Performa 15

Performa, the internationally acclaimed organization dedicated to live performance across disciplines, launches the sixth edition of its biennial and celebrates the organization’s tenth anniversary. Performa 15 will take place on November 1–22, 2015, at locations across New York City. Performa 15 brings together more than 30 artists from 12 countries around the world to participate in three weeks of exciting programming including Performa Commissions, Performa Projects, Performa Premieres, Performa Institute, Performa Hub, Pavilion Without Walls, and more—breaking down the boundaries between visual art, music, dance, poetry, film, and architecture. Performa 15 highlights Australia as a focus for Pavilion Without Walls, and launches a pioneering partnership with Lafayette Anticipation, Paris.

“The program takes the viewer across a wide spectrum of ideas, providing examples of what it means to be a visual artist working live,” says RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Curator of Performa. “Each work contains complex issues, of society, art and politics, and each artist uses the many layers of live performance to express their individual viewpoints, engaging audiences in the process.”

Opening night: Sunday, November 1
Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli in collaboration with dancer extraordinaire David Hallberg, principal of the American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet, will present Fortuna Desperata, an original performance that takes the Renaissance as a point of departure, creating choreography reflecting the origins of ballet in the 15th century. One-night-only, Fortuna Desperata will take place at New York’s landmark St. Bart’s church on Park Avenue.