Jamestown Dance Festival

The Jamestown Dance Festival (JDF), spearheaded by Sukanya Burman Dance, has quickly emerged as one of the region’s most unique arts experiences, celebrating dance as a global, interdisciplinary, and community-centered art form. Now entering its third year, the festival continues to expand both in scale and ambition, presenting five days of world-class performances, workshops, film screenings, artist talks, and community engagement opportunities across multiple venues throughout Jamestown. This year’s festival features internationally recognized artists and companies working across tap, live music, street dance, aerial arts, contemporary dance, postmodern performance, and interdisciplinary movement practices, highlighted by anchor performances from New York City-based companies Music From The Sole and Sun Kim Dance Theatre at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts on September 11.

The festival continues on September 10 and 13 at Jamestown Community College’s Scharmann Theater with International Lover, the debut solo work by aerial artist and interdisciplinary performer Troy Lingelbach. Through an intimate fusion of aerial arts, dance, burlesque, and physical theater, Lingelbach invites audiences into an autobiographical exploration of identity, vulnerability, and radical queer self-acceptance through breathtaking movement both on and above the stage.

On September 12 at 2:00 PM, Scharmann Theater becomes home to an afternoon of contemporary, postmodern, and interdisciplinary performance featuring TwinHead Dance, Rik Daniels, and Jim Self. Together, these artists bring distinct perspectives spanning contemporary dance, disability-centered performance, postmodern movement practices, and interdisciplinary experimentation. Featuring artists from Buffalo and across New York State, this mixed-bill program highlights both the depth of regional talent and the festival’s commitment to expanding conversations around movement, accessibility, and artistic innovation.