The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Dance at Princeton University presents the 2025 Princeton Dance Festival. More than 45 Princeton students in the program will perform new and repertory works by nationally and internationally recognized choreographers including an excerpt of Mark Morris’ iconic Gloria, a restaging of Kyle Abraham’s non sequitor paramour, a new contemporary ballet work by Pam Tanowitz, a new work by Christopher Ralph, a new vogue and house work by Omari Wiles, and a new contemporary work by Netta Yerushalmy. Performances are November 21 at 8:00 p.m., November 22 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and November 23 at 2:00 p.m. All performances will be at the Berlind Theatre in the McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place.
The Berlind Theatre is an accessible venue with wheelchair and companion seating. An assistive listening system is available, and headphones can be requested from ushers. The November 21 performance will be open-captioned. The November 23 show will be a relaxed performance. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu.
Three works in the festival were staged or created during fall semester courses in the Program in Dance.
Senior Lecturer in Dance Tina Fehlandt has staged an excerpt of Mark Morris’ iconic work, Gloria, set to Vivaldi’s transcendent Gloria in D. Gloria has been hailed as “a passionate journey of struggle with the woes of life reaching toward the ecstasy of finding grace” by Ballet Review and “…a swell of music and euphoria…” by the Washington Post. First created in 1981, the revised 1984 version has been presented worldwide by the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and remains a perennial favorite in the active repertory of the company. Fehlandt, a founding member of MMDG and recognized stager of Morris’ dances, was in the original cast of Gloria and performed it numerous times during her extensive career. Morris has created over 200 works for his company since its inception in 1980 and has been celebrated as one of the most prolific, influential, and musical choreographers of his generation.
Princeton students Tobias Seabold ’28 and Somiya Schirokauer ’27 in rehearsal for Netta Yerushalmy’s new contemporary work for the Princeton Dance Festival. Photo credit: Jon Sweeney
Sought-after contemporary dancer and choreographer Christopher Ralph is known for his athletic approach to movement using width and non-traditional lines to create his movement vocabulary, which he combines with architectural formations. This new work, Covet, is an abstract journey that peers into themes of extreme desire and indulgence and the guilt or shame that sometimes accompanies them. Original music composed by Georgia Dahill-Fuchel brings this atmospheric and dynamic journey to life.
Netta Yerushalmy has created a new contemporary work, the ground seems eruptive, in collaboration with an ensemble of eight student dancers in an environment of “great camaraderie and generosity.” She adds, “However, when I read/see/experience the dance we have made together, I discern an underlying flavor of the unnerving, tight air we are living inside today.” Yerushalmy is a former Princeton Arts Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow whose work has been performed throughout the U.S. and internationally.
The other three works on the program were created or staged outside of a course by guest choreographers who are 2025-26 Hearst Choreographers-in-Residence at Princeton.
Members of the cast of Pam Tanowitz’s new contemporary ballet in rehearsal for the Princeton Dance Festival. Photo credit: Jon Sweeney
Kyle Abraham, artistic director of the internationally acclaimed A.I.M dance company, has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He originally choreographed non sequitur paramour in 2015 for the graduating class of Juilliard’s Dance Division. Originally made for a cast of 23, Abraham spent the fall of 2015 collaborating with the dancers to create a series of duets, solos, and group material with the intention of showcasing and celebrating the athleticism of the individual dancers and the culmination of their time at Juilliard. The work is being restaged for the Princeton student cast by Stephanie Terasaki, a creative assistant and restager for Abraham in his newly commissioned works for The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, American Ballet Theater, and Vail Dance Festival.
Pam Tanowitz has created dances for New York City Ballet and The Royal Ballet and has been recognized with New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards and the Doris Duke Artist Award, among others. Andante for Princeton, the new contemporary ballet work she has created for the festival, gleans its basic structure through the alternately solemn and contemplative score of Beethoven’s Andante Sonata 15, Opus 28, known as his Pastoral Sonata, but is not prescribed to this music. The piece’s movement motifs are mined from traditional, social, and ritual dances, however these movement stereotypes are deconstructed until they are transformed into a new dance language.
Princeton student Phia Dennis ’28 in rehearsal for a new house and vogue work by Omari Wiles for the Princeton Dance Festival. Photo credit: Jon Sweeney
Omari Wiles has created a new vogue and house work, titled Acting Brand New. The work allows the student performers to tap into new “vogue-cabulary” and to use it to expand their self-expression. Playing with feminine gestures, the cast explores movements referencing Queer LGBTQ+ night life to empower and embrace forms of expression. Wiles’ choreography, which merges West African dance styles with vogue and ballroom, has been featured by Janet Jackson and Beyoncé, and he is choreographing for Cats: The Jellical Ball opening on Broadway in 2026.
Professional designers for the Princeton Dance Festival are Aaron Copp for lighting design, costume design by Mary Jo Mecca, and music direction by Vince di Mura, with stage management by Mary-Susan Gregson. Susan Marshall, director of Princeton’s Program in Dance, is faculty director for this year’s dance festival.
Relaxed performances ease typical theater requirements and welcome audience members to be comfortable and to move or vocalize freely, without judgment or inhibition. Audiences seeking to experience the dance festival in this environment are invited to attend the November 23 relaxed performance at 2 p.m.
Currently under Marshall’s direction, Princeton’s Program in Dance is now in its 55th year and has grown to include five full-time and nine adjunct faculty and offers 18 different courses and a curriculum that includes introductory courses, courses suited for dancers at the pre-professional level, as well as courses in dance studies and interdisciplinary contemporary practices.
Tickets for Princeton Dance Festival are $20 and $10 for students and are available online through McCarter Box Office.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the Program in Dance, the Lewis Center for the Arts, and the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events presented by the Lewis Center each year, most of them free.
