Dance Residencies at the Arts Center at Governors Island
Month-long performing arts residencies at the Arts Center at Governors Island give artists dedicated time and space to experiment, rehearse, and dive deep into their creative process. With open access to the Arts Center’s dance studios and resources, choreographers and their collaborators can workshop and rehearse at their own pace, in their own way. Each residency culminates with a free, public work-in-progress showing.
The four choreographers selected for the 2025–2026 residencies have each been commissioned by a producing or presenting organization in New York City, with full premieres of their work planned at a later date.
These residencies are one of the many ways LMCC supports NYC artists while activating the Arts Center at Governors Island as an incubator for research, experimentation, and artistic development.
2025-2026
Juliana F. May has been making work in New York City for the past 17 years. May creates dances that interrogate the relationship between trauma and abstraction or, broadly speaking, between content and form. Her experimentation with structural dissonance often pushes narrative to the point where language falls apart, where meaning emerges not as the result of formulaic dramatic logics, but as tactile texture and visceral feeling. A Guggenheim and NYFA Fellow, Juliana F. May has created nine works since 2002, including eight evening-length pieces with commissions and encore performances from Dance Theater Workshop, New York Live Arts, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Abrons Arts Center, Barnard College, The New School, Joyce SoHo and The American Realness Festival. May has been awarded grants and residencies through The Map Fund, The Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Gibney Dance In Process. In 2002, May received her BA in Dance and Art History from Oberlin College and, in 2012, she received an MFA in Choreography from the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. May is the Artistic Advisor for New York Live Arts‘ Fresh Tracks Residency Program as well as guest faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. In 2017, May became the Chair of the Dance Department at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts. 
Baye & Asa is a company creating movement art projects directed & choreographed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt. They’ve presented their work at The Joyce Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Pioneer Works, Guggenheim Works & Process, The American Dance Festival, and more. They were one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2022, and were recipients of Dance Magazine’s 2023 Harkness Promise Award. They’ve created works for repertory companies including The Martha Graham Dance Company, BODYTRAFFIC, and Alvin Ailey II. 
Sean Donovan is an actor, dancer, writer, choreographer, and director. He creates theater and dance performances that challenge the boundaries and intersections of both mediums. His most recent work, Cabin, premiered in 2019 at The Bushwick Starr (NYC) to critical acclaim. Ben Brantley of The New York Times called it “darkly lyrical and exquisitely rendered.” Other works include The Reception at HERE Arts (NYC), and 18 1/2 Minutes at JACK (NYC), both in collaboration with Sebastián Calderón Bentin. His work has also been presented in The Under the Radar Festival (NYC), CUNY’s Prelude Festival (NYC), Incubator Arts Project (NYC), FAE Festival in Panama, Stanford University (CA), New York University (NYC), and others.
Nichole Canuso is a choreographer and performer working with movement, film, spatial design, and words. A dedicated improviser, Canuso’s career is grounded in ensemble processes that invite the bodies and memories of the audience into the heart of the projects. Her work’s passion is creating moments of connection across distances of geography, perspective, and emotion, and the intimacy of simple exchanges. The branching paths of collaboration bring her into contact with artists, activists, and community members of all kinds. They facilitate, perform, dialogue, and grow together. Her evolution through new training and perspectives is nourished by her roots in inquiry and collaboration. She believes both in the power of the local, and in the ethical obligation to reach beyond the familiar towards what challenges her.Work-in-Progress Showings
Optimistic Voices by Juliana F. May
June 28, 2025
The Arts Center at Governors Island
Optimistic Voices probes the intractable contradictions of family, eroticism, and motherhood.
At the Altar by Baye & Asa
December 20, 2025
The Arts Center at Governors Island
At the Altar is an exploration of cultural, religious, and political deities.
Information on upcoming presentations in Spring 2026 will be shared shortly.
LMCC’s Dance Residencies are funded with support from Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
