Join Hi Artist on Wednesday, November 13 for VENUS, our second annual fully female program featuring live music and contemporary dance. Presented in partnership with Airbnb Experiences, this is Hi Artist's final public event of 2019! 

Hailed by Gothamist as one of “The Best Things To Do In NYC,” Hi Artist events combine an intimate dance performance with a lively gathering to deliver a “once in a lifetime experience” featuring “some of the most creative [dancers] in the country” (Airbnb). 

Guests enter the private loft of 61 Local—referred to by Time Out New York as “the new nerve center” of Brooklyn’s craft brew scene—through a discreet back door, transporting them to a speakeasy dance theater where everyone has a front row seat. 

Each expertly curated show features a diverse sampling of the best dance artists New York City has to offer. Hi Artist founders Elizabeth Cooke and Xenia Mansour (who are also local dancers) emcee the evening, providing additional context about the artists and sharing untold stories behind the dance pieces being shown. Intimacy reigns supreme: events end with the performers joining the audience for drinks and conversation, giving guests the unique opportunity to meet and mingle with the artists after the show. 

The November 13th program includes five short acts featuring Kelly Ashton Todd of "Sleep No More," performing her latest solo: "Riding Red." A play on the childhood folklore "Little Red Riding Hood," the work explores puberty and the events that transition us from childhood to adulthood. The evening will also include the latest duet by Belinda Adam and Talia Moreta of Brooklyn based dance-theater company Suku Dance Lab; a new work featuring dancer Gwendolyn Gussman and Sofar Sounds musician Hallie Spoor; "A General Clutter of Female Belongings," the newest duet by Juilliard graduate Matilda Sakamoto, performed by Gabriella Sibeko and Gallim Dance Company’s Haley Sung; and the latest installment of Holly Ledbetter’s one-woman dance-theater work, "Get Well Soon" (the early stages of which was presented at Hi Artist’s 2018 VENUS event).