DanceAction Garden Series 2026 #2
About this Event
is a performance event that brings together artists from diverse disciplines (Dance, Music, Theater, & more!) to showcase short works rooted in improvisation and spontaneous composition practices. This event will showcase short performance pieces on Friday evenings in July, August, and September at its new garden performance venue in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Artist Carmen Caceres and her husband open their home for an evening of improvisation, performing arts, and summer celebration!
The evening starts at 8 pm with live performances by Carmen Caceres and guest artists in dance, film, theater, music, and art installation, and features a Tango Lab Workshop after the performances. In addition, this event features the work dancers created over the DanceAction Summer Workshop: Collective Radical Imagination. During the Dance Improvisation Lab segment, we will explore and mix principles of Contemporary Dance with a twist of Argentine Tango, led by DanceAction Artistic Director Carmen Caceres and Argentine Tango and Contemporary Dance Teacher and Choreographer Silvana Brizuela Weigel. We will conclude this event with a dance party!
*Bring comfortable clothes, sliding soft-sole shoes, and socks
Friday, August 14*, 2026 at 8 pm
Doors open at 7:30 pm
BYOD or ACCESS THE BAR BY MAKING A DONATION!
Tickets: General Admission $25 | Student/Artist $10 | Pay what you wish Donation Option
Purchase your Tickets HERE
ONLY 25 SEATS ARE AVAILABLE!
*Dates are subject to change due to inclement weather.
**The address will be disclosed after making a reservation.
Artists Lineup
Larry Discenza & Carmen Caceres DanceAction (Music & Dance)
Juan David Castilla - Cinema Union (Film)
Taylor Gordon (Dance)
Mike Sause (Theater)
Ruben Gonzalez (Music)
Canzonieri Dance Collective
Jodey Yang (Dance - Visual Arts)
Aubrey Mailloux (Dance)
DA Summer Workshop Collective Radical Imagination (Dance)
Silvana Brizuela Weigel (Tango Lab)
About the Artists
Larry Discenza has been working in the health and fitness industry for 20 years. Larry has collaborated with Carmen Caceres and DanceAction on multiple projects, including “One More Light,” presented at the DanceAction Garden Series in 2025. Larry performed with DA in "Game Night" in Brooklyn, NY, and Mexico City during Mexico's first-ever International Contemporary Dance Festival (FIDCDMX). Larry thoroughly enjoys working in the performing arts. He is the founder of Inspired Training, a private and group training business in Manhattan. Inspired Training has been a crucial sponsor of DanceAction over the last few years and is beginning to integrate dance movement and training principles into the core of its business. Larry recently opened "Phit Well" in partnership with physical therapist Kim Caspare, an Orthopedic Wellness Center integrating physical therapy, Athletic Training, and Personal Training. https://phitwell.com/
Carmen Caceres is a dance artist originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her works have been presented in renowned venues in New York and abroad. DanceAction, her company, serves as a creative platform to produce performing arts works in collaboration with musicians, dramaturges, and visual artists. She worked with artists such as Lisa Parra, Sarah Berges, and Elia Mrak as a performer and collaborator. Carmen received an MA in Dance Education at Hunter College, a BA in Dance and Education at SUNY Empire, and deepened her studies in dance at the former Merce Cunningham Studio. In her native city, she graduated from the National School of Dance and studied Dance Composition at UNA. Carmen also works as a dance educator and consultant in different organizations in New York City. https://www.carmencaceres.com/carmen-caceres
“Larry & Carmen will be performing 3 songs celebrating their journey together”
Juan Castilla is a Colombian filmmaker, director, and creative producer based in New York City. He creates commercial campaigns and branded films for brands, agencies, and corporations. His work includes the award-winning film Overexposed, El Amanecer, and the Amazon documentary Viaje a la Semilla. His work explores the intersection of mental health, psychotherapy, mysticism, spirituality, and the human experience across urban and remote communities.
Juan will be presenting three short films. "CIN CIN" is a 1920s jazz-inspired dance performance conceived and choreographed by Taylor Gordon. Official music video of "Double, Double Toil and Trouble" from Lucía Caruso and Pedro H. da Silva's album Echoes of Nature: Live from Shakespeare's Church. “Memoria” was created in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the last genocidal military coup in Argentina. To understand the present and to build our future, we must know our past. Memory guides us toward the people we aspire to be.
Taylor Gordon is an international dancer, creator, and educator based in NYC for 20+ years. Performance credits include: Metropolitan Opera Ballet (Lincoln Center), Radio City Christmas Spectacular (4 seasons), Angelina Ballerina (off-Broadway/US tour), Kennedy Center, & Carnegie Hall, NY City Center Encores! Pre-pro, Exit12 Dance Company, Black Iris Project, Dublin Worldwide Productions, TUI Cruises. Choreography credits include: Princeton University, STEPS Beyond Foundation, Peru Bienal, Spark Theater Festival, CounterPointe, Dixon Place, “Juliette’s Miracle” film, Jazz Choreography Enterprises, Queens Outdoor Dance Festival, DanceAction Garden Series, Nacre Dance Group. Teaching: NY Film Academy, United Nations Ballet Club, BDC, India, Japan, China, Indonesia, Peridance, Gibney Dance. Featured in NYTimes, CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX5, The Times of India, Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher Magazine, United Airlines Magazine. She has danced across 51 countries and counting, most recently at Moulin Belle Residency, France. www.taylorjgordon.com
“MERE EXPERIMENT is a new contemporary ballet duet I recently began developing while in residency at Moulin Belle in France. The piece explores motherhood through the eyes of dancers and the complexities of choosing to become a mother vs not, what it does to women's bodies and minds, and further women's issues.”
