NEW YORK, NY.- The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with leading New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, announced Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe. This five-month festival focuses on the performing arts as a powerful voice and contributing force in the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Spearheaded by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which will present a major exhibition on the themes of the festival, Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe features over 20 events throughout New York City, with a specific focus on performing arts in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.

Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe explores the revolutionary mindset of performing artists through theater, music, and dance performances, exhibitions, film screenings, readings, and symposia. While certain festival events illustrate how artistic resistance in the 1980s contributed to the profound political changes in 1989, others comment on the different contexts that continue to characterize revolution in performance today.

Among the events featured is a rare revival of the Theatre of the Eighth Day's landmark 1985 production of Wormwood, performed by the original cast; the U.S. premiere of Petruska by the Győr National Ballet from Hungary; Rebel Waltz, a weekend of music featuring underground bands that performed behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s; and Dancing with the Berlin Wall – a three-part project by choreographer Nejla Yatkin culminating in a site-specific performance. Additionally, The Harriman Institute at Columbia University will present a public symposium, After Communism: Achievement and Disillusionment since 1989, that will assess the meaning of the 1989 revolutions and their aftermaths.

“The Performing Revolution festival offers an intriguing and provocative view of the transformative power of the performing arts,” said Jacqueline C. Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director for the Performing Arts. “The diverse slate of the festival’s programming examines ‘revolution’ not only as a form of social and political change, but also as a shift that can occur within a genre of art via experiments with form and content. I am thrilled to be working with an extraordinary group of presenters and artists—from both the U.S. and abroad—to bring this festival to New York audiences.”

Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe is presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with the Czech Center New York; Goethe-Institut New York; Hungarian Cultural Center; Polish Cultural Institute; Romanian Cultural Institute New York; Consulate General of the Slovak Republic; Consulate General of Slovenia; Abrons Arts Center; Agentura dell’Arte; Dance New Amsterdam; Erste Bank Group; GOH Productions; The Harriman Institute at Columbia University; HERE Arts Center; The Joyce Theater; La MaMa, E.T.C.; (le) Poisson Rouge; Martin E. Segal Theatre Center; The Tank; Theatre Department at Barnard College, Columbia University; Untitled Theater Company #61; WaxFactory; and the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival.