THE NEXT GREAT PERFORMANCE
DISCOVERY
Forge new connections with the hundreds of members of the WAA community awaiting discovery before, during, and after the conference. We highlight the wide range of artistic excellence waiting to be found at WAA with online and in-person events and resources designed to streamline research and open possibilities.
Discover the next great performance! Uncover new artists and performances ready to tour through expanded discovery opportunities. We’re designing a Discovery Program to support your search, whether you’re seeking your next season’s stand-out performance or that perfect gig for your band. Learn more soon!
PITCH SESSIONS
Right alongside showcasing and exhibiting, Pitch Sessions are at the heart of the conference. These special sessions are a must for programmers and presenters looking for ideas, inspiration, and their next-great-discovery. Each session has its own purpose, and all offer different opportunities. For the best-rounded experience, we recommend attending them all!
WAA 2024; credit: Victor Karam
Amplified
The popular Amplified will continue this year, but it will be held online, the summer before the conference. This pitch session was created for artists and agent/managers to share the projects they are passionate about but because of their size, scope, technical requirements, or other aspect, showcasing these projects is prohibitive. Presenters, if you are looking for thrilling work that you’ve likely never seen before, be sure Amplified is on your schedule!
Amplified will take place over two online video sessions this year. Once they go live, the recorded showcases will remain available for on-demand viewing by conference attendees.
Video Session Premiers: July 9 & August 6
This year’s Amplified lineup is:
176 Steps
Presented by Vikram Basistha, Théâtre de l’Oeil
With a desire to diversify and enrich the art of puppetry, Théâtre de l’Oeil favours alternating or mixing diverse type of puppets. A moving fable about the different faces of anxiety, 176 Steps celebrates, first and foremost, the transformative power of friendship.
Floating Flowers
Presented by Chia Fang, B.DANCE
Inspired by the Taiwanese folk tradition of floating water lanterns, the piece explores themes of nature, life, water, and resilience through movement. The stage design features a rectangular projection screen displaying fragmented geometric imagery, evoking a dreamlike and poetic atmosphere.
FOR REAL
Presented by Chisa Yamaguchi, SOZO IMPACT, INC.
FOR REAL is a theatrical radio show about what it means to matter, beginning with the intellectual undermining of women. Audience members hear stories, join live conversations, and take part in a unique blend of music and dialogue. Each show becomes a podcast episode, creating a living archive of voices reflecting on dignity, understanding, and being taken seriously.
LOVE FORCE by Sunny Jain
Presented by Amanda Cooper, ALC Management
Music meets storytelling as Sunny Jain draws on his autobiography and family history to dive into the concept of “love force” or satyāgraha: embracing your oppressor with compassion. In his first theatrical production, Sunny brings his signature talent for creating immediate community, blurring the lines between performers and audience.
MARK & Default: Joy
Presented by Marianna Varviani, Selcouth
A dance theater performance about individual and collective power and the possibilities that arise from each action small or large. Inspired by street dance vocabularies & Krump, everyday gestures and contemporary dance perspectives, MARK explores the power of connection, the limitations that we bring to ourselves and the solutions that we can find together.
A Classical Road-Trip!
Presented by Etienne Gara, MusiKaravan
This intimate musical adventure (two violins and cello) showcases Etienne's and YuEun's 6-month pandemic-era road trip – through snowstorms, tsunamis, turkeys, and other surprises – to delighted concert audiences.
Nothing Micro about Micronesia
Presented by Leilani Chan, TeAda Productions
Nothing Micro About Micronesia is a stage play that tells a coming-of-age story about three Micronesian youth who meet in an unlikely place, and through magic, are transported to island adventures in Micronesia, navigating between Hawaiʻi and the traditions of their homelands while facing the rising tides of their uncertain futures.
Red is a Feeling
Presented by Jessie Stinnett, Boston Dance Theater
An evening of short dance works which present multi-faced expressions of love, longing, and the fight to live, woven together by the color Red. The program takes its title from a new commission by Iranian-Hispanic choreographer Roya Carreras Fereshtehnejad who was diagnosed with two forms of cancer in her early thirties.
Tortoise & The Hare by Lightwire Theater
Presented by Tara Bailey, Bailiwick Booking Agency
From the creators of jaw-dropping electroluminescent puppetry comes a bold new adventure for all ages! A decade after their epic race, Tortoise and Hare are back—this time as parents. But when their tech-obsessed kids wander into unexpected danger, the old rivals must team up for a thrilling rescue mission.
Shadows of the Mind
Presented by Tai White
A dance theater production that dives deep into the well of emotion to guide its audience through a journey of victory. The audience is given the opportunity to relate and even investigate its own inner convictions and even shadow selves. The deep dive in this case is the journey to find the light of hope and love that lies and the end of the tunnels of our journeys.
Taalam (Rhythm)
Presented by Vikas Arun, Project Convergence
Written in two parts, Taalam (Rhythm) weaves the high-pitched bells of Bharatanatyam with the bass tones of tap dance, creating a vibrant polyrhythm. This exhilarating work celebrates the immigrant experience, offering a powerful metaphor for embracing American identity while honoring one's roots.
Twilight of the Empress
Presented Banafsheh Sayyad
An immersive, multi-sensory performance that transcends traditional stage productions, blending storytelling, poetry, dance, and music to explore the eternal struggle between light and darkness. Featuring seven dancers, an evocative orator, and six musicians, this experience guides audiences through a mystical journey of witnessing, understanding, and transformation.
WAA 2024; credit: Ken Jacques
Pitch NOW | New & Out-of-the-box Works
Pitch NOW is a forum for bold artistic ideas that need more than a stage and tour date to become reality. You’ll learn about six new, innovative performing arts projects that span disciplines, support social movements, work well in nontraditional venues, engage communities or schools, or utilize the latest technology.
How does it work?
Please note that Pitch NOW projects are at different stages of development but are not currently tour-ready. They are imaginative and impactful ideas that push the boundaries of performing arts concepts that need your energy and investment to become a reality. Each project gets 10 minutes that includes a five-minute presentation and a five-minute Q&A directly after the presentation so you can learn if the project is a fit for your community and venue.
Pitch NOW will take place IN-PERSON in September at WAA^LA.
This year’s Pitch NOW lineup is:
3/5 Proclamations
Presented Kevin Ward, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC)
A modular dance-theater work envisioned and choreographed by Charles O. Anderson, in collaboration with DCDC. This reframing of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a metaphor for liberatory practices rooted in Black resilience and cross-community solidarity, historically and contemporaneously.
Hourglass
Presented Luther Bangert
A hypnotic contemporary circus show performed by Luther Bangert in which juggling and movement bend our relationship to the passing of time. The show occurs above, below, and around an omnipresent hourglass - opened - releasing a steady stream of sand throughout the space.
In Remembrance, We Breathe
Presented Lucy Yao, chromic duo
This performance explores themes of loss and adaptation through an AR Soundwalk that transforms community trails and parks into spaces for reflection, connection, and remembrance. Through interviews, rituals, and music, it uplifts the voices of dementia patients and caregivers, offering connection and healing.
“Onirica” by fuse*
Presented Laura Colby, Elsie Management
At the intersection of dreams and artificial intelligence, "Onirica” is a mesmerizing dance performance combining a stunning projected video design for a cinematic experience. AI prompts the video to respond dynamically in real-time to the dancer's movement, their action captured by a sensor-equipped camera.
The Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience
Presented Christopher Nicholas, Ensemble Mik Nawooj
The Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience brings its core team to each location to collaborate with local orchestras, dance companies, and rappers, creating region-specific versions of its signature blend of underground hip-hop and orchestral performance.
Turtle Island
Presented Sonia Kozlova Clark, Unicycle Productions LLC
A large-scale outdoor production of the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, created by Haudenosaunee artist, historian, and educator G. Peter Jemison (Seneca, Heron Clan); Plasticiens Volants, renowned for their breathtaking giant inflatable puppetry and outdoor spectacles; with the Skywoman Iroquois Dance Theater.