Why Broadway Dance Lab Became Dance Lab New York

June 24, 2019

Choreographic incubator Broadway Dance Lab has recently been rechristened Dance Lab New York. “I found the nomenclature of ‘Broadway’ was actually a type of glass ceiling to the organization,” says choreographer Josh Prince, who founded the nonprofit in 2012.

Though the original aim was to “stand among the Broadway community and outreach to a diverse range of choreographers to explore something that might eventually appear on a commercial stage,” it’s grown to embrace dancemakers for whom musical theater is not the goal. “It was always a place to try new things,” he says. “The name change is to invite more types of choreographers to come through our doors.”

DLNY’s signature lab cycles, which provide selected choreographers with a company of 12 dancers and one week of free studio space without expectation of a final product, will continue, alongside newer additions like mentorship initiative DLNY Connect and the Broadway Choreography Intensive. Future plans include genre-specific labs—say, a cycle where the company comprises tap dancers.