WHITE WAVE Dance proudly announces the 25th Anniversary Season of the DUMBO Dance Festival (DDF), a dynamic three-day event showcasing 35 cutting-edge dance companies from New York and around the world. The festival kicks off on Friday, June 26, with a Gala Opening Night, setting the stage for an exhilarating weekend of contemporary dance.
Committed to developing dance as an important art form, WHITE WAVE scours the globe in search of the most innovative of today’s dance makers, both emerging and established, and brings them to Manhattan for one extended weekend. For three nights and days, dance lovers will experience a veritable cornucopia of the best contemporary dance. DDF is committed to advancing the best of dance by providing on-stage and behind-the-scenes opportunities for 35 dance troupes from across America and around the globe, allowing audiences to experience, first-hand, the incomparable vitality of the New York dance scene.
“This is a festival about opportunities,” says Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of White Wave Dance. “The DUMBO Dance Festival provides a platform for over 200 performing artists to showcase their work while offering New York audiences access to an extraordinary range of excellent and visionary choreography at an affordable price.”
The 2026 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL will kick off with WHITE WAVE’s Opening Night GALA Celebration. Two remarkable individuals who have made significant contributions to WHITE WAVE DANCE and the greater dance community will be honored: Nicky Paraiso and Eunsil Kim.
Nicky Paraiso is an actor, musician, writer, and curator. He directs programming for The Club at La MaMa and curates the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival. He is a graduate of Oberlin College/Conservatory and NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. Through Grace Charity Foundation Inc., Eunsil Kim has provided generous and unwavering support that has been instrumental in sustaining and growing WHITE WAVE’s mission.
Opening remarks will be followed by five stunning contemporary dance troupes: Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Jennifer Muller/The Works and WHITE WAVE DANCE.
After the performances, the audience can enjoy an open bar, food, and music to feed the soul, as well as a fabulous raffle including gourmet wine baskets, “Dinner for Two” at local DUMBO eateries, and much more!
The 2026 DUMBO Dance Festival will take place June 26–28 at the Taylor Dance East Theater, 551 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002. The festival opens with a Gala Evening on Friday, June 26 at 6:30pm, followed by full festival performances on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28.
The 2026 DUMBO Dance Festival features 35 contemporary dance companies and more than 200 artists from across the United States and internationally, including participants from China, Hungary, Korea, and the United Kingdom. This anniversary edition brings together a diverse roster of established and emerging companies, offering a rich snapshot of new directions in 21st-century dance.
Festival tickets are priced at $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and $25 for students and seniors. GALA tickets are available at $100 and $250 (VIP), with all proceeds directly supporting WHITE WAVE’s 2026/27 season. Tickets and full performance schedule are available at whitewavedance.org. For more information, contact WHITE WAVE at wwyskdc@gmail.com or call 718-855-8822.
Share this:
