(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Nimbus Dance, a Jersey City-based contemporary company committed to creating physically compelling work rooted in community and cultural exchange, announces its Spring Season, Sum of Parts, May 15–16, 2026, with performances at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City. Showtime is 8:00pm each night.
With more than 40 languages spoken in Jersey City and nearly half the population born outside the United States, questions of identity and belonging are central to daily life. For Nimbus Dance, these lived realities shape the foundation of this season's program, taking form in a world premiere by Princess Grace Award-winning choreographer Houston Thomas. Titled A Land, A Promise*, the work is set to choral music by Saunder Choi and performed live by the West Village Chorale. The work draws on two disparate yet connected literary sources: Emma Lazarus' 1883 sonnet The New Colossus, whose words at the base of the Statue of Liberty have long defined the nation's promise to immigrants; and short poems carved into the wooden walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station by detained Chinese immigrants in early parts of the 20th century. Built on a relentless pulse that fractures into moments of warmth and openness, the music holds urgency, contradiction and lament, while Thomas's choreography drives through that tension, creating a landscape where hope and exclusion exist side by side.
Pedro Ruiz's Heart & Flesh* offers a more intimate perspective with a duet set to music by Caroline Shaw and shaped by his fascination with birds and their migratory patterns, against his background experience as a Cuban immigrant. The choreography unfolds in close proximity, with two bodies moving in constant negotiation as the work traces the tension between belonging and displacement and what it means to call a place home. The West Village Chorale also performs live for this work.
Yoshito Sakuraba's Avenoir is driven by sweeping, physically expansive movement that builds a sense of time in motion. The title refers to the desire to see one's memories in advance, and the work moves between momentum and suspension, as layers of repetition give way to moments of stillness. Phrases recur and evolve, as if being revisited and re-understood, creating a landscape where past and present blur. Here, meaning only settles after the moment has already passed, mirroring the ways that identity and belonging take shape over time.
The program closes with Through the Golden Door, a large-scale dance-theater work developed collaboratively by six Nimbus dance artists, in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Helene Stapinski, and directed by Nimbus Artistic Director Samuel Pott. Drawn from recorded conversations with longtime Jersey City residents—activists, artists, and community leaders—the piece uses oral history to capture a city balanced at a critical point of transition, reflecting on the present moment amid disruptive change, uncertainty and ambivalence about the future. The dancers embody these voices to build a living portrait that channels the stories of resilience, displacement, and belonging into a collective portrait.
"At Nimbus, we're always thinking about how dance can hold both personal and collective stories at once," notes Nimbus Founder and Artistic Director Samuel Pott. "This program reflects the world around us—how people move across borders, across time, and across identities—and how those experiences live in the body. This work is about recognizing ourselves and each other inside those stories."
Nimbus Dance's Spring Season, Sum of Parts, will take place May 15–16 at 8:00pm at Nimbus Arts Center (329 Warren Street, Jersey City).
Ticket prices begin at $30 and are available for purchase online. Nimbus Arts Center is located at 329 Warren Street in Jersey City, New Jersey.
*Also performed at Judson Memorial Church, New York City, May 17, as part of the West Village Chorale's This Land is Your Land.
Houston Thomas is a choreographer and former soloist with the Dresden Semperoper Ballett. A Chicago native and graduate of the School of American Ballet, he spent a decade performing internationally before transitioning fully to choreography. His work has been commissioned and presented by companies and institutions including New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, The Washington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and Ailey II, among others. In 2025, he was named a recipient of the Princess Grace Award, recognizing his emerging impact as a choreographic voice.
Saunder Choi is a Los Angeles-based Filipino-Chinese composer and choral artist whose work centers on themes of identity, immigration, and social justice. Winner of the 2024 American Choral Directors Association Raymond Brock Prize, his music has been performed internationally by ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Conspirare, and the Philippine Madrigal Singers. As both composer and vocalist, his work spans concert music and major film scores, including The Lion King, Mulan, and Avatar: The Way of Water. He currently serves as Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
Pedro Ruiz is an award-winning choreographer and former principal dancer with Ballet Hispánico, where he performed for over two decades. His work has been praised for its emotional depth and structural clarity by critics including The New York Times and Time Out New York. A recipient of honors including a Bessie Award and the Joyce Foundation Award, Ruiz has created works for companies across the U.S. and internationally, and is the founder of The Windows Project, a cultural exchange initiative between the U.S. and Cuba. He currently teaches and serves as Resident Artist at Hunter College.
Yoshito Sakuraba is a choreographer and Artistic Director of Abarukas, known for blending abstract storytelling with striking visual imagery. His work has been presented internationally across Europe, Israel, Mexico, and the United States at venues including The Joyce Theater, BAM Fisher, and Jacob's Pillow. He has created works for companies such as Bayerisches Staatsballett, NW Dance Project, and Louisville Ballet, and has received honors including awards from the Masdanza International Contemporary Dance Festival and Italy's FINI Dance Festival. Sakuraba is also an active educator, teaching at leading institutions and universities nationwide.
Praised by The New York Times for its "well-blended sound," the West Village Chorale is a 70-voice ensemble based in New York City. Founded in 1971, the Chorale performs a wide-ranging repertoire from traditional choral works to contemporary commissions, and is currently in residence at Judson Memorial Church. Under the direction of Artistic Director Colin Britt, the ensemble continues to expand its artistic reach through concerts, community events, and collaborations across the city.
Founded in 2005 by visionary Artistic Director Samuel Pott, Nimbus Dance bridges the gap between world-class performance and community engagement. Nimbus Dance is nationally recognized for its distinctive, highly physical concert dance that reveals poignant insights into contemporary life. The company's aesthetic "splits the difference between traditionalism and modernism... A Nimbus Dance piece can pivot from ballet to Broadway to Beyoncé in a few beats" (Tris McCall, Jersey City Times).
The company tours nationally, impacting over 16,000 people annually, maintains its home base at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City's Powerhouse Arts District—a 14,500 sq ft venue supporting interdisciplinary arts and housing the School of Nimbus– and recently opened a second facility in Summit, NJ. Recent collaborations include work with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the New Jersey Symphony at NJPAC, the Gordon Parks Foundation, and the Bar Harbor Music Festival at the Acadia Dance Festival, which Nimbus produces. The organization's education programs serve 6,500 youth across New Jersey annually.
