Fall 2025 offers three global powerhouses in just three weeks. Longtime Duke Dance Program and American Dance Festival collaborator Eiko Otake and Wen Hui will open the dance season with What is War?, a new work that examines the enduring impacts of war on human consciousness, collective memory, and the body. The following week, Brooklyn-based Zimbabwean artist nora chipaumire brings Dambudzo to The Fruit, exploring the revolutionary potential of performance. Paris-based Kenyan artist Wanjiru Kamuyo follows with Fragmented Shadows, a sensorial immersive experience that asks, “how can we use the body as a site of liberation?” Fall dance events close in November with Is it Thursday Yet? a previously announced production centered on Jenn Freeman’s life following her Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis.

Groundbreaking performance continues into spring with two new Duke Arts co-commissions. January marks the world premiere of dance-theatre work time/life/beauty, a music and dance exploration and celebration of composer, musician, and activist Ryuichi Sakamoto by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Rubin Kodheli, and Michael Sakamoto. In March, dancer-choreographer Ephrat Asherie and Grammy-award winning musician Arturo O’Farrill perform their new work Shadow Cities, a vibrant new work celebrating the joy, beauty, and complexity of existing in the in-between.

Spring 2026 introduces a new partnership with Duke’s Native American Studies Initiative (NASI) featuring two milestone programs by Indigenous artists. In February, the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band—presented in collaboration with NC State LIVE—performs in Reynolds Industries Theater. This powerhouse ensemble, composed entirely of Native and Indigenous musicians, has been turning heads with swinging sets that revive and celebrate the deep connections between jazz and Native American history and culture. In April, the season closes with Bear Grease: The Musical, a reimagining of the iconic hit musical through a contemporary Native lens. These events are part of NASI’s upcoming series, The Year of American Indian Pop Culture, with additional programming to be announced.

Two dynamic programs this fall examine how American musical traditions influenced famed European composers. In Rachmaninoff Songbook, virtuoso pianist Conrad Tao traces the impact of American popular music on the work of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Two weeks later, Duke’s resident Ciompi Quartet brings several guest artists for their program Cultural Crossroads: Dvořák in America, a free multimedia concert exploring the influence of Black and Indigenous musical traditions on Czech composer Antonín Dvořák during his time in the United States.

This season brings three bold productions by artists who build community not only through the stories they tell, but through the spaces they create for connection, care, and collective transformation. The Revival: It Is Our Duty—created by composer Troy Anthony and performed by The Fire Ensemble in Duke Chapel over MLK weekend—draws on Black church traditions to create a space of joy, healing, and collective liberation for voices long left outside the sanctuary. That same spirit of chosen community and radical self-love resonates in TESTO by Wet Mess, a solo spectacle that explores trans identity and gender embodiment through punk, poetry, and performance. These performances join the previously announced Holiday Sauce, Taylor Mac’s glitterbomb of subversive holiday spirit that celebrates chosen family through music, spectacle, and radical empathy. Together, these works remind us that community isn’t found—it’s forged.

Throughout the season, Duke Arts Presents highlights artists who forward rich musical traditions while expanding their boundaries. The King’s Singers return to Duke Chapel with their signature blend of wit, virtuosic talent, and impeccable vocal craft that has set the global standard for a cappella performance for over five decades. In Max Roach at 100, drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey joins forces with Sandbox Percussion to honor the legendary jazz innovator with a bold, contemporary tribute that celebrates Roach’s radical artistry and enduring influence. Genre-blending guitarist Marc Ribot, offers re-interpretations of Bob Dylan’s mid-‘60s era poetry in Songs of Resistance, and jazz icon John Scofield leads a top-tier trio featuring bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart—proving once again why he remains one of the genre’s most inventive voices. These performances join the previously announced Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience, a large-scale celebration of the blues.