Breaking Form: Celebrating Choreographer Jane Comfort

The Library for the Performing Arts hosts a special screening of Breaking Form, a feature documentary about New York City-based choreographer Jane Comfort. A maverick of New York City’s downtown dance scene, Comfort is known for her issue-oriented works that integrate text and movement since the late 1970s. Directed by Peabody Award-winner Alexandra Nikolchev, Breaking Form delves into a creatively rich yet under-examined chapter in New York City dance, charting Comfort’s transformation from a polite Southern transplant to a globally celebrated performer renowned for her bold political and irreverent social commentary. The film invites viewers to be inspired by an artist who defies expectations and challenges audiences to engage with the social injustices of the day.

Produced by Comfort and co-produced by award-winning artists Sean Donovan and Leslie Cuyjet, Breaking Form features a talented cast from over 40 years of Jane Comfort and Company, with an original score by Obie Award-winning composer Heather Christian.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Jane Comfort, the film’s director, Alexandra Nikolchev, and co-producers, Sean Donovan and Leslie Cuyjet.

Photo Credit: Jane Comfort, 1978. Photo by Renee Graubart.

SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.

STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.

Host or Publisher New York Public Library for the Performing Arts