Experience acclaimed dance companies from around the world on The Z stage.
A celebration of choreography for the camera!
Year after year, Motion State Dance Film Series showcases moving and inspiring films. Its fifth installation will surely be another exhilarating evening in dance.
Motion State Dance Film Series is the only short film festival in New England devoted to showcasing the diversity of contemporary creative voices exploring the medium of choreography for the camera.
Join us for a film presentation of short experimental dances created specifically for film!
Playing Favorites is a unique cinematic event, showcasing an eclectic collection of dance films, pulled from the first four exciting seasons of the Motion State Dance Film Series.
Motion State Dance Film Series is the only short film festival in New England devoted to showcasing the diversity of contemporary creative voices exploring the medium of choreography for the camera.
Affectionately known as “the Trocks,” Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was founded in New York City in 1974, in the wake of the Stonewall riots. Irreverent and hilarious, the all-male company reimagines modern and classical works by relishing in ballet’s inherent glamour and melodrama. For those brought up in the rigid world of classical dance, the Trocks offer a fresh, joyful perspective. The troupe reclaims ownership of a discipline from which many have historically been excluded based on gender norms and strict physical standards.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo comes with its own tagline: “The World’s Foremost All-Male Comic Ballet Company.” Affectionately known as the Trocks, the company is a small but stalwart corps de ballet that has been “dragging” the classical ballet canon since the mid-1970s, when it got its start performing late-night shows in loft apartments across New York’s Off-Off Broadway circuit. Whether in Harlequinade or Swan Lake, the Trocks use gender-bending performance to place a tight lens on ballet’s inherent theatrics, employing comedy and camp to tease the technical rigor underpinning it all.
As the company commands the stage with pomp and circumstance, it also commands us as audiences — humorously, lovingly — to ponder our assumptions about gender and our collective understanding of who tells the stories we have come to accept as canonical, and how.
Festival Ballet Providence, the region’s premiere dance company, returns to New Bedford with a bold and brilliant program of moving art. Experience a curated array of contemporary and classical offerings from the beloved Rhode Island arts institution, now in their 45th Season. It’s the perfect evening of music, art, and dance…don’t miss this spectacular one-night-only event at The Z!
Enrich your mainstage experience with experts connected to performance.
Gather on The Z stage in a café setting to deepen your connection with dance and the upcoming performance by The Trocks - while enjoying a beverage at this complimentary event!
Let’s dive into the legacy of ballet's all-male company. From off-off Broadway beginnings, pioneering activism in dance, and parody of le travesti, we will celebrate their vibrant history. Come ready to laugh, engage, and witness footage of the TROCKS's fabulous journey from 1974 to receiving global recognition today, all while becoming our beloved Ballet Boys.
The speaker at this event is Laura Rodriguez, Interim Head of Dance and Lecturer in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University.
LROD is from El Paso, TX, a recognized radical choreographer, filmmaker, mask maker, and new media designer. LROD’s mission crosses the borders we carry in co-creative spaces sharing radical tenderness with each moving body. LROD creates inclusive installations, surreal dance-works, and integrates emerging technology with care. LROD’s work reflects the visual, embodied, and emotional way the border moves throughout their research. LROD’s movement research investigates contemporary lineages of Latin forms in dance, alter-egoism, and discovering communal environments of agency. LROD’s films explore Latinidad in the context of border art through the lens of surrealism, Chichanafuturism/Latinxfuturism, and inter-generational archives. Currently, LROD is the Interim Head of Dance and Lecturer in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University, Artistic Director of Harvard Dance Project, and core artist for Livable Futures.
LROD brings over thirty years of experience as a performer and movement practitioner and twenty years of choreographic, teaching, and visual arts experience. LROD received their M.F.A. in Dance and Intermedia Studies from the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, alongside a Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies Minor in Latinx Studies. LROD is a recipient of the Harvard Provostial Fund to launch the Visiting Dance Innovators Program (22-21), NALAC Leadership Fellowship (21), Migration, Mobility, and Immobility Project Graduate Grant (19), and The Graduate School’s Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship (AGGRS) Program (19). LROD received their B.F.A. from the Professional Dancers Program at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle (17). LROD has produced work for Awilda Rodriguez Lora at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Livable Futures, La Pocha Nostra, Taco Reparations Brigade, Base Experimental Arts + Space, Center for Contemporary Art (COCA), City Opera Ballet, Men in Dance, Boost Dance Festival, Converge Dance Festival. LROD has performed in works by Norah Zuniga Shaw, La Pocha Nostra, Taco Reparations Brigade, Kyle Abraham, Sidra Bell, Deborah Wolf, Pat Graney, Wade Madsen, Spareworks.Dance, and Erison Dancers.
Like a book club for dance fans!
The dancers and choreographers of Festival Ballet Providence will join us for a special salon about creative expression.
Gather on The Z stage in a café setting to deepen your connection with dance and the upcoming performance - while enjoying a beverage!
Learn some new moves in lessons led by acclaimed professional dancers.
Excursions to experience dance beyond New Bedford.
