NYC SUMMER WORKSHOP

August 11 - 16, 2025

Join NVA & Guests August 11th - 16th, 2025, at New York City Center Backstage for a reimagined six-day workshop experience focused on creation, collaboration, and performance.

This year’s workshop marks a shift from our past formats, with an emphasis on developing new work. As NVA & Guests prepares for the premiere of a new evening-length production in Fall 2025, participants will spend the week immersed in the creative process with Artistic Director Nicole von Arx and members of the company.

The week will include floor work, ballet, partnering, spoken text exploration, improvisation, and movement creation, all culminating in an informal studio showing on Saturday, August 16th, for friends and family.

This advanced workshop is designed for professional dance artists interested in engaging with the company’s unique choreographic voice, investigating their physicality and storytelling, and building community. Dancers interested in auditioning for future NVA & Guests projects are strongly encouraged to join.

Important Dates & Deadline

  • Registration Opens: May 1st

  • Scholarship Application Deadline: June 1st at 11.59 PM ET

  • Scholarship Application Results: June 22nd (at the very latest)

  • Early Bird Deadline: July 1st at 11.59 PM ET

  • Registration Deadline: July 20th at 11.59 PM  ET

  • Pro Rate Application Deadline: July 13th at 11.59 PM  ET (Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Limited to 10 successful applications)

  • NYC Summer Workshop: August 11th-16th from 10 AM - 6PM (Saturday 8/16 from 1-6pm)

TUITION

Early Bird Tuition: $599 USD
Standard Tuition: $649 USD 

Registration Fee: $50

Please note, there is a $50 registration fee for all participants. This fee covers the cost of Stripe payment processing and NY State sales tax.

REGISTRATION FORM INCLUDES

  • Registration Form 

  • Please upload your one-page PDF Resume and Headshot

  • Refund Policy

  • Assumption of Risk, Waiver, and Release of Liability

  • Photography & Audio/Visual Release

  • Tuition Payment Link to Venmo or Zelle

  • Scholarship/Work Study Application

  • Pro Rate Application

SCHEDULE*

The workshop will take place between 10am and 6pm, Monday through Friday. Saturday, the schedule will be 1-5.30pm A finalized schedule will be shared with all the participants the week of the workshop.

*All teaching artists and schedules are subject to change

Photos by Zui Gomez

OPPORTUNITIES

SCHOLARSHIPS

There are two scholarships for artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic, Latino/a/x, Immigrant, and/or Trans available for this intensive. These scholarships come with a few responsibilities to support the intensive before, during, and after the program dates, including arriving 30 minutes early on the first day, setting up and cleaning up the studio at the end of each day, and taking photos and videos for social media and archival content.

All scholarship applicants, please prepare to upload the following to the registration form:

  • Video Reel: Share a Vimeo or YouTube link to a 2-minute video reel that best represents you and the works you’ve been a part of as a dance artist.

  • Letter: Upload a letter of motivation (1 page, PDF only) answering the following questions:

    •  Please explain clearly why you require a scholarship. 

    • What is your character and work ethic?

    • How could this particular workshop, hosted by NVA & Guests and teaching artists involved, serve your future aspirations as a dancer/artist? 

    • Please date and sign the letter

      So many dancers deserve a scholarship! It's always terribly hard to pick. Make it easier for the panel to understand - why YOU and why do you need this opportunity NOW. (See here for tips on how to best write a motivational letter.) 

PRO RATE

NVA & Guests is happy to offer a special rate designed to support professional dance performers in their training, training for auditions, and performance jobs. Our Pro Rate is a 30% discount on our Standard tuition! Please remember to complete the registration form and await your confirmation email before finalising your payment. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please expect to receive an email within a week or less about your application.

We are limiting this offer to only ten successful Pro Rate participants. Once we receive the first ten eligible applications, the Pro Rate application will be closed.

