Crossing The Line Festival 2022

September 9–October 28

Featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker!

Now in its 15th year, Crossing The Line is FIAF’s annual arts and performance festival presented in partnership with NYC’s leading art institutions. This year’s curators, Mathilde Augé and Florent Masse present artists and perspectives from around the French-speaking world that convey thought provoking narratives along with ground-breaking, premiere performances to NY audiences. The 15th edition of the festival features a diverse group of audacious artists engaging with the most pressing issues of our time—including gender, sexuality, human connection, race and climate change—and exploring new territories in performing arts.

  • + Read Curators' Note

Festival Program


Exhibition

Omar Ba
Clin d’oeil


On View: Sep 9–Oct 28
FIAF Gallery

In conjunction with his solo show at the new location of TEMPLON Gallery in Chelsea, FIAF presents one of Omar Ba’s most important historical works, Clin d’œil à Cheikh Anta Diop-Un continent à la recherche de son histoire (2017). The artwork, presented on corrugated cardboard spanning the entire height of the FIAF Gallery, pays homage to Senegalese historian and politician Cheikh Anta Diop.

Theater

Marion Siéfert
_jeanne_dark_

Starring Helena de Laurens

North America Premiere
Wed, Sep 14 & Thu, Sep 15
7:30pm
Post-Show Reception on Wed, Sep 14
FIAF Florence Gould Hall
Segments will also be broadcast on Instagram LIVE

Featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker!

Under the Instagram pseudonym _jeanne_dark_, 16 year-old Jeanne breaks her silence about being bullied in hopes of finding meaningful interactions online. Delicately addressing the pertinent issues of bullying and sexuality, director Marion Siéfert creates a striking work that breaks the fourth wall of theater through intimate live Instagram video.

Theater

Felwine Sarr
and Étienne Minoungou
Traces – Speech to African Nations


NY Premiere
Wed, Sep 21 at 8:30pm
Abrons Arts Center

Based on the Senegalese academic, philosopher and poet Felwine Sarr, this lyrical text is captivatingly performed by Burkinabe actor Etienne Minoungou as an inspiring and imaginative storyteller speaking to his African brothers.

Dance

Robyn Orlin
And so you see… our honourable blue sky and ever enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice…

Performed by Albert Ibokwe Khoza

US Premiere
Thu, Sep 22–Sat, Sep 24
7:30pm
New York Live Arts

In this powerful, solo dance piece from famed South African choreographer Robyn Orlin, dancer Albert Ibokwe Khoza embodies the creative energy of a younger generation with their intense desire to change society.

Theater

Felwine Sarr
and Dorcy Rugamba
Freedom, I’ll have lived your dream until the very last day


North American Premiere
Sat, Sep 24
7:30pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall

This musical theatre performance directed by Dorcy Rugamba brings together the famous political views of poet René Char, psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon, and economist Felwine Sarr. The theme, which celebrates diversity and equity at its core, stands against abjection and reminds us of the difficult relationship between individual consciousness and collective fate.

Performance

Christopher Myers
Fire in the Head


World Premiere
Thu, Sep 29 & Fri, Sep 30
7:30pm
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

A world premiere staged in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Fire in the Head salutes the tortured genius of the pathbreaking dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, who, like many artists today, grappled with the confluence between global and personal crises.

Dance

Kimberly Bartosik
The Encounter


World Premiere
Thu, Oct 6–Sat, Oct 8
7:30pm
FIAF Skyroom
Sold Out

The Encounter blossomed in 2021 from the celebratory energy of choreographer Kimberly Bartosik’s return to the studio post-quarantine. The work is an encounter with oneself, pulling from what we are currently carrying in our bodies—grief, hope, fear, desire, newfound power—and pairs it with our dreams in this moment of reconciliation with time.

Dance

BAM in association with FIAF’s Crossing The Line Festival
CROWD

Conception, choreography and scenography
by Gisèle Vienne

US Premiere
Thu, Oct 13–Sat, Oct 15
7:30pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

In the US premiere of CROWD, the acclaimed French choreographer Gisèle Vienne transports audiences to a 1990’s Detroit rave, and a night spent losing oneself in the crowd.

Dance

Fouad Boussouf
Näss


NY Premiere
Tue, Oct 18 & Wed, Oct 19 at 7:30pm
Thu, Oct 20, Fri, Oct 21 & Sat, Oct 22 at 8pm
Sun, Oct 23 at 2pm
The Joyce Theater

Moroccan choreographer Fouad Boussouf presents the NY premiere of Näss (People). Inspired by an array of dance traditions, the performance is comprised of a corps of seven dancers that respond to powerful beats of percussion and electronic music.

Theater

Bruno Latour
and Frédérique Aït-Touati
The Terrestrial Trilogy

A Performance in Three Parts:
Inside, Moving Earths and Viral

North American Premiere
Thu, Oct 27 at 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 28 at 7pm
Post-Show Champagne Toast on Fri, Oct 28
FIAF Florence Gould Hall
In English

In Honor of Bruno Latour

The late philosopher Bruno Latour worked with director Frédérique Aït-Touati to make the stage a place for “scenic essays” and philosophical experimentation in The Terrestrial Trilogy, a reflection on the need for a profound renewal of our representations of the terrestrial world, living and non-living.

Theater

Caroline Guiela Nguyen
FRATERNITY, A Fantastic Tale


North American Premiere
Fri, Sep 16 & Sat, Sep 17
7:30pm
NYU Skirball
Event Cancelled

In Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s play FRATERNITY, an ensemble cast of professional and amateur actors take audiences on a wild adventure! In a freak incident, part of the human race disappears from the planet. Those who still remain try to heal and make sense of the unexpected loss, now navigating their world without partners, parents and friends.

Leadership Festival Support

Festival Support