Dance in the New Year at the second annual Dance Out East. Be the first to experience three new Works & Process dance projects on Long Island’s East End at The Church in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and The Watermill Center. See the culmination of week-long creative residencies, gain unique insight into the process and preparation of new choreographed works that will sequence into the Works & Process events at Guggenheim New York.

 

Event Tickets $25

Visit: www.danceouteast.org

 

Saturday, January 10, 2 pm

The Church in Sag Harbor with Works & Process

The Lineage Project by Kristine Bendul & Abdiel

https://www.thechurchsagharbor.org/event-calendar/dance-out-east-kristine-bendul-abdiel

 

Dance powerhouses Kristine Bendul & Abdiel are known for their work in Broadway and off-Broadway musical theatre productions, ballet and modern concert dance, and their gender-neutral approach to ballroom partnering, which equally exchanges roles of lead and follow, with both in heels! During a weeklong Works & Process residency at The Church in Sag Harbor, Ron De Jesús will choreograph a new piece for Kristine and Abdiel, blending Adagio partnering with contemporary movement. De Jesús, who had an extensive career with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Twlya Tharp, has been recognized for his work across concert dance and musical theatre. Set to “Black Cream” by The Harold Wheeler Consort (1975), this new duet reimagines classic Adagio patterns through a modern lens—honoring the form’s history while exploring new lifts, transitions, and expressive possibilities.

 

Join us for a “first look” at what they’ve created together during the residency, followed by a conversation with the artists.

 

Saturday, January 10, 7 pm

Guild Hall of East Hampton with Works & Process

Naomi Funaki: Ikigai*

Tino & Rajika Puri Creative Residency

https://www.guildhall.org/events/dance-out-east-naomi-funaki-ikagi/

 

Recognized as a 2023 Princess Grace Award recipient in dance, a 2024 Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” 92NY Artist-in-Residence and 2025 Asian American Jadin Wong Fellow, tap dance artist Naomi Funaki shares an in-process presentation of a new evening-length work, Ikigai. Reflecting on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami, Fukushima nuclear disaster, and personal experience, Funaki blends rhythm, live music, and narrative to explore resilience, memory, and connection.

 

This in-process presentation is a culmination of Funaki’s weeklong Works & Process Tino and Rajika Puri creative residency at Guild Hall. Consisting of both performance and conversation, the evening offers audiences an intimate glimpse into the work’s development and the ideas shaping its evolution prior to its March 8th premiere with Works & Process at Guggenheim New York as part of the Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival.

 

Ikigai was commissioned and created, in part, with the support of Works & Process Residency Tino & Rajika Puri Creative Residency and The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Creative Residencies Program made possible by lead funding from TD Charitable Foundation. Additional support provided through residencies at 92NY, CUNY Dance Initiative at Hunter College, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and an Asian American Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Fellowship.

 

Sunday, January 11, 2 pm

The Watermill Center with Works & Process

Sekou McMiller & Friends’ Palladium Nights

In memory of Robert Wilson and Michéle Pesner, both of whom dedicated their lives to the advancement of culture, including dance, on a global and local basis.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dance-out-east-palladium-nights-by-sekou-mcmiller-friends-tickets-1977397966548

 

The collective known as Sekou McMiller + Friends is led by the esteemed choreographer, Sekou McMiller, and comprises a talented ensemble of seasoned professional dancers, musicians, composers, and club/street performers. Palladium Nights is a new evening-length choreographic work that explores the cultural legacy and artistic impact of New York’s historic Palladium Ballroom (1940s–60s), a vibrant site of exchange where Afro-Latin and African American communities helped shape what we now recognize as Salsa/Mambo dance. More than a nightclub, the Palladium was an incubator of innovation, identity and social movement. This work honors that history while engaging its ongoing influence on contemporary dance and culture.

 

WORKS & PROCESS

A non-profit performing arts organization without walls, Works & Process champions performing artists and their creative process each step from studio to stage. Works & Process platforms artists from the world’s largest organizations and amplifies underrecognized performing arts cultures by providing rare, longitudinal, and fully-funded creative residencies, and commissioning support. In New York City, Works & Process presents at Guggenheim New York and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Each summer Works & Process curates and presents free dance programs with Manhattan West and City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage and NYC Parks. Works & Process partners with residencies in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont to provide artists with 24/7 studio availability, on-site housing, health insurance enrollment access, industry-leading fees, and transportation to support uninterrupted creative process.

 

Stay connected: @worksandprocess

worksandprocess.org

 

THE CHURCH

The Church was established in 2019 by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Housed in a deconsecrated 19th-century church, its doors were opened in April 2021. Our mission is to foster creativity and to honor the living history of Sag Harbor as a maker village. The East End represents an exceptional artistic legacy, spanning the practices of indigenous art of several centuries ago, Abstract Expressionists of the mid-20th Century, and the many celebrated writers, makers, musicians, and visual artists of the recent past and current moment. Core programming includes visual art exhibitions, concerts and events, educational programming, workshops, lectures, and an artist’s residency.

 

Stay connected: @thechurchsagharbor

thechurchsagharbor.org

 

GUILD HALL OF EAST HAMPTON

Guild Hall is the cultural heart of the East End: a museum, performing arts, and education center, founded in 1931. We invite everyone to experience the endless possibilities of the arts: to open minds to what art can be; inspire creativity and conversation; and have fun. 

 

Guild Hall presents more than 200 programs and hosts 60,000 visitors each year. The Museum holds six to eight exhibitions, ranging from the historical to the contemporary, and focuses on artists who have an affiliation with the Hamptons. The Theater produces more than 100 programs―including plays, concerts, dance, screenings, simulcasts, and literary readings―from the classics to new works. In addition to these endeavors, Guild Hall supports the next generation of artists with in-school and on-site Learning + New Works programs.

 

Stay connected: @guild_hall

guildhall.org

 

THE WATERMILL CENTER

Founded in 1992 by avant-garde visionary Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities situated on ten acres of Shinnecock ancestral territory on Long Island’s East End. With an emphasis on creativity and collaboration, Watermill offers year-round artist residencies and education programs, providing a global community with the time, space, and freedom to create and inspire. Watermill’s rural campus combines multifunctional studios with ten acres of manicured grounds and gardens, housing a carefully curated art collection, expansive research library, and archives illustrating the life and work of Artistic Director, Robert Wilson. Watermill’s facilities enable Artists-in-Residence to integrate resources from the humanities and research from the sciences into contemporary artistic practice. Through year-round public programs, Watermill demystifies the artistic process by facilitating unique insight into the creative process of a rotating roster of national and international artists.

 

Stay connected: @watermillcenter

watermillcenter.org