Over an exciting ten-year period under the leadership of Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher, EMERGE125 has remade itself as one of the most innovative movement arts companies in New York City. E125 has held a vital and continuous presence in New York City’s dance ecosystem for more than four decades, touring internationally, presenting work on prominent stages, and contributing meaningfully to the American modern dance canon. Since 2016, Rea-Fisher’s governance has redefined the organization’s identity while remaining true to its founding vision. Grounded in the vibrant artistic culture of Harlem, E125’s unique and holistic approach to artistic engagement has established the company as a significant economic driver and thought leader in the NYC arts world.
Through a set of core values that includes prioritizing artistic excellence, dancer care, community impact, reliable execution of planned programming, EMERGE125 has fully entrenched itself as a thriving, self-sustained organization that consistently produces high-caliber work. Under Rea-Fisher’s visionary leadership, they have expanded their staff, cultivated strong and lasting partnerships, and scaled their programming, all while maintaining their uncompromising commitment to their mission of artistic excellence. As E125 marks the tenth anniversary of Rea-Fisher’s stewardship, the company proudly unveils its 2025/2026 season: a vibrant tapestry of community initiatives, boundary-pushing collaborations, enriching educational outreach, and bold choreographic debuts that capture the organization’s signature ingenuity and kaleidoscopic diversity.
E125 welcomes the New Year in New York City with a pair of company showcases as part of the 2026 Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ Conference as a guest of the Dance Managers Collective. EMERGE125 will be presenting at New York City Center in Studio 5 at 2:30 pm January 9 and at Ailey Citigroup Theater that evening at 9:15 pm. Access to these showcases is free with RSVP, click here to find out more.
The company heads south in late January to take part in the 2026 Alabama Dance Festival and the Annual Conference and Festival of the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) in Atlanta, where EMERGE125 will be teaching, lecturing, and auditioning for our upcoming summer workshops.
EMERGE125 is proud to announce the location of their annual season of live performances in May of 2026 at El Museo del Barrio in Spanish Harlem. This new location has provided the company with a larger stage, more seats, and easy access for their core uptown fanbase. The precise dates and additional show information for these performances and forthcoming 2026 Gala will be announced before January.
E125’s 2026 performances will feature three important new works by Rea-Fisher. The first honors the California grizzly bear. Emblazoned on California’s state flag, this exemplar of American wilderness has been extinct in the state for nearly a century. That powerful irony inspires Rea-Fisher’s work in collaboration with the California Grizzly Alliance (CGA) and environmental awareness non-profit-organization Vildwerk, which explores the possibility of reintroducing grizzlies to their native habitat. Through original choreography, projection art, and sustainable costume design, Rea-Fisher uses the emotive power of dance to connect audiences to nature and inspire conservation action. This 30-minute piece presented with blessings from Indigenous Tribal Leaders, will feature nine diverse dancers from across the U.S. CGA serves as both creative and educational advisor, joining performances to distribute toolkits and resources promoting re-wilding and broader environmental engagement. This dance work features a live soundscape, incorporating tribal music, forest ambiance, and the guttural calls of bears to sonically represent and honor the animal’s presence.
E125’s second premiere, Migrate, addresses the intersection of natural migration and human immigration. This performance is scored with a new chamber music work by composer Jackson A. Waters, as commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony.
In 2026, EMERGE125 will also premiere a third bold and as-yet-untitled interdisciplinary work that places the creation of original music and dance in dynamic conversation. Composer Fredrick Kennedy and Music Researcher Deadra Hart, both accomplished musicians and scholars of protest music, will collaborate directly with Rea-Fisher to unite movement and sound. This 30-minute full-company piece featuring nine EMERGE125 company dancers will embody the tensions of protest in expressive physicality. Resident designers Rachel Dozier-Ezell (costume designer) and Christopher Brusberg (lighting designer) will echo the grounded and theatrical juxtapositions inherent within the work.
EMERGE125 staff and dancers plan to participate in the Juneteenth March through Central Park, co-created six years ago with Rea-Fisher. Also, this summer, in service of continuing to expand and diversify E125’s audiences, Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) continues as a noteworthy collaborator to the company. Now in our tenth year of partnership with Tiffany serving as CTH’s Resident Choreographer, these regular collaborations have become a cherished tradition for both the Harlem community and the company members of CTH and E125. These performances are free of cost, creating a welcoming environment for all.
In July, EMERGE125 will host their 3rd NYC Summer Workshop, offering Intermediate and Advanced level dancers access to one-on-one and group instruction from the company’s Teaching Artists and Directors. More information can be found here.
Alongside this formidable lineup of live events, E125 will continue its significant commitment to education at their partner schools, including Stars of Tomorrow Project, Repertory Company High School for Theater Arts, P.S. 481 (The STEAM Bridge School), and Trinity School, throughout the 2025 and 2026 calendar years.
Share this:
