DANCE AT WESTBETH
With its glorious eleventh floor dance studio, Westbeth was famously the home of the Merce Cunningham DDance Company for some four decades. Then in 2023 the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance set up its headquarters and dance school here – which means that on any day of the week, young dancers can be seen in the lobby waiting for the elevators to take them up to class. And on many evenings, guests are arriving to attend dance concerts at the studio.
In this bustling environment, we’ve always had many brilliant dancers living here; choreogrphers with their own companies. International dancers, a star ot the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a doyenne in the world of tap dance.
Since 2011, we’ve presented the the WestFest spring dance festival showcasing a wide variety of dance artists both in the Graham Studio and in a site-specific progdram for a weekend-long event.
With these bona fides, we’re proud to mount this exhibit featuring dance at Westbeth. Of course we realize it does not represent the full complement of our wonderful dance artists, some even declined to participate.
For the third exhibit of the Perfomring Arts at Westbeth, our dancers are sharing some thoughts about a memorable performance and their life in dance.
All photos by David Plakke 2025

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