The Joyce Theater is one of NYC’s leading dance theaters. It’s the home of many New York, American, and international dance companies.
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Latin Artists at The Joyce Theater 2026-2027 Season
Sergio Bernal Dance Company: Flamenco Legacy
Spanish flamenco
Tue-Sun, February 16-21, 2027 | 7:30pm, Weekend 2pm matinees
$17+
Former Ballet Nacional de España principal Sergio Bernal returns with an evening-length triple bill: Rango, a drama of honor and family set to live music; Bolero, stripped to its escalating rhythmic core; and the U.S. premiere his The Rite of Spring, fusing Stravinsky with Spanish movement and a full corps de ballet.
Bernal fuses tablao’s raw percussive footwork with classical ballet’s verticality, making the case for flamenco as concert dance rather than folkloric display.
Limón Dance Company: 80th Anniversary Season
Legacy of the Mexican-born modern dance pioneer
Tue-Sun, October 6-11, 2026 | 7:30pm, weekend 2pm matinees
$17+
The company José Limón founded marks 80 years with a program built around his 1958 work Mazurkas, performed in full for the first time since 1964 with live piano, alongside a new 2025 commission by Aszure Barton set to music by Grammy-nominated composer Ambrose Akinmusire. Limón’s Mexican heritage shaped a modern dance language built on weight, fall, and recovery that still defines how American concert dance moves today.
Latin Artists at The Joyce Theater 2025-2026 Season
Joyce Ballet Festival: Curated by Misty Copeland
African American and Latin choreographers and dancers
Tue-Sun, August 4-16, 2026 | 7:30pm with 2pm weekend matinees
$17+
Misty Copeland, the most famous ballet dancer in the US after Baryshnikov, has left ABT, but has not left ballet. She is busy developing new talent and inspiring the next generation of dancers. It’s another example of her significance in the ballet world.
There are two week-long programs.
Week 1 features Brazilian-born Ingrid Silva’s (Dance Theater of Harlem) Interactions, danced by Italian-born, Cuban-trained Elias Re (Dance Theater of Harlem) and Brazilian-born Renan Cerdeiro (Miami City Ballet).
José Limón’s Sonata for Two Cellos is performed by New York City Ballet Soloist Victor Abreu (Dominican New Yorker) with live cello accompaniment. Limón, born in Sinaloa, Mexico, became one of the most influential figures in American modern dance, and seeing his choreography set inside a ballet-forward festival is a rare chance to trace that Mexican-rooted lineage inside a completely different dance vocabulary.
Week 2 features an excerpt from Alonzo King’s Deep River, danced by LINES Ballet Guest Artist Babtunji whose name is Yoruba, though he is African American.
Alexandra Hutchinson and Derek Brockington dance excerpts from John Taras’ Firebird set in the Caribbean with Geoffrey Holder sets and costumes, the impressive highlight of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s 40th Anniversary Season. It’s hard not to think of Misty Copeland when you think of Firebird. She just owned the role. And now Hutchinson owns it.
There is New Work by emerging Afro-Caribbean choreographer Ilo Elder steeped in Afro-Diasporic dance and Black street and club dance subculture. They must be really something to be included in a ballet festival.
These are programs you really want to see.
Ailey II
Ailey II performs two programs of new work by Chalvar Monteiro, My’Kal Stromile, Renée I. McDonald, and Rena Butler; plus Ailey’s classic “Streams” at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, Manhattan; from Tuesday-Sunday, March 17-22, 2026 with a Wednesday curtain chat. From $72.
Ailey II is the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater second company. Its young dancers perform works by emerging choreographers. Many go on to the first company, and many go on to bright careers in the performing arts.
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE performs its unique Afro, Afro-Cuban, contemporary dance; at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, Manhattan; from Tuesday-Sunday, February 24 – March 1, 2026. From $67.
NOTE: Due to the snowstorm, Tuesday’s performance is cancelled.
Program A: Celebrating Wunmi is a tribute to Brown’s partnership with British-Nigerian creative Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya. Wunmi is also a Yoruba religious word describing the spiritual bond between a person and their Orisha (the aspect of God through which the divine connects with people).
Program B: A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Toni Pierce-Sands honors the renowned Ailey dancer who passed away in November 2025. This includes a Company premiere of “Where The Light Shines Through,” a reference to “The wound is the place where the Light enters you,” by the great Persian Sufi poet Rumi, “The Poet of Love.” All great artists have a great wound that propels them forward with love.
I said, What about my eyes? He said: Keep them on the road.
I said: What about my passion? He said: Keep it burning.
I said: What about my heart? He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said: Pain and sorrow. He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
Rumi is saying that love transforms and heals. Brown is saying that he loves Pierce-Sands. It’s all happening in the spiritual dimension. In traditional cultures, dance is how we pray. ¡Aché!
Joyce History
The Joyce Theater has anchored Chelsea’s dance scene since 1982, occupying the renovated Elgin Theater on Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.
Its 472-seat house puts audiences close enough to feel every footfall, and its programming regularly threads Mexican modern dance lineage and Spanish flamenco tradition into a season built around ballet, contemporary, and global forms.
The Joyce is also a producer and develops contemporary dance in Cuba. Malpaso Dance Company is an Associate Company.
Joyce Theater Tickets
175 Eighth Avenue
(at 19th St)
Chelsea, Manhattan