Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater: A Rare Revival of OCCURRENCE #14

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present a rare revival of OCCURRENCE #14 by Donald Byrd /Spectrum Dance Theater as the opening to the 21st annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival. Performances are April 9-10 at 8pm, April 11 at 5pm, and April 12 at 3pm at The Downstairs Theatre, 66 E. 4th Street. Tickets are $30 (general), $25 (students/seniors), with a $50 Support the Artists ticket option. Tickets are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/dept/2540. Festival packages start at $45 and are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/store/packages. Additionally, the first 10 tickets of each performance are $10 (limit 2 per person).

Spectrum Dance Theater’s OCCURRENCE series is a bold and imaginative choreographic format first introduced on March 20, 2016, at La Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the culminating public presentation of a U.S. Embassy residency. The series is modeled on the spirit of a Merce Cunningham EVENT—a performance constructed of complete dances, excerpts, and new sequences arranged specifically for the site, often layered with multiple actions occurring simultaneously. A retrospective of Mr. Byrd’s experience of 9/11, OCCURRENCE #14combines old and new movement ideas, showcasing them together and offering a new perspective on this world-altering event. “This is my playtime,” says Byrd. “It’s when I get to nerd out as a choreographer. I recombine past work with new material, guided by imagination and the pursuit of the next right thing to do.”

Spectrum Dance Theater (SDT) was founded in 1982 to bring dance of the highest merit to a diverse audience from different social, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Our principal objective is to make the art form of dance accessible through contemporary dance performances and high-quality training across a variety of dance styles.

Under Donald Byrd’s visionary artistic leadership since 2002, the organization has embarked on an exhilarating transformation that has attracted world-class dancers, produced some of the most ambitious works in contemporary dance, and generated local and national praise.



The dancers of Spectrum Dance Theater are a select group of unique dance artists individually chosen and trained in Donald Byrd’s singular approach to dance/theater – physically demanding and emotionally charged. They occupy the space where the classical, contemporary, intuitive, cerebral, visceral, right-brain, left-brain, control, and abandonment converge. These are dancers exploring the boundaries of movement – inside and outside of the prescribed. They explore the known and the unknowns of movement with focus, enthusiasm, and a voracious appetite for the authenticity and the truthfulness of movement. They are virtuosi of a new order.

Creative Team Credits

CHOREOGRAPHY & DIRECTION - Donald Byrd

ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGN - Ryan A. Dunn

REVIVAL LIGHTING DESIGN - Jack Mehler

COSTUME DESIGN - Doris Black

SOUND DESIGN - Robertson Witmer

PROJECTION IMAGE DESIGN - Jesse Allain-Marcus

ORIGINAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANT - T. Ibn Sahali

ORIGINAL PRODUCTION SUPPORT - Arts Tech

ORIGINAL STAGE MANAGER - Amanda Balter

REVIVAL STAGE MANAGER - Cricket Neiss

SPECTRUM COMPANY ARTISTS - Birdy Adler, Natalie Johnson, Cody Krause, Katarina Lee, Isabella Smith, Cooper Sullivan, Serene Wong

APPRENTICE - Colleen McKibben

La MaMa Moves! 2026, the 21st season of La MaMa’s annual dance festival, brings together dance artists at all stages of their careers to experiment, collaborate, and share new work. Curated by Nicky Paraiso, the festival will take place over five weeks in April and May of 2026 and will include twelve productions across La MaMa’s four venues, and up to four in-person community workshops and public discussions. This year’s festival line-up features dancemakers Donald Byrd, Beth Corning with guest puppeteer Tom Lee, Vangeline, Patricia Hoffbauer, Dancers Unlimited, Sun Kim Dance Theatre, Green Cow, Iver Findlay, BamBam Frost & Ori Flomin, Pioneers Go East Collective, and ms. z tye & Mina Nishimura in a shared weekend curated by La MaMa Curatorial Residents Martita Abril & Blaze Ferrer.

Building on the festival’s growing national impact, La MaMa Moves! will again offer hybrid programming that extends beyond New York City, including livestreams of several productions and open rehearsals or interactive discussions designed for online audiences, partners, and students across the U.S. These online/hybrid events are part of La MaMa’s ongoing work with Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator program. These types of programs are essential not only to La MaMa’s mission and strategic plan, but to the sustainability of the dance community, because they empower and connect generations of dance artists.

In 2026, La MaMa Moves! continues its Curatorial Residency for the second year. Over six months, Curatorial Residents Martita Abril and Blaze Ferrer work with Nicky Paraiso as they plan and execute a shared program to be presented in the festival. Curatorial Residents have research time in the La MaMa Archive (which documents 60+ years of dance history) and attend productions across NYC with Paraiso. The residency aims to provide curatorial mentorship and professional development to young dance artists, empowering them to build sustainable careers while bringing new voices into La MaMa.

La MaMa Moves! highlights the extraordinary diversity and range of artists across cultural backgrounds, ages, and dance styles. By amplifying underrepresented voices and fostering intergenerational exchange, the festival continues to reimagine what contemporary dance can be. One of New York’s signature dance festivals, La MaMa Moves! has showcased small and large-scale works of more than 400 emerging and seasoned choreographers since its beginning in 2005. With sustained support, La MaMa can deepen this impact and ensure that visionary artists and their communities have continued access to this vital platform for years to come.

About La MaMa

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 64th Season, LA MAMA NOW, focuses on creating solidarity and building community, exploring ways to build connections for cross-sector coalition and invite artists, activists, organizers and community members into the creative process.

La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.

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Host or Publisher Lilli Stein