IONA's 35th Anniversary Celebration

On Friday November 7, 2025 IONA will transform Capitol Modern into an immersive experience, filling the galleries, art garden, and lobbies with a variety of performances and art displays. Attendees will be transported through the rich history of IONA through a combination of live performances and a visual journey, taking a look back at some of the company’s most iconic moments over the past three and a half decades.

IONA has been captivating audiences for 35 years with performances that are topical, expressive, spiritually engaging, and intellectually and visually stimulating. In addition to performing in venerable venues such as the Hawai‘i Theatre, IONA is renowned for mounting unique works in non-traditional performance locales—an old ramshackle Nu‘uanu home, in tents flanking the massive Sky Gate sculpture on the grounds of Honolulu Hale, and a Waikiki rooftop.

Founder and Artistic Director Cheryl Flaharty’s dances connect audiences to such global concerns as the environment, multiculturalism, religious tolerance, equal rights, or domestic violence. Her belief that barriers such as poverty, criminal records, disability, and lack of access to the arts should not limit anyone’s access to beauty and wonder.

Host or Publisher IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre