Experience Orlando Hernández’s Too soon to discover planets, too late to discover islands, a tap dance-theater project combining mask work, physical theater, original music, research, and improvisation to create unique experiences of rhythm and reflection. Tap dancers and musicians invite audiences into a world of myth, history, and transformation. Inspired by Afro-Indigenous and colonial histories in Puerto Rico, the work tells the story of an island, the people who arrive there, and the ruptures and reveries that follow.
All are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda.
A 2025 recipient of a Democracy Cycle commission, a program of Perelman Performing Arts Center | PAC NYC and Civis Foundation, The Front Line is a co-commission receiving additional development support from American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Connecticut College, Yale Schwarzman Center, and a Works & Process residency at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.
Orlando Hernández & The Knee-Heart Connection have been supported with a Works & Process residency at Bridge Street Theatre. Also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.
Julia Antinozzi: Time Piece
John Manzari: The Way Up: Part One
Jan 17, 7 pm
See works in development by two Works & Process 2026 Open Call residency artists. Ballet and postmodern choreographer Julia Antinozzi and tap choreographer John Manzari present excerpts of new work.
Named one of Dance Magazine's “25 to Watch,” Julia Antinozzi investigates "the chasm between ballet and postmodern dance” (Fjord Review). Her work Time Piece responds to dances made in New York City between 2006 and 2016. The work began as a reflection on dances Antinozzi never saw in person but with which she feels in constant conversation as a choreographer whose work values form and modern and postmodern compositional structures. Through abstraction, reference, and practices of imagination, Time Piece moves beyond its initial inspiration and manifests as a new dance engaging the phenomenon and ephemerality of time. Originally premiered at Pageant in September 2026, this excerpt has been reformatted for this Works & Process presentation in the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Peter B. Lewis Theater at Guggenheim New York.
Get a first look at a new evening-length work in development by tap choreographer John Manzari, set to Pat Metheny’s masterpiece album The Way Up. Manzari stretches how people see tap dance, how it moves, how it sounds, and how it looks, in the same way Metheny shapes the perception of music and the jazz genre.
All are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda.
A Works & Process Open Call recipient, Julia Antinozzi will be supported with a Works & Process residency at PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance in spring 2027.
A Works & Process Open Call recipient, John Manzari’s new work was created, in part, in a Works & Process residency at Guild Hall of East Hampton in January 2027.
Limón Dance Company
The Moor’s Pavane Reimagined by Akram Khan (first look)
Jan 18, 7 pm
As part of its 80th anniversary celebration, the Limón Dance Company has embarked on its largest choreographic commission to date, inviting internationally recognized choreographer Akram Khan to reimagine José Limón’s choreographic masterpiece The Moor’s Pavane. Like Limón, Khan has a track record of creating generation-defining works of art by reimagining classic works through a contemporary lens. This project provides the opportunity for Khan and Limón to be in conversation with one another across decades and generations.
Culminating a Works & Process residency at The Campus at Marlboro Music, New York City audiences have a unique opportunity to witness Khan’s creative process during a special open rehearsal and panel discussion moderated by Limón Dance Company artistic director Dante Puleio and Kristen Brogdon, director of artistic and community programs at Northrop. The event takes place ahead of the work’s premiere on January 30, 2027, at Northrop at the University of Minnesota.
All are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda.
Northrop at the University of Minnesota is the lead commissioner, with additional co-commissioning and development provided by Works & Process (in partnership with The Campus at Marlboro Music and Guggenheim New York). Newly announced co-commissioning partners include: Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Music Center, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp, and the American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundation Award for New Works. Also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.
ALSO IN JANUARY AT WORKS & PROCESS AT GUGGENHEIM NEW YORK
The Minotaur by Luis Quintero
Directed by Lisa Peterson
A Hudson Valley Shakespeare commission developed in a Works & Process residency at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
Presented in collaboration with Under the Radar – Under Construction
Jan 10, 7 pm
From actor, composer, and award-winning playwright Luis Quintero (Medea: Re-Versed), see a first look at The Minotaur, a new contemporary take on the mythical story developed during a Works & Process residency at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Presented in collaboration with Under the Radar – Under Construction, see performance excerpts and hear from the creators about their artistic process.
All are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda.
Under the Radar brings bold, risk-taking artistry to New York City in a celebration of groundbreaking theater and performance with companies from around the world and from just down the street. Produced in collaboration with dozens of venues at a selection of historic and emerging theaters, the festival showcases innovative multidisciplinary artists whose work speaks powerfully to the present moment. Under the Radar’s founding director is Mark Russell; its co-creative directors are Jenn Kidwell and Janet Wong; and the exclusive festival producer is ArKtype, led by Thomas O. Kriegsmann and [Rah] Bellin. Find out more at utrfest.org.
Works & Process Lead Donors
Lead funding provided by AG Foundation, Stuart H. Coleman and Meryl Rosofsky, Adam and Abigail Flatto, Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Tino and Rajika Puri, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Denise and Andrew Saul, The Evelyn Sharp Foundation, and The SHS Foundation.
Additional support provided by Jody and John Arnhold, Jeff and Susan Campbell, Cate Caruso, Paul Cronson, Lucy and Philip Dobrin, Elizabeth Sharp Edens and Wes Edens, The Fanwood Foundation, Bart Friedman and Wendy Stein, Nina Matis, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Leon Polsky, Caroline M. Sharp, Randall Sharp, The Shubert Foundation, and Eugene and Jean Stark.
Works & Process is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
About Works & Process
The magic is in the process. We let you in on the secret.
Works & Process supports creative process from studio to stage so that performing artists can create with dignity. We produce fully funded residencies and present behind-the-scenes events that blend artist discussion and performance highlights. Our events go beyond the stage, so that audiences can spectate, participate, and continue the conversation at hosted receptions. Each year, Works & Process produces more than 25 fully funded creative residencies with over a dozen partners in seven states. These out-of-town residencies provide 24/7 studio access, on-site housing, access to health insurance enrollment, industry-leading artist fees, and a transportation stipend to facilitate uninterrupted creative process. In over 100 Works & Process residencies, supporting over 1,000 artists, incubated works have gone on to receive awards, grants, and tour nationally—and internationally, with the U.S. State Department. Beyond Guggenheim New York, Works & Process partners with organizations across New York City, including 92NY. During the fall, we curate and present free outdoor dance programs with Manhattan West.
Works and Process, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Tax ID: 13-3592291
Stay connected: @worksandprocess
