The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), an expansive program providing New York City choreographers and dance companies with creative residencies on CUNY college campuses, announces new partnerships with Works & Process and The Pocantico Center in 2025-26.
The core of CDI’s mission is providing NYC-based dance artists with residencies on CUNY campuses–currently 14 colleges across the five boroughs. As CDI has taken root, partnerships beyond the CUNY system have become integral to CDI’s collaborative ethos and commitment to expanding opportunities for artists while building audiences for dance.
New partnerships with Works & Process and The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for the current residency cycle (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026) will each provide an artist with a week-long residency outside of New York City, in addition to a CDI studio residency that runs through June 2026. Works & Process and the Queens College review panel jointly selected whacking artist Nubian Néné, awarding her a CDI residency at Queens College and a Works & Process residency at Bethany Arts Community (Ossining, NY) in May 2026. In addition to her CDI rehearsal at Brooklyn College, Kayla Farrish has been invited for a residency at The Pocantico Center (Tarrytown, NY) in February 2026 and will present a work-in-process showing at the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center on February 26, 2026.
“Providing time and space for artists to engage in the creative process is at the core of Pocantico’s mission,” said Elly Weisenberg Kelly, manager of public programs and residencies at The Pocantico Center. “Partnering with CDI to expand access for dancers and choreographers outside of New York City is an important step in offering expanded opportunities in the field.”
These new partnerships build upon CDI’s other successful collaborations with arts organizations. CDI’s Arts & Social Justice Residency, established in 2021 with Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), is welcoming its third artist this cycle: Chrybaby Cozie and The Breakfast Club E.A.T., led by Daniel Holloway, the Harlem-born pioneer of the Hip-Hop freestyle genre called Lite-Feet. In Staten Island, CDI has partnered with Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden since 2018, and in Queens, York College has been teaming up with Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning since 2021.
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