About the project

June 8, 2023 – March 16, 2024

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center celebrated the fundamental contributions of artists of color and artists from immigrant or Indigenous communities to the history of modern dance in the large-scale exhibition, Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955. Through an examination of war, exile, inequality, and injustice, the exhibition constructed a new narrative of 20th century modern dance performance with a fuller, more inclusive history focused on the exiled and marginalized dancers that catalyzed modern dance. Using archival material from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the curators, Drs. Ninotchka Bennahum and Bruce Robertson, examined the crucial issues of geopolitical events and structural racism at the heart of American modern dance.

By focusing on the act of crossing borders, Border Crossings celebrated a diverse range of dance artists who contributed movement language that came out of their lived experience to become what we know as modern dance. Throughout several gallery spaces, the Library featured the life and work of artists including Si-Lan Chen, Katherine Dunham, Edna Guy, Michio Ito, José Limón, Pearl Primus, Uday Shankar, Anna Sokolow, and groups like the New Dance Group and the American Negro Ballet Company.

Through photography, costumes, moving image, and archival objects pulled from the wide ranging collection of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the exhibition told a new narrative about the birth of modern dance in the U.S. The final room culminated with a series of interviews with contemporary choreographers like Kyle Abraham, Rachna Nivas, and Pam Tanowitz who reflect on exile and border crossings within their work.

Exhibition Design: Christine Rung
Graphic Design: Adam Cohen