New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

09/13/2026

It's your last chance to soak up the sun at NYC's public beaches this weekend before they close for the season... why not take some inspiration from our archives and dance by the water?

∙ Ruth St. Denis dances on the beach in 1915 or 1916.
∙ Jerome Robbins balances in an arabesque by the sand.
∙ Dance and life partners Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine smile in a lift at Monte Carlo.
∙Pauline Koner improvises on a beach in Russia.

📷 : Jerome Robbins at the beach, photographer unknown, c. 1936. Ruth St. Denis on the beach, photographer unknown, c. 1915-1916. Tatiana Riabouchinska at the beach at Monte Carlo, photographer unknown, c. 1932. Pauline Koner performing improvisational dance on a beach in Leningrad, Russia, photographer unknown, 1936. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

09/10/2026

Happy first day of school, NYC! Did you know the Library for the Performing Arts has education programs and opportunities? Check them out!

The Library for the Performing Arts is committed to helping teachers, educators, and professors working in K–12, college, and post-graduate schools strengthen their coursework by providing access to our archives, arranging class visits to our library, o...

09/09/2026

On 9/24, Rama Vaidyanathan joins us for our fifth annual Dr. Sunil Kothari Honorary Lecture, a hybrid lecture and demonstration on Bharatanatyam dance. Vaidyanathan represents the convergence of two rich Bharatanatyam lineages, which balances classical authenticity with artistic freedom.

Learn more about Vaidyanathan's practice and sign up for the free lecture at the Library for the Performing Arts.

Rama Vaidyanathan travels from India to present “The Balanced Breath: Dance as a Journey Towards Inner Stillness and Equanimity.”

09/08/2026

If you've seen Kip Williams’s production of "The Maids" or "The Picture of Dorian Gray," you are familiar with projected film used in live performance. But, as our theater curator, Doug Reside, notes, it's by no means the first time theater productions have used film.

As early as 1907 in "Ziegfeld’s Follies," the first iteration of the famous revue, performers swam through holes in the scenery onto which film projected ocean waves. One reviewer noted, "It was almost as good as a dip in the real thing, and it was particularly refreshing to the audience.” This was a motion picture effect invented and patented by Frank D. Thomas just for this scene of "Follies."

Read more about the innovation of film in live performance used in theater.

Curator Doug Reside examines the use of recorded moving image in live stage productions in the early 20th century.

09/07/2026

While Martha Graham created 181 dances, several of her early works not performed for decades are considered lost. In 2024, Virginie Mécène, received a fellowship at the Library for the Performing Arts to mine the Dance Division archive to reimagine, choreograph, and make new dances inspired by two of these lost works, Revolt and Immigrant.

As part of the Martha Graham centennial exhibition on view at the Library, we are rebroadcasting each of the 2024 Jerome Robbins Dance Division Dance Fellows presentations at our Graham symposium.

Sign up to watch the broadcast on Sep 9: https://on.nypl.org/4cuUWPb

09/06/2026

The name of Billy Rose, born on this day in 1899, graces our theater division. He was a legendary producer, lyricist, and performer.

Rose is pictured here auditioning swimmers for his "Aquacade," a theatrical water show created for the 1939 World's Fair that included synchronized swimming and high diving. Our collection includes blueprints for a proposed production of the show at Madison Square Garden, in addition to correspondence and production records from Rose's many shows.

📷: Billy Rose's "Aquacade" audition, photographer unknown, c. 1930.

09/05/2026

When filmmaker Liz Canner started editing videos for a pharmaceutical company seeking FDA approval for a drug to treat Female Sexual Dysfunction, that job turned into an opportunity to document the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness and desire.

On 9/10, as part of the Reserve Film and Video Collection's ongoing series "What's Happening," we screen Canner's film, "Or**sm, Inc.," followed by a discussion with the filmmaker and two of the film's contributors: Dr. Leonore Tiefer, clinical psychologist specializing in s*x and gender who has studied the medicalization of s*xuality, and Dr. Susan Bennett, internist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Join us for an evening of curated films from the Reserve Film and Video Collection and discussion with special guests.

09/04/2026

"I’m just a plain, ordinary, everyday genius..." — Gracie Allen

09/04/2026

"Ballet is very hard," Virginia Johnson said in an interview with NPR when she stepped down from her role as artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2023. "You have to knock yourself out every single day... There's certain amount of physical and mental anguish to that. But I was getting to do what I love to do. And the challenge of becoming better than I was yesterday was something that I use like candy for me."

Check out more photos of Johnson in our archive: https://on.nypl.org/4qzFvLH

📷: Virginia Johnson leaping, photo by Martha Swope, 1973.

09/02/2026

Martha Graham's performance "American Document" redefined modern dance by weaving together movement, spoken text, and American history to explore national identity and social justice.

Now, choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans, sound designer uwazi zamani, and dramaturg Ain Gordon have collaborated on a response to that landmark work, in their performance "in case of fire, speak," featuring a combined cast of Martha Graham Dance and PHILADANCO!

On Sep 18, the Library for the Performing Arts hosts a conversation moderated by ArtPhilly’s Curatorial and Deputy Director Tania Isaac, Evans, zamani, and Gordon, who will share an inside look at their collaborative process.

Join us for a conversation about in case of fire, speak - a new work in response to Graham’s American Document.