New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

06/23/2026

Happy birthday, Bob Fosse!

This iconic choreographer, director, actor, and dancer would have been 99 today. Here he is with Liza Minnelli during a production run of "Chicago."

Check out more images of Fosse in our digital collections archive: https://on.nypl.org/4w6IbBP

📷 : Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli during production of "Chicago," photo by Martha Swope, 1975.

06/23/2026

Maria Torres recently presented material developed during her 2024 dance residency archiving stories and dances around the Latin Hustle for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division archive.

Focused on preserving the movement, history, and evolution of the Hustle, Torres' residency brought dancers both experienced and new to the Hustle scene to archive their work, create new material, and tell their stories. This evening—part performance, part gathering, and part conversation—was a beautiful culmination to the residency.

06/19/2026

🎭 Calling all musical theater lyricists, composers, and bookwriters: check out Across a Crowded Room, our free summer-long networking incubator welcome to all who work in musical theater and are looking to form new collaborations!

Sign up to participate in our first session on June 27.

Musical Theatre Writers Meetup for Across a Crowded Room 2026

06/18/2026

The last time the Knicks won the NBA championship was 1973. What was the theater world like back then? As we celebrate the Knicks' win today, let's take a look. There are a few surprising similarities to 1973 and today...

Mary Todd Lincoln was the subject of a new play, and the star went on to win a Tony Award for the incisive take on this historical figure. That's right: 2026's "Oh Mary!" has a predecessor in 1973's "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln," huge hoop skirt and all!

And a major revival of a classic musical took Broadway by storm by moving beyond the traditional proscenium space and reimagining the content of the musical... in 1973, "Candide" found a new book and a jungle gym-like stage, while in 2026, "Cats" turned a stage into a runway and Broadway into a ballroom.

Coincidence? We think not... 🧡 💙

📷 : Actress Julie Harris in a scene from "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln," photo by Martha Swope, 1973. Actors Mark Baker and Maureen Brennan in a scene from "Candide," photo by Martha Swope, 1974.

06/17/2026

Happy opening to American Ballet Theatre's "Swan Lake" at the Met Opera House!

This classical ballet includes one of the most difficult roles in classical ballet, Odette/Odile. Giving depth and character to both the trapped ingenue Odette and the seductress Odile requires talented acting—and don't forget technique: the ballet also features Odile's famous 32 fouetté sequence.

Here's a look at some of the great inhabitants of the role over the years: Alicia Markova, Maria Tallchief, Maya Plisetskaya, and Alicia Alonso.

📷 : Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 (ID: 57486864). Maria Tallchief in Swan Lake, photo by Frederick Melton, 1951 (ID: 58107700). Maya Plisetskaya as Odile, with Nikolai Fadeyechev, photographer unknown, c. 1947 (ID: psnypl_dan_1690). Alicia Alonso as Odette, photo by Maurice Seymour, 1940 (ID: 5027541). Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

06/16/2026

On this day in 1961, Rudolf Nureyev—a soloist with the USSR's Kirov Ballet, who was gaining a reputation as the greatest male ballet dancer of all time—refused to take a plane back to the USSR, asking for political asylum in France instead. His defection, the first of any Soviet artist during the Cold War, set a major precedent.

After his defection, Nureyev went on to dance with most of the major Western dance companies, gaining fame in both ballet and modern dance. Here, Nureyev is pictured in Martha Graham's "Ecuatorial."

Come check out our exhibit "Martha Graham: The Mother of Psychological Dance" in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery to learn more about this piece. And come visit our collections to learn more about Nureyev, including interviews and videos of this talented and historic dancer.

📷 : Rudolf Nureyev and Yuriko Kimura in "Ecuatorial," photo by Martha Swope, 1980.

06/15/2026

Presenting the 2026 Dance Research Fellows! This year, Fellows focus on the legacy of José Limón and the Library’s Limón archives.

The 2026 Dance Research Fellows are: Sarah Cecilia Bukowski, Kareem B. Goodwin, Tristan Koepke, R. Sumi Matsumoto, Christofer A. Rodelo, and CJ Salapare.

The fellows receive a $10,000 stipend and dedicated support from a dance librarian as they work with the Library’s archives over the next six months.

The 2026-27 Dance Research Fellowships by the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the Library for the Performing Arts.

06/15/2026

It's summer in New York, and you know what that means... The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park! Joseph Papp started the concept in 1954 in order to make theater more accessible for all by bringing high-quality, free productions of Shakespeare plays to people in the park.

The Billy Rose Theatre Division is home to the New York Shakespeare Festival records, the predecessor of Shakespeare in the Park. These comprehensive records include set designs, ground plans, posters, scripts, and correspondence. Check out more materials from our archive at the Library for the Performing Arts.

📷 : Producer Joseph Papp singing at nightclub appearance at The Ballroom, photo by Martha Swope, 1978. Billy Rose Theatre Division.

06/12/2026

The Library for the Performing Arts and the New York City AIDS Memorial collaborate to present violinist Giancarlo Latta's "A Dance of Life" on 6/22, which revives a neglected repertoire of works for violin and piano by composers who died during the AIDS crisis, including rediscovered works from the Library for the Performing Arts' collections

The program, also featuring pianist Robert Fleitz, brings together seven compositions written between 1975 and 1991 that have gone largely unperformed over the past several decades, including larger-scale works by Robert Savage and Louis Weingarden, alongside pieces by Chris DeBlasio, Michael Seyfrit, Charles Buel, Yvar Mikhashoff, and Robert Nofsinger.

RSVP through our bio link.

06/12/2026

Take a free gallery tour of our Martha Graham exhibition tomorrow 6/13! https://bit.ly/4xrqGO5

Gallery Tour for our new exhibition Martha Graham: The Mother of Psychological Dance.