Summer for the City Celebrates Power of Movement, Live Performance, and Connection

 

Nine New Commissions Across Dance and Classical Music Highlight Contemporary Artistry

International Artists Reflect New York’s Global Cultural Role and Connect Creative Communities

Welcoming New Yorkers to Hundreds of Performances

All FREE or Choose-What-You-Pay

 

June 10 - August 8, 2026

 

Hearst Plaza design by Clint Ramos; rendering by Evan Alexander

NEW YORK, NY (April 16, 2026) – Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) announces Summer for the City, inviting New Yorkers and visitors to a season centered on movement, community, and international artistry. The Festival animates the iconic Lincoln Center campus indoors and out, featuring hundreds of performances, all free or Choose-What-You-Pay.

 

Summer for the City has established itself as a quintessential New York City summer destination, welcoming more than 1.6 million visitors since launching in 2022.

 

Now in its fifth year, the Festival reaffirms Lincoln Center’s commitment to advancing the arts as a force for inspiration, connection, and as central to thriving communities. A vibrant range of dance, music, and multidisciplinary performance uplift extraordinary artists from around the world and around the corner.

 

Across the 16-acre campus, Summer for the City emphasizes the power of place while ensuring the transformative impact of the arts remains deeply connected to everyday life in the city.

 

Dance takes center stage in the 2026 season, spanning a range of forms and traditions. A much-anticipated highlight of this summer, the launch of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance includes:

 

The inaugural Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival in Alice Tully Hall, featuring five international companies with two U.S. premieres and two New York premieres; and Dance Encounters, a new outdoor contemporary dance series on Hearst Plaza uplifting New York-based companies and featuring three new commissions. 

 

Summer for the City opens Wednesday, June 10 with a triple header of dance on opening night:

 

KEIGWIN + COMPANY’s Rhapsody, a community dance work featuring 30 New Yorkers;

Inayat: A Duet for Four merging two ancient north Indian performance traditions; and

a swing dance party with Caleb Teicher & Company and Eyal Vilner Big Band

 

This summer also sees the return of the BAAND Together Dance Festival; the ever-popular social dance series across swing, Hip Hop, salsa, ballroom, and more; and silent discos under the stars, outdoors on Josie Robertson Plaza.

 

The season boasts nine new commissions, including: 

Three commissions as part of Dance Encounters including two by choreographers Shen Wei and Vangeline, as well as Eichterling's With Love film commission and world premiere, part of the Movement on Film: Athletic Shorts series;

Three commissions by composers Billy Childs, Hannah Ishizaki, and Jessie Montgomery with the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center;

A brand-new iteration of KEIGWIN + COMPANY’s Rhapsody, a dance work featuring 30 New Yorkers made specifically for Lincoln Center and the surrounding community;

 

Du Yun’s The Ocean Etched in the Forest (刻在森林的海); and

Declaration by American pianist Lara Downes. 

 

International artistry is a defining feature of the 2026 Festival, woven throughout the summer, inviting New Yorkers into individual initiatives celebrating artists and cultures from around the world, including:

 

Chinese Arts Week (Jul 22-29); Ruidosa Fest (Jul 12); globalFEST (Aug 1); K-Pop Dance Night (Jul 1); Brazil Day (Jul 9); Jamaica Day (Aug 8); and more. 

 

The World at Play at Lincoln Center series celebrates the global spirit of soccer and the intersections of arts and sports. Live concerts and dance parties honor global soccer cultures and communities, while freestyle soccer performers showcase their skills and lead family-friendly workshops. The series also includes a film series curated by Film at Lincoln Center, and World Club DJ nights curated by Bill Coleman—featuring DJs from around the world and across New York City.

 

“Summer for the City carries forward Lincoln Center’s founding promise to enliven New York with arts for all—inviting everyone to experience the fullest expression of art and community,” said Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “This year, that energy feels more alive than ever, with dance at the center, artists from around the world, and moments of connection unfolding across our campus. We look forward to welcoming New Yorkers and visitors alike to discover something new and experience the joy, creativity, and community that make this global city extraordinary.”

 

“This summer’s focus on international artistry reflects our global city, as well as our commitment to collaboration and artistic exchange. Lincoln Center is a place for community, for belonging, for experiences that help us feel vividly connected to each other and to something larger than ourselves—a reminder of how truly joyful it is to be together,” said Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Silver continued, “We are committed to making Lincoln Center a public square in the most expansive sense—where global cultures meet local communities, generations come together, and our mission endures: the arts are for everyone.  We’re thrilled to launch the first performances from the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance this summer, as we invest in the next generation of artists and highlight the work of contemporary dance companies from New York City and around the world.”

 

Collaborations with resident arts organizations across Lincoln Center continue to be a cornerstone of Summer for the City. The 2026 Festival includes collaborations with Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, the New York Philharmonic, and the School of American Ballet.

