Meet the Artists of UP NEXT! at APAP|NYC 2025

Cordâme
Mystical Goddesses

Mythological goddesses have long fascinated composer and double bassist Jean Félix Mailloux. He has crafted a repertoire exclusively dedicated to these deities. Through music, Cordâme personifies their characters and narrates their stories, creating an enchanting and dreamlike atmosphere. With harp, piano, strings, and vibrant percussion, the ensemble transports listeners to a captivating world, evoking a wide range of emotions through an original, beautiful repertoire.

Electric Root 
This is the Blues, Are You Listening? A Blues Revue Featuring Marquise Knox & Special Guests

"This is the Blues, Are You Listening?" is a national Blues Revue produced by Electric Root, led by renowned Bluesman Marquise Knox. This electrifying production features legendary Blues elders and regional stars, bridging generations through the powerful tradition of the Blues. With soul-stirring performances enhanced by thoughtful set design and wardrobe, the show taps into the deep-rooted nutrients embedded in the music—hope, resilience, and joy. The Revue aims to elevate the profile of Blues music, foster intergenerational connections, and create inclusive experiences that unite diverse audiences through the healing power of Radical Hospitality.

Lai Hung-Chung 
The Peter Pan

Hung Dance's "Peter Pan," choreographed by Lai Hung-Chung, reimagines J.M. Barrie's classic with a blend of Eastern and Western aesthetics. This dynamic dance drama explores the eternal child’s essence, with nine dancers embodying various facets of Peter Pan. The production integrates contemporary dance with Tai-chi and Chinese opera, celebrating children's imagination and the universal journey of growing up. It offers two versions: a 75-minute performance for touring, and an 80-minute version involving local young dancers and traditional costumes, emphasizing cross-cultural exchange and diverse cultural expressions.

Le Patin Libre 
Melt

In a weird and canicular post-apocalyptic city, two laughable figure skaters despair about the disappearance of ice, music and everything they love. Accompanied by an unemployed pianist, they will (re)discover the wheel and the joy of dance.  Weaving and twisting the virtuosity of Le Patin Libre's iconic glide, they will finally triumph in love, imagination and... snow! The show can be accompanied by a roller disco for beginners and experts alike.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph & Wendy Whelan 
Carnival of the Animals

An evening length concert experience with dance, poetry and music, CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS is an intentional response to the January 6 insurrection navigating the reality of the political jungle by embodying shifting societal values and our relationship to democracy. Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper and anchored in the words of Joseph and the transcendent movement of Wendy Whelan, CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS re-frames Camille Saint-Saëns’ classic work 100 years after its original publication. Composer Sugar Vendil reimagined Saint-Saëns’ zoological fantasy to create a composition that is both familiar and undeniably fresh, twisting, and quoting.

Preeti Vasudevan 
Indian Letters

Indian Letters, a duet between award-winning dancers Preeti Vasudevan and Amar Ramasar, is a provocative dance-theater project about identity and the American immigrant journey. Merging live performance, film, and interviews, Indian Letters is about the relationship between two strangers brought together by dance and their subsequent friendship as they journey the socio-political climate of the United States. By asking the question "Where is home?", these two dancers rediscover themselves through each other’s lens and through a scintillating dialogue of cultural exchange as they navigate immigration, the #MeToo movement, classical dance, Sufism, and the bridge between heritage cultures and contemporary lives.

HUMANHOOD: Julia Robert & Rudi Cole 
Vortex

Vortex is a full-length immersive movement production for 6 dancers, plus HUMANHOOD co-artistic directors Julia and Rudi, exploring the concept of a vortex as a physical and energetic phenomenon in nature, in specific fluid dynamics, and in the human psyche. In the words of Nassim Haramein: ‘Life is a vortex’; from our solar system to the circular movement in galaxies and atoms, to the evolution of consciousness towards singularity.

Studio Susan Marshall 
Rhythm Bath

“Rhythm Bath” is an immersive, inclusive dance-installation created by choreographer Susan Marshall with set designer Mimi Lien. Developed in conversation and collaboration with neurodiverse individuals and communities, “Rhythm Bath” investigates what makes performances welcoming. The aim is to create an engaging experience for all, innovating alternatives to the exclusionary practices of typical theater-going that require audiences to be seated, still and quiet. “Rhythm Bath” blends performance, meditation and wonder, inviting you to sense the dance happening around you. Audiences come and go as they like—exploring an accessible, transporting space of shifting fabric, light, sound and movement.

Twin Flames 
Native By Nature: Hugging the Cactus

"Native By Nature: Hugging the Cactus" is a concert project that includes original songs based on Twin Flames' experiences as Indigenous artists born and raised in Canada. The carefully selected set list includes one of their earliest songs, "Native By Nature", and culminates with selections from their soon to be released album "Hugging the Cactus."  The lead single, ‘Hearts on Fire,’ – is a song the husband and wife duo of Chelsey June and Jaaji (Yaa Yee) were commissioned to write for a documentary about violence against women- yet is intended to instill hope in those who hear it.