Baila Society and Navatman’s world-premiere collaboration will debut at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater with an original live score blending Latin and Indian musical traditions.
In a significant cross-cultural moment for New York’s performing arts scene, Baila Society and Navatman will present the world premiere of When the Sun Rises, an evening-length production that brings salsa, Latin hustle, Bharatanatyam and Kathak onto one stage through a newly composed live musical score.
The production will be staged from June 26 to 28, 2026, at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, New York. According to the organisers, this is the first time these four forms are being brought together in New York as a single choreographic and musical work.
When the Sun Rises is the second production in Baila Society and Navatman’s multi-year collaborative series, Roots of Resilience. The work has evolved through nearly two years of rehearsal-room exploration, with dancers, choreographers and musicians working closely to create a shared artistic language without diluting the integrity of their individual traditions.
At the heart of the production is an original score performed live by nine musicians representing Latin and Indian musical lineages. The music features Lulada Club musicians Andrea Chavarro, Katherine Ocampo and Daniela Serna, along with Ayamey Bell Torriente, Juan Pulido, Radhika Iyer, Shraman Sen and Sanjay Natesan. The score has been developed with compositional consultation from five-time Grammy-nominated percussionist Manuel Marquez, with musical direction by Sahasra Sambamoorthi, artistic director and co-founder of Navatman.
The work moves through Afro-Cuban rumba and son, flamenco-influenced passages, Kathak tabla and tatkaar sequences, Bharatanatyam varnam structures and salsa rhythmic forms. Rather than presenting the traditions as isolated segments, the production seeks to explore how memory, migration, rhythm and resilience can become shared artistic ground.
The creators describe the work as a response to contemporary conversations around immigration, cultural belonging and the erasure of minority communities. Structured through movements of separation, grief, loss and collective rebuilding, When the Sun Rises asks what it means for communities to hold on to identity while building something new together.
“We kept returning to the same question in the studio,” said Ahtoy Juliana, founder of Baila Society and co-director of the production. “What does it mean to make work that honors where it comes from, in a moment when so much is being taken from people who look like us, sound like us, and are considered outsiders here? We didn’t want to make the show just about the problem. We wanted to make a show that is the answer.”
For Sahasra Sambamoorthi, the collaboration was not about creating novelty for its own sake, but about going deeper into the structure and spirit of each tradition.
“We created an original musical composition of Indian and Afro-Cuban motifs,” she said. “Creating this in this moment in time was more than a bit challenging, but we felt, with every fiber of our being, that it was urgently necessary. Who better to care for our art than those who live and breathe it? And, in doing so, we were able to discover more about our traditions than we could have imagined possible.”
Founded in 2008, Navatman has been among the important Indian classical performing arts organisations in New York, presenting Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Carnatic vocal music through its professional company and community school. Baila Society, founded by Ahtoy Juliana, is known for its work in salsa, Latin hustle and the social dance lineages of the South Bronx and Spanish Harlem, with a focus on cultural preservation and embodied archival research.
Together, the two organisations attempt to build a performance space where classical, social and community-based traditions meet with seriousness, sensitivity and artistic ambition.
The production will also include a companion programme, The Journey Begins, featuring student and emerging dancers from both organisations. This performance will be staged on Saturday, June 27, at 2:30 p.m.
The full-company professional production, When the Sun Rises, will be performed on Friday, June 26 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, June 28 at 3 p.m.
Tickets are priced at $38, $50 and $75 and are available at www.navatman.org/bailasociety2026. The production contains material that some viewers may find intense and is not recommended for children under five.
Performance Details
Production: When the Sun Rises
Companion Programme: The Journey Begins
Presented by: Baila Society and Navatman
Venue: Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019
Dates: June 26–28, 2026
Tickets: www.navatman.org/bailasociety2026
Email: support@navatman.org
