ABU DHABI, 25th August, 2026 (WAM) -- The Arts Centre at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has announced the launch of its 12th Season, a wide-ranging program shaped by renewal, connection, and collective transcendence, bringing artists and audiences together through music, dance, film, performance workshops, and community engagement initiatives throughout the year.
The programme begins with a high-energy double bill featuring the Grammy-winning New Orleans ensemble The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the France-based North African brass and percussion ensemble Fanfaraï, both making their Gulf debuts on Saturday, September 5.
It continues the following week with the Middle East premiere of The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, an award-winning contemporary dance work from Aotearoa/New Zealand, created by Oli Mathiesen, with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer, running Thursday to Saturday, September 10 to 12. Each performance will be followed by a short dance party, with audiences invited to stay for Raving Ovation, featuring DJ sets powered by Dubai’s influential Analog Room.
Together, these first performances introduce a program rooted in grassroots street culture, rhythm, movement, transformation, endurance, and cultural exchange. Connected to global artistic practice and grounded in Abu Dhabi, The Arts Center’s 12th Season will continue to move across disciplines, with further events to be announced in the weeks and months ahead.
Bill Bragin, Executive Artistic Director at The Arts Centre at NYUAD, said: “The Arts Center’s 2026-27 season is rooted in a belief that live performance can inspire a kind of collective effervescence, harnessing the energy of a community and transforming it to something even bigger. We look forward to welcoming back our loyal audiences to witness new work – some of which is deeply rooted in heritage and others of which are inventing the future.
The season is filled with an expansive sense of joy, not as escape or distraction, but as a tool to enable release, resilience, and community in uncertain times. Each performance offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which cannot be replicated and can only be experienced by the people who share space at each particular moment.
“These first performances set that direction clearly, from New Orleans brass and North African street-band traditions to a dance work that turns endurance, rhythm, and the trancelike beats of Detroit techno into collective release. As ever, we hope audiences will come curious and leave inspired.”
The programme will also reflect The Arts Center’s wider role as a home for artistic process, bringing international artists into dialogue with UAE and regional voices while supporting new work, long-term creative relationships, and cross-disciplinary projects developed in close connection with Abu Dhabi.