Mike Sause is an NYC actor from Cincinnati, Ohio. He started performing in NYC in 2012, doing sketch comedy and improv for a few years, before focusing on theater. He has performed in the long-running Off-Broadway show, Drunk Shakespeare (900 shows), and recently made his return to musical theater in The Prom. He has written a short play that will be performed this fall in the WordOut Short Play Festival at Caveat and The Rat. Love to Sriya and Mishti. @themikesause mikesause.com
“A monologue and audience participation examination of Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, which speaks about self-criticism and comparing one's accomplishments or failings with the successes of others.”
Rubén González performs his idiosyncratic world-beat compositions, inviting audiences to listen, to move, to sing along, to think. The stories around the songs bring listeners into a world made by hand, one song at a time. Notorious trailblazer composer Phillip Glass invited Rubén to perform in his 75th birthday celebration at the Tune-In Music Festival due to his “musical ingenuity” and as “an example of new directions in music.” https://rubengonzalezmusic.com/
Ruben Gonzalez will present his new song Keep Focus Mamdani, inspired by the new era in politics in New York City, among other compositions of his. Performing with him will be Nikki Nesbary.
Canzonieri Dance Collective, founded by MJ Canzonieri, first debuted at the Spark Theatre Festival in NYC in the fall of 2024 with MJ's solo work 'Vexation'; from there, Canzonieri Dance Collective has performed across more venues in NYC, such as Dixon Place and Chain Theater. They have also performed at The Roxey Ballet River Dance Festival 2025, our own Canzonieri Dance Collective hosted their first-ever Choreography Showcase in November 2025 at Rutgers University, Art House FOCUS college spotlight showcase, and Creative Performances Fast Forwards Series at Dixon Place Theater.
“Vexation is a work of intense build-up of frustration as a young artist is trying to navigate the world of putting their work out there and the rejection and fear that comes with it.”
Jodey Yang is a choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker based in New York City. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and her BFA from the Beijing Dance Academy. Her practice explores movement, installation, and multimedia, focusing on embodiment in relation to the camera, site-specific and environmental performance, and shifting constructions of identity across cultural contexts. She works across stage, screen, and non-traditional environments, treating the body as both archive and site of perception. She has collaborated with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Heidi Duckler Dance, Yaya Dance Academy, and the San Musae Cultural Center. Her work has been recognized at the Oniros Film Awards, Festigious International Film Festival, Experimental Film & Music Video Festival, Indie Short Festival, Vesuvius International Film Festival, and the 92Y Mobile Dance Film Festival. jodeyyang.com
“Re:form is a live performance exploring metamorphosis as a process of ecological and bodily regeneration. Inspired by the cicada shedding its shell, the work reflects on cycles of transformation, vulnerability, and renewal within natural systems. The piece combines choreography, installation, sound, and embodied material interaction to create a responsive performance environment.”
Aubrey Mailloux (she/they) is a movement artist born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Mailloux is a recent graduate from the Purchase Conservatory of Dance, where they received a BFA in Dance and a BA in Arts Management summa cum laude and the Abbott Kaplan Award for interdisciplinarity. Mailloux is a maker interested in physicalized and verbalized language as a way to explore our place in circumstances of mundane absurdities. Their first concert-length work, 'sketches of an hourglass—what remains of the day,' was presented in the Wyoming Fringe Festival in August 2024.
“Rise and Grind (working title) is a self-ethnographic improvisatory work for two performers. The work is inspired by the tension between growing wealth inequality in America and the myth of “hustle culture” of the 21st century.”
Silvana Brizuela-Weigel is a dance instructor, choreographer, and performer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied at the Escuela Nacional de Danzas, the Teatro Colón, and the Teatro Municipal General San Martín in her native city. She also studied Argentine Tango with Mingo & Esther Pugliese, Eduardo Sotelo & Ivonne Laens, and Gabriel Missé, among others. Silvana also practices Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, and the ancient Chinese art of Nei-Kung. Her teaching style emphasizes technique, partner connection, and improvisation. https://sbwdance.wordpress.com/
DanceAction is a contemporary dance company based in New York, led by Argentinian dance artist Carmen Caceres. With a culturally diverse team of artists, we create educational opportunities and artistic experiences that foster collaboration and inclusion and promote critical thinking. Together, we develop performing arts works that reflect social realities that concern people, relationships, and social justice. Our primary purpose is to interpret these issues and use our work to propel change. DA participated in numerous festivals, performance series, and residencies in New York and abroad, including the Center at West Park’s Evolution Festival, Take Root at Green Space, Under Exposed at Dixon Place, the Women Center Stage Festival, Festival FIDCDMX in Mexico City, and Ticino in Danza in Ticino, Switzerland. DA has self-produced and presented several full-length works, including “Pathways & Architecture” (2025), “The Price is Right (De-Valued)” (2024), “BLINDSPOT” (2019), “BMH” (2018), and “Game Night” (2015). DA's awards include the Brooklyn Arts Council Community Fund, the City Artist Corps, and the LMCC Creative Engagement Grant. Through DA, Carmen Caceres produces the DA Garden Series, a performance event held at her home-built garden dance floor, which welcomes artists from diverse disciplines to showcase short works rooted in improvisation and spontaneous composition practices. https://www.carmencaceres.com/about
https://vimeo.com/953838619
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 25.00
