L’Alliance New York announces upcoming performances of Kimberly Bartosik’s bLUr, set for Friday, January 9, 2026 at 9PM and Monday, January 12, 2026 at 7PM at Le Skyroom, L’Alliance New York, 22 E. 60th Street, 8th Floor, NYC. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased here.

Back after its stunning, sold-out world premiere as part of the 2025 Crossing The Line Festival, co-presented at New York Live Arts, choreographer Kimberly Bartosik’s bLUr comes to L’Alliance New York as part of New York Live Arts’ Live Artery performance festival. Built in cycles of desire and fierce compassion, bLUr exists within a landscape of physical and emotional crisis. Five performers of exquisite humanity navigate urgent interventions as time warps and haunts, reminding us of our fragility, power, and need to care for and rescue one another.

Run Time: 50 minutes

bLUr is co-commissioned by L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival and by ADF/American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works. These performances of bLUrare co-presented by L’Alliance New York and Live Artery | New York Live Arts. The work is 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. General Operating Support was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation. bLUr is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and with Project Support from The Harkness Foundation for Dance. The creation of the bLUrCommunity Engagement Workshop, made possible through NDP, was also developed with support from the 92Y Harkness Dance Center and in collaboration with Recanti-Caplan teen scholars. bLUr was developed in residency at Marble House Project, the Ragdale Foundation, and as an Artist in Residency at Bates Dance Festival. bLUr is also supported through the generosity of individual donors, with major support by John Robinson.

Kimberly Bartosik (artistic director) is a choreographer, performer, educator, and writer. She is a 2024 National Dance Project Production Grant (NDP) recipient from New England Foundation for the Arts; a 2025 New York State Council on the Arts/NYSCA Support for Artists Award grantee with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and a 2025 Harkness Foundation for Dance Project Grant recipient. As a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for nine years, Bartosik received a Bessie Award for Exceptional Artistry in his work. Other recent awards include: the Doris Duke Foundation Performing Artist Recovery Fund in the New York Community Trust; 2020 Bessie Award Honoree for Outstanding Production; Sybil Shearer Fellowshipat the Ragdale Foundation; Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography; Virginia B. Toulmin Women Leaders in Dance Fellowship at Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU.

Bartosik’s work has been commissioned and presented by BAM Next Wave, New York Live Arts, L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Torn Space Theater, American Dance Festival, LUMBERYARD, American Realness, Abrons Art Center, Gibney, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, La Mama, and others. She has toured to Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic (Melbourne, Australia), Bratislava in Movement (Slovakia), Wexner Arts Center, Dance Place, American Dance Festival, The Yard, MASS MoCA/Jacob’s Pillow, FlynnSpace, Bates Dance Festival, Columbia College, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort, Festival Rencontres Chorégraphique Internationales de Seine-Saint Denis, Artdanthe Festival, Church, Mount Tremper Arts, and others.

Her work has also been supported by National Dance Project (NDP) Production & Touring Grant and Community Engagement Fund from New England Foundation for the Arts; MAP Fund; Works & Process @ the Guggenheim Virtual Commission; FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance), a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts in partnership with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French American Cultural Exchange; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, USArtists International; Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists and Emergency Grants; Jerome Foundation; Creative Arts Initiative (CAI); American Dance Abroad; and New Music USA, Live Music for Dance; and a United States Artists Fellowship nominee.

Bartosik’s Encounter projects (2022-24) – a series of intergenerational works for dancers and non-professionals created with local participants in communities around the world – have received funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts; the Nathan M. Clark Foundation; and New York State Council on the Arts. She was an inaugural participant in the 2024 International Choreographers Retreat, organized by Montréal Danse and c.a.t.a.m.o.n Dance Group.

Creative residencies include: The Ragdale Foundation; New York Live Arts, Live Feed and Studio Series; Torn Space Theater; Marble House Project; National Choreographic Center at Akron/NCCAkron; Centre Chorégraphique National-Ballet de Lorraine; LUMBERYARD Center for Film & Performing Arts; Gibney Dance Center’s DiP Residency; Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort; Governor’s Island through LMCC; Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University; University of Buffalo; LaGuardia Performing Arts Center; Jacob’s Pillow; Kaatsbaan International Dance Center; Mount Tremper Arts; and Movement Research.

She is currently an Advisor for The Ailey School/Fordham BFA Program and teaches at SUNY/Purchase Conservatory of Dance and the Merce Cunningham Trust. Her critical writing has been published widely, including articles featured in Dance Magazine. @kimberlybartosik_daela

Billing Credits

Choreography & Direction by Kimberly Bartosik

Performed by Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, Ashley Merker, Jacoby Pruitt, Donovan Reed

Design by Roderick Murray

Lighting Design Assistants: River Bartosik-Murray and Ari Barash

Original composition by Sivan Jacobovitz

Costume Design by Harriet Jung

International Liaison/Touring: Nicole Birmann Bloom

Production Manager: Emily Vizina

Touring Coordinator: Joshua Bristow

Administrative Associate: Kierra Nguyen

The dynamic Live Artery festival at New York Live Arts is one of NYC’s most attended dance-specific platforms during the annual presenter conference season, featuring resident commissioned artists and curated guests. New York Live Arts, guided by the leadership of visionary artist Bill T. Jones, collaborates with boundary pushing artists, advocates for their vision, and fortifies a creative future.

L'Alliance New York's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About L’Alliance New York

As an independent, not-for-profit organization, L’Alliance is committed to providing members and students with engaging French language classes and audacious multi-disciplinary programming that celebrates the diversity of francophone cultures and creativity around the world.

A welcoming and inclusive community for all ages and backgrounds, L’Alliance New York cultivates a space where people can meet, learn, explore the richness of heritage, and share discoveries. They strive to amplify voices and build bridges from the entire francophone world to New York and beyond.

L’Alliance New York’s history began in 1898 when the Alliance Française established a chapter here in New York City. In 1911, francophile New Yorker MacDougal Hawkes founded the Museum of French Art, French Institute, and opened a space in 1925 inside a beautiful Beaux-Arts building at 22 East 60th Street, where L’Alliance still operates. In 1971, the two institutions combined to create the French Institute Alliance Française, now known as L’Alliance New York.

As a product of this union, L’Alliance is infused with the spirit of the original French Institute. Designed to serve as a museum, library, and intellectual and social club for New York’s francophone community, the French Institute is a place where all are welcome – a place of community, culture, support, and festivity.