PS21’s 2025 summer season shimmered with invention and vitality, bringing together artists who redefined the possibilities of live performance. The season was a celebration of risk, collaboration, and creative freedom. Residencies by visionary composers, dancers, and theater-makers transformed PS21’s campus into a living laboratory where art met landscape and community. In a summer defined by boundary-crossing and bold artistry, PS21 reaffirmed its place as one of the Hudson Valley’s most adventurous cultural beacons: a place where imagination finds its fullest expression.
Groundtone Music Festival, where visionary composers and experimental musicians transformed PS21’s landscape into a resonant field of discovery.
The CommonGround Festival continued PS21’s commitment to community and collaboration, filling the grounds with site-specific performances, participatory installations, and cross-cultural encounters that invited audiences to move, listen, and connect.
SEASON REVIEW
PRESENTING AMBITIOUS PERFORMANCES…AT AN AMBITIOUS PACE
34 performances of 24 adventurous productions across artistic disciplines presented from May 30–Sept 1
10 countries represented in the artists of the season—bringing international perspectives to the Hudson Valley
6 performances featured collaborations between international and local artists, catalyzed by PS21
DEVELOPING NEW WORK
7 US/world premieres—giving PS21 audiences the first chance to see major new productions
8 artists and companies in residence, developing new work that will one day premiere at PS21
GROWING OUR AUDIENCES
7200 total attendees across the season—up 18%
28% of all audience members came to PS21 for the first time
220 average attendees per main stage performance—up 9%
PROMOTING ART & NATURE
100-acre campus open to the public every day, free of charge
7 productions presented in surprising locations around our grounds—art embedded in nature
MAKING IT FOR EVERYONE
14 free performances $19.50 average ticket price— down 24%
BUILDING COMMUNITY
25 free artist talks, workshops, and classes throughout the summer in partnership with local organizations and schools
7 offsite performances and talks in Chatham, Hudson, and beyond—meeting audiences where they are
2025 SEASON IN PHOTOS
2025 CALENDAR
May 30—31
Mamela Nyamza (South Africa)
Hatched Ensemble opens up a universe, one that dance history would never have suspected to exist, overflowing with urgency and subtle virtuosity.
June 12
Next Festival of Emerging Artists with Kronos Quartet
Celebrate Terry Riley with world premieres and revered works of his canon. Emerging artists with global masters.
June 21
Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Paola Prestini, Jad Abumrad, Jessica Grindstaff
PORT(AL), a vast tale sung of a Navy Yard, and of war, rivers, feminism, and our collective history.
June 28
Las Guaracheras (Colombia)
Powerful, original salsa from this all-women sextet from Cali.
July 11—12
Kyle Marshall Choreography, Julius Eastman, BlackBox Ensemble
Six dancers ebb between joyfully queer geometry and dense solos of honesty, creating a community driven by musicality and drama.
July 18—20
GROUNDTONE Music Festival
A new music festival of inspired collaboration that defies limits and genres, staged across PS21’s grounds. Featuring Exo-Tech, Matthew Aucoin, Miranda Cuckson, Julia Kent, and more.
July 18–19
Lina Lapelytė (Lithuania)
Study of Slope – a visionary choir of untrained singers reflecting upon absence, identity, experience, and community amongst a bed of nettles.
July 26
CATCH takes the Hudson Valley
Legends of downtown NYC. Itinerant, rough, and just about ready, Catch is our nation’s finest performance proving ground—a night of punchy, interdisciplinary short works, delivered by Hudson Valley artists.
August 2
PS21 Gala
Something for everyone. Nothing for everyone. We belong to you. Please join us to make it all possible.
August 7–9
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Four works unseen at PS21, by Paul Taylor in collaboration with (among others) Bach, Ulysses Dove, Mikel Rouse and Ellsworth Kelly.
August 15–16
Samantha Shay
Life in This House is Over. A gifted, fresh American voice collaborates with some of Europe’s finest dance and theatre talent in a riff on the grief one finds in Chekhov’s remains. Plus a special musical performance at Crellin Park Day.
August 30–31
COMMONGROUND Festival
Two works that defy and explore our assumptions of physics. Performances of fire and wire that will close out our summer.
August 30–31
Cie Basinga (France)
Soka Tira Osoa. Punky rock, bad attitude and virtuosic wire walking are not typically on the same stage, at the same time, held aloft by their audience. Please hold.
August 30–31
Kaleider (UK)
ARCH. Ice, concrete and fire do not mix. In this very moment in this combination, they might move, challenge and could yet destroy us.
September 7
Dive Barn
The evening of dance and music produced and directed by dancer & choreographer Sayer Mansfield in the PS21 Dance Barn.
September 26–27
Alex Tatarsky
Sad Boys in Harpy Land. A falling apart coming-of-age tale from playwright and self-proclaimed “experimental clown artist.”
November 8–9
Hannah Epperson, Rebecca Margolick, and Niloufar Nourbakhsh
Catenary. World premiere of interdisciplinary work developed in residency at PS21 that explores breaking boundaries between music and dance.
TWO NEW FESTIVALS
This year, we’re thrilled to introduce two new festivals: GROUNDTONE (July 18—20) and COMMONGROUND (Aug 30—31). A sonic exploration of PS21’s untamed natural landscape, GROUNDTONE is an adventurous weekend of music making spanning the PS21 grounds set over Upstate Art Weekend in July. COMMONGROUND finishes our summer with a program of new circus and bold vision. Free to all, the outdoor festival features two works of fire and wire, and of experiments in physics and materiality—cloaked in a circus guise.
YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE
Across the 2025 summer season and beyond, PS21 presents performances, workshops, and events you won’t find anywhere else at ticket prices that welcome all. In these uncertain times for the arts, the generous support of individuals like you is more important than ever. Your tax-deductible contribution is a crucial investment in the cultural fabric of our Hudson Valley community—and beyond. Thank you for your support.