Eligibility and Proof of Employment:
NVA & Guests recognizes the diverse professional dance community in New York City, including full-time company dancers, union members, and freelancers. The Pro Rate is available to those actively working as professional dance performers. Acceptable proof of employment for professional dance performance includes:

  • A signed letter of employment from a company/choreographer/director on letterhead, stating the start and end date of the project or term of work (rehearsal period, performance dates, etc.)

  • A signed contract stating the start and end dates of the project

The following documents will NOT be accepted:

  • Union cards/proof of union membership, dance videos/photos, resumes, recommendation letters, contracts from talent agencies, contracts/proof of employment for choreography or teaching work, performance flyers/ads, photos on websites, Instagram accounts, W9, etc.

  • Contracts that have expired before January 1st, 2025. 

  • Contracts with no dates.

CONTACT

Please look at our Frequently Asked Questions webpage for any questions you might have. If you can’t find any answers, please email us at workshop@nvonarx.com. Space is limited. Incomplete registration will not be accepted. We encourage early registration – first come, first served – subject to availability. 

Teaching Artists

Click on each image to read each of the artists’ bios.

More GUEST ARTISTS to be ANNOUNCED soon!

ABOUT THE CLASSES

Contemporary Forms with Nicole von Arx

Nicole von Arx offers an advanced-level dynamic contemporary class that incorporates elements of floor work, improvisation, and her latest choreography research. She encourages you to embrace physical and emotional effort and explore the extent of your body and mind’s capacity. Her warm-up is a series of challenging exercises focusing on isolating, strengthening, aligning, and balancing the body. This will lead into improvisation tasks emphasizing sensation, timing, and space. The class culminates in a complex phrase work allowing dancers to discover Nicole’s movement vocabulary.

Ballet with Tyler Schnese

This ballet class is focused on deepening kinesthetic awareness and knowledge while making space for self-expression through choice-making. Dancers are invited to investigate somatic and improvisational ideas within classical form, these tools encourage dancers to connect to ballet as an inner process, rather than an outward product.

Creative Process with NVA & Guests

Each afternoon will be dedicated to a new creative process. This time offers dancers an immersive experience into the company’s signature blend of movement, theatrics, and text work. This portion of the workshop invites professional dancers to explore storytelling through physicality and voice, engaging with materials drawn from the company’s repertoire. Designed to go beyond a traditional classroom setting, this workshop is a window into what it is to be in process with NVA. The material developed throughout the week will be shared during our Friends & Family showing on Saturday, August 16th.

NVA & Guests Repertoire with Caitlin Taylor and Rush Carson

Dive into NVA & Guests’ partnering work while learning parts of the company’s repertoire of the production “Cry Wolf”. Through tactile feedback and responsive engagement, dancers will gain creative tools to expand their movement vocabulary and build trust in ways to share their weight and receive the weight of others.

Text Work with Hannah Garner

This 2-hour workshop is a deep dive into the intersection of voice and physicality. Participants will explore how to integrate spoken text into their movement practice through a shared warm-up, physical research, and improvisational tasks. Emphasis is placed on developing comfort with speaking while dancing—building tools to stay grounded, expressive, and clear when physical and vocal demands collide. Whether you’ve worked with text before or are just beginning to explore it, this class will offer space to experiment, play, and expand your performance range.

Artist Chat

We’ll close each day with an Artist Chat featuring members of NVA & Guests alongside guest dance artists, choreographers, and presenters. These informal conversations are a space for dancers to ask questions about navigating a freelance career in New York City, exploring opportunities for choreography, and understanding the differences between freelancing in Europe and the U.S. Each chat will be shaped by the guest artist and the interests of the group.

Guest speakers will be announced soon!

Past speakers have included: Kayla Farrish, Fatima Wilson (ex-Block agent, now at UTA), Baye & Asa, Joseph Hernandez, Undercurrent, Omar Román de Jesús, Alexandra Wells, and Taryn Kaschock Russell.