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The BAAND Together Dance Festival Is Back For Another Season
Chanel, a longtime patron of the performing arts, helped make it possible.
Even in cultural capital like New York, you’re lucky if you get to see one dance company at a time. This week, however, fans of the performing arts will get to see five in one fell swoop.
On Tuesday, five dance companies — Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theater of Harlem — will take the stage for performances at Lincoln Center’s fourth annual BAAND Together Dance Festival. The festival is made possible by Chanel, which has supported the event since its birth in 2021, when the performing arts scene was re-emerging in New York. For the first time, the performances will be held indoors.
Chanel’s Love For Dance
The fashion house’s affinity for the arts dates back more than 100 years, when Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was first moved by a 1913 Ballet Russes performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which was choreographed by the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky. She went on to help fund that ballet’s revival in 1920 and, throughout her life, fostered longstanding relationships with artists and choreographers. She also designed costumes for ballets including Le Train Bleu and Apollon Musagète, placing an emphasis on comfort.
The late Karl Lagerfeld built on her legacy, working with choreographers and creating Elena Glurjidze’s outfit for The Dying Swan in 2009. More recently, Chanel has designed costumes for various Opéra de Paris performances.
This Year’s Festival Highlights
The BAAND Together Dance Festival will feature works from both icons like George Balanchine to newer talents like Brady Farrar, programmed collaboratively by each dance company’s artistic directors. Tickets are sold on a choose-what-you-pay basis so that anyone can attend a performance. Each afternoon, one dance company will offer a free workshop in the David Geffen Hall lobby.
“The BAAND Together Dance Festival has become a summer must-see event,” the festival’s artistic directors said in a collective statement. “This year we are thrilled to be at the Koch Theater with an exciting program highlighting the vibrancy of New York City’s dance landscape and cementing our commitment to making great dance accessible to all New Yorkers.”
