Bates Dance Festival

Name: Bates Dance Festival
Address: Pettigrew Hall, 305 College Street, Lewiston, ME, 04240, US
Telephone: +12077866381
Price range: $$$

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Bates Dance Festival

The Bates Dance Festival, a 6 week summer program offers training, commissioning and performances on

Bates Dance Festival is an international community of choreographers, dancers, educators and students learning, creating and performing together.

02/07/2026

Train with artists who are actively shaping the dance community. Philly Train + Create faculty bring real practice, real process, and real rigor into the room. Come be part of it.
Miles Yeung: Contemporary Forms
This class begins with a warm-up that includes a combination of structured movement exercises and improvisational tasks, promoting stability, mobility, and dynamism. Class will then quickly move into phrase work that challenges dancers to engage with weight, tone, texture, musicality, and form. This class is based on Miles’s experience in contemporary, modern, and post-modern companies and is designed to provide a rigorous practice where dancers can bring their own histories into the space and multiply their potentiality.

Link in bio to reserve your spot for Philly Train + Create!

01/25/2026

WHAT IS YAP? | The Youth Arts Program (YAP) brings Maine youth ages 7–17 together for an intensive, joy-filled experience in the arts—learning directly from gifted, world-class educators. This full-day (9am–4:45pm), non-residential program invites young artists to move, make, and imagine across a wide range of forms: modern, ballet, hip hop, social dance, yoga, global music traditions, theater, storytelling, poetry, writing, and visual arts.

YAP is a place to explore, express, and connect—where the arts become a powerful way to engage the world and each other.
Call to Action: Applications open on Feb 16th.

01/24/2026

SHHH… here’s a sneak peek 👀

Varvara draws inspiration from Russian Constructivism, questioning the body as machine versus the body as boundless, unruly expression. Choreographer Jenna Riegel brings this tension to life through movement rooted in history, art, and resistance.

📍 Schaeffer Theatre
🗓️ Saturday, January 24 | 7:30PM

✨ Show week is here.
🎟️ Tickets on sale now — don’t miss it.

01/05/2026

PTP Week 3 faculty drop ✨⁠
Closing out the program with artists who bring rigor, imagination, and deep lineage into the room. These faculty are teaching PTP Week 3 only, offering a powerful way to land the festival.⁠
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Meet the faculty:⁠
Jesse Factor — Graham Canon⁠
Dan Safer — Composition⁠
Lily Kind — Flying Low & Passing Through⁠
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In Graham Canon, taught by a former Martha Graham Dance Company member, participants will engage the dramatic and expressive Graham language and transform it into pop spectacle—diving into modern dance history, myth, glamour, and fabulosity.⁠
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Flying Low & Passing Through introduces David Zambrano’s floorwork technique and collective improvisation methods, inviting dancers to move with speed, efficiency, and shared awareness.⁠
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In Composition, Dan Safer guides dancers into the fertile space between dance and theater. Drawing from Toni Morrison, Fred Moten, Sylvia Wynter, and Karen Barad, participants will generate movement from text and text from movement, crafting hybrid performances through solos, duets, and group work.⁠
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Registration is open and classes are starting to fill up.⁠
Link in bio to register and join us for PTP Week 3.

12/31/2025

An outstanding year in motion.

Exceptional performances that stayed with us. Electric moments shared with our audiences. Partnerships that grew our community. And above all—incredible, unforgettable dancing.

This is BDF.
Registration for this summer’s festival is open.
Join the movement, step into the process, and become part of the BDF family.

12/29/2025

Looking ahead to 2026 ✨
From Varvara by Jenna Riegel on January 24 to a summer of training, community, and exchange at Bates Dance Festival.

Join us for Young Dancers Intensive (YDI) and the Professional Training Program (PTP) — train one, two, or three weeks, deepen your practice, and move alongside artists from around the world.

The future is already in motion. LET’S GO! ✨

12/12/2025

A year in motion! ✨
From summer performances & repertory classes with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, to vibrant Dance Church mornings,to the TURNT. performances of artist-in-residence Cynthia Oliver’s work— this season moved through inquiry, community, and bold creative risk.

Thank you to every artist, mover, and collaborator who shaped this year with us.
Here’s to the next chapter — and all that we’re becoming!

08/05/2025

✨ That’s a wrap on Bates Dance Festival 2025 ✨
From the first plié to the final bow, this season was filled with movement, magic, and unforgettable memories. We created, collaborated, and grew—on the dance floor and in our hearts. 💙💚

A special shoutout to our Youth Arts Program kids—you reminded us how powerful joy and creativity can be. 👣🎨

To every dancer, musician, faculty member, intern, staffer, and community member: thank you for making this season truly one to remember.

BDF isn’t just a festival. It’s a family. And the rhythm we’ve built here keeps playing long after the curtains close.

Address

Pettigrew Hall, 305 College Street
Lewiston, ME
04240

Opening Hours

10am - 4pm

Telephone

+12077866381

Website

http://www.batesdancefestival.org/

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