Search

    Select Website Language

    Photos: Hollis King

    (New York, NY – March 25, 2026) Harlem Stage is proud to announce its E-Moves Festival 2026. For more than 25 years, E-Moves has convened the world’s leading choreographers, dancers, dance companies, and artists of the Global Majority in an exploration of movement and message. Founded on the belief that art is a fundamental right for ALL people, Harlem Stage exists to set untold stories free; an act of imagination, courage, and democracy. Harlem Stage’s E-Moves Festival 2026 is a dynamic, weeklong celebration of dance and movement, featuring an exciting lineup of performances, masterclasses, film screenings, artist conversations, and free student matinees.

    “E-Moves 2026 embodies the radical imagination at the heart of Harlem Stage where movement becomes a conduit for legacy, identity, and possibility,” shared Indira Etwaroo, CEO & Artistic Director of Harlem Stage. “As we celebrate over a quarter of a century of E-Moves, we uplift artists like Camille A. Brown, Calvin Royal III, and Lil’ Buck who are reshaping the future of dance, while honoring the cultural lineages that ground us.”

    FESTIVAL EVENTS

    Master Class and Conversation with Camille A. Brown | Mon, Apr 20 at 6pm

    E-Moves Festival 2026 opens with an inspiring masterclass and conversation, featuring award-winning choreographer and director Camille A. Brown, and moderated by Dr. Indira Etwaroo, CEO & Artistic Director of Harlem Stage. Sharing their creative philosophies, cultural lineages, and lived experiences, this conversation invites the audience to deepen their understanding of the power of movement as both an art form and cultural expression. 

    WaterWorks: Four World Premieres | Fri, Apr 24 at 1pm  (Student Matinee) & Sat, Apr 25 at 2pm & 7pm 

    The festival continues with a series of world premieres marking the 20th anniversary of Harlem Stage’s signature WATERWORKS Commissioning Fellowship Initiative that champions the next generation of choreographers with a landmark partnership with AILEY. Kamani Abu, Derick McKoy Jr., Naia Neal, and Kasey Orava, bold and up-and-coming choreographers will premier not-to-be-missed original works at Harlem Stage.

    Looking Back to Dance Forward Pre-Show Conversation | Sat, Apr 25 at 1pm 

    In Partnership with While We are Still Here

    A conversation with all four choreographers – Kamani Abu, Derick McKoy Jr, Naia Neal, and Kasey Orava – from the AILEY family to discuss their creative process. Moderated by Ronald K. Alexander.

    35th Anniversary Screening & Conversation of Paris Is Burning | Sun, Apr 26 at 2pm

    This Sundance prize-winning documentary is an intimate portrait of 1980s Harlem drag balls: a world of fierce competition, sustenance, and survival. Following the film, Tabytha Gonzalez, Sailey Williams, and Arturo Lyons will join a conversation hosted by the Surface Level podcast, exploring the film’s lasting impact on ballroom culture, artistic expression, identity, and community. 

    Black Men in Dance Conversation & Performances | Mon, Apr 27 at 7pm

    The festival concludes with the return of the acclaimed Black Men in Dance series, curated by distinguished dance educator and artist, Ronald K. Alexander and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer, Calvin Royal III, featuring esteemed dance artists Robert Battle, Donald Byrd, and Lil’ Buck with performances by Lil Buck, a groundbreaking artist who fuses hip hop dance and classical dance forms that challenge perceptions of “high art” and Babatunji Johnson, a dance artist, choreographer, and creative innovator who has worked with Alonzo King for over a decade. 

    GET TICKETS Ticket Prices are $15 – $35. Student Matinees are free-of-charge. Exclusive E-Moves Merchandise will be available for sale at the Harlem Stage Hub in the main lobby, while supplies last.

    FUNDERS

    Harlem Stage’s WaterWorks New Works and E-Moves Festival 2026 is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Altman Foundation, Columbia Community Service, The Diana King Memorial Fund presented by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ford Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Hearst Foundations, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, Mertz Gilmore, Metzger Price Foundation, The Mosaic Network and Fund, National Arts Relief Fund, Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Scherman Foundation, Thompson Family Foundation, and Leonard & Robert Weintraub Family Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Miranda Family Fund, West Harlem Development Corporation. 

    Harlem Stage is a proud member of the Coalition of Theatres of Color (CTC). Public Funds are provided from the Office of the Mayor of New York City with the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with the support of Commissioner Diya Vij, Council Member Yusef Salaam, New York State Council of the Arts, New York City Tourism Foundation, and Manhattan Borough President Brad Madison Hoylman-Sigal.

    Davis/Dauray Family Fund supports, in part, The Frances Davis/Harlem Stage Arts Education Program, Educating Endlessly.

    ABOUT HARLEM STAGE

    For more than 43 years, Harlem Stage has played a critical role as a preeminent global performing arts institution in New York City’s cultural arts scene and has consistently defied expectations, delivering groundbreaking artistic programming and cultural leadership despite the enduring shadows of historic disinvestment and systemic inequities in the arts, culture, and humanities fields. When Harlem Stage was founded in 1983, Harlem, long revered as a cradle of Black intellectual and artistic brilliance, was reeling from decades of systemic disinvestment, urban neglect, and cultural erasure. This historic epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance, once pulsing with art and revolution, had become a symbol of what the broader society had chosen to abandon. Yet amid that decline, Harlem Stage emerged as a radical act of vision and resistance. The Global STAGE to set untold stories free.

    BOARD AND STAFF OVERVIEW

    Harlem Stage is led by Dr. Indira Etwaroo, CEO & Artistic Director, award-winning arts and culture executive, scholar, and producer, Dr. Etwaroo brings a record of transformative leadership across the cultural sector. Previously, she served as the Inaugural Director of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple; Executive Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre, where she led the institution to receive the Presidential Medal of the Arts under 

    President Biden; and Founding Executive Producer of The Greene Space and NPR Presents, expanding public media’s connection to diverse, global audiences. ‘

    The Harlem Stage Board of Directors is composed of extraordinary leaders, artists, and changemakers from various fields. Led by Board President Courtney Lee-Mitchell, Vice President Mark Thomas, Treasurer Larry McRae, and Secretary Michael Young, the Board includes Ronald K. Alexander, Angela Glover Blackwell, Jamila Ponton Bragg, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Dr. Indira Etwaroo, Channing Martin, Tamara Tunie, Heather Wagoner, Blair Washington, Alisha Johnson Wilder, and Todd Wilder. Together, they are united by a shared mission and commitment to bringing powerful, transformative stories to the world.

    The Historic Landmark

    Harlem Stage, neighbor to The City College of New York at the corner of Convent Avenue and 135th Street, welcomes audiences from all walks of life to its home, the historic site in West Harlem that was once a part of the Croton Aqueduct system – a great engineering feat of the 19th century – which supplied much needed fresh drinking water to New York City, beginning in 1890, twenty-seven years following the Emancipation Proclamation. The Romanesque Revival style accounts for much of the building’s grandeur and monumental beauty.

    ABOUT AILEY

    Legacy in Motion

    Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience and furthers the American modern dance tradition while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal celebration of the human spirit. Recognized as a “vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World,” it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide having performed in more than 70 countries on six continents. Before his untimely death in 1989, Mr. Ailey named Judith Jamison as his successor, and for 21 years she brought the company to unprecedented success. Alicia Graf Mack, widely celebrated for her dance artistry during her years with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was appointed artistic director of AILEY as of July 1, 2025

    Alvin Ailey’s groundbreaking legacy continues to enlighten, entertain and inspire through AILEY’s dance performances, training, educational and community programs, including: Ailey II (1974), a second performing company of emerging young dancers in works by innovative choreographers; The Ailey School (1969), a world renowned educational institution offering the highest caliber of multidisciplinary dance training; Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs (1992), which cultivates and energizes youth and older adults to take, make, and see dance through pioneering outreach programs; and Ailey Extension (2005), which offers dance and fitness 

    classes to the general public, beginning with the opening of AILEY’s permanent home in New York City—The Joan Weill Center for Dance—New York’s largest building dedicated to dance. For more information, visit ailey.org. 

    ABOUT WHILE WE ARE STILL HERE 

    A community-based organization founded in 2015 and committed to the safeguarding and celebration of Harlem’s history and culture. Its mission is to educate, enshrine and preserve the extraordinary legacy of Harlem as an influential incubator vital to the intellectual, cultural, social, and political advancements of the Harlem community and the African Diaspora. For more information log onto www.harlemnyc.org 

    Previous Article
    Jada Pinkett Smith Is BACK at It… Embarrassing Will AGAIN
    Next Article
    When Domini confronts Mike about the Magnum wrapper she found by the couch!

    Related News Updates:

    Are you sure? You want to delete this comment..! Remove Cancel

    Comments (0)

      Leave a comment