 

This summer also sees the return of Summer Forum: Moving the Field Forward, a five-day celebratory convening that brings together teaching artists and educators from around the world. Through Lincoln Center Education’s signature immersive workshops and hands-on labs, participants explore the power of imaginative thinking, the intersections of the arts across schools and civic spaces, and new possibilities for advancing arts education. 

 

Each summer, Lincoln Center’s outdoor spaces transform through designs by Artist-in-Residence and Summer for the City Visual Director Clint Ramos, inviting New Yorkers to come together, unwind, and share unforgettable artistic experiences under the open sky. This year unveils an entirely new design inspired by the season’s focus on dance, with the Revson Fountain—featuring a newly commissioned fountain show—and the Dance Floor as its centerpiece under the dynamic lighting designs of David Weiner.

 

 

Josie Robertson Plaza design by Clint Ramos; rendering by Evan Alexander

 

“This summer, the campus itself becomes choreography—a landscape of movement, light, and discovery across the sands of time,” said Clint Ramos, LCPA Artist-in-Residence and Summer for the City Visual Director. “In celebration of five years of Summer for the City, we’ve introduced a new design inspired by the materials and textures that define the campus, radiating outwards from the iconic fountain and setting Lincoln Center beautifully in motion.” 

 

“Summer for the City is the block party for all of New York we didn’t know we’d been missing until it arrived,” said Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Lead Supporter for Summer for the City Community Programming. “It’s become an established part of our summer routines by offering a program for all who visit that captures the fun, carefree spirit of the season.”

 

The Festival celebrates the key role of the arts in our individual and collective wellbeing with the continuation of the Art of Wellbeing series—a pop-up wellness studio that harnesses the power of art to engage the mind, body, and spirit with free guided meditations, movement-based workshops, and more, accompanied by live music from world-class performers, and presented in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian, the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The summer also shines a light on disabled artists, with the return of Big Umbrella Day; comedy nights curated by The Squeaky Wheel, a series in the Atrium curated by disabled multi-disciplinary artist Jerron Herman, and more. Events throughout the summer are inclusively designed, integrating access needs with a range of accommodations for select performances and upon request—from ASL interpretation to audio description, live captioning, relaxed performances and more.

 

Summer for the City features a plethora of outdoor food offerings throughout the season, including a rotating Festival Food Truck and The Spotlight Bar hosting different iconic New York City establishments — presented by Chase in collaboration with The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery platform. The rotating food options feature international cuisines reflective of the cultural traditions within particular events, and a focus on local restaurateurs who use traditional methods, small-batch preparation, and an artisanal approach. Participating food trucks and bartenders will be announced in the coming weeks. 

 

LCPA is dedicated to making the arts accessible to the widest possible audience. The majority of Summer for the City events are free, and select indoor performances are Choose-What-You-Pay starting at $5.

 

Choose-What-You-Pay tickets go on sale to Lincoln Center members on Wednesday, May 13 at 12pm and to the general public on Wednesday, May 20 at 12pm. All free events are General Admission, first-come, first-served unless otherwise noted. Fast Track reservations are available for select free events on Mondays at noon for that week’s events at LincolnCenter.org/FastTrack.

https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city

 

 

허성임, Sung Im Her | Her Project

 

Wednesday, June 24, 2026 at 7:30 pm/ Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 7:30 pm

@Alice Tully Hall

 

Part of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance

 

Sung Im Her | Her Project presents an exhilarating and hypnotic dance production that invites audiences to consider how art can inspire action in response to the changing environment around us as part of the inaugural Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival. The U.S. premiere features seven dancers, electrifying movement, pulsating music, and dynamic lighting. 1 Degree Celsius explores the individual and collective body, placing humanity at the centre of our relationships with the urban and natural world.

 

 

K-Pop Dance Night With DJ MOOBEK & HWARANG

Silent Disco

 

Presented by Lincoln Center in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center New York

Wednesday, July 1, 2026, 8:00 pm

@The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza

(10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023)

 

Lincoln Center’s Silent Disco series continues with a high-energy night led by DJ MOOBEK, founder of KCORE PRODUCTION. MOOBEK has performed at major festivals and clubs across North America, Asia, and South America. Drawing from extensive experience on international stages, he delivers more than just a DJ set, creating a fully immersive performance that blends Hip-Hop, EDM, and K-pop. Joining him is Seattle-based DJ HWARANG, known for his versatile and crowd-driven sets fusing K-pop with U.S. chart-toppers. With strong energy and seamless flow, he brings an engaging and elevated atmosphere to The Dance Floor. From nostalgic K-pop classics to today’s biggest hits and explosive electronic drops, this Silent Disco transforms Lincoln Center into a global dance floor.