In partnership with Work of Art Holdings®, Beach Sessions Dance Series marked its 9th season with a two-part program on the Rockaway shoreline. The event opened with a site-specific arrangement of Merce Cunningham’s 1991 work Beach Birds, staged by Merce Cunningham Trust trustees Patricia Lent and Rashaun Mitchell, followed by a new choreographic response on the boardwalk by MacArthur Fellow Sarah Michelson. A companion screening of beach-inspired dance films was presented at Arverne Cinema in partnership with the Rockaway Film Festival.

Sarah Michelson is a MacArthur Fellow and multi-Bessie Award-winning choreographer whose work has been commissioned by MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, and the Venice Biennale.