WITHOUT PERMISSION:
​PERFORMING IN THE STREETS

This course explores how cities can become places for making and performing. Participants will use movement and improvisation to create performances in everyday public spaces such as sidewalks, parks, trains, storefronts, and plazas. The course will examine key concepts including site-responsiveness,
anonymity, surveillance, mimicry, disruption, audience participation and the limits of public space. 

Students will participate in movement exercises, observational walks, and collaborative actions that heighten awareness of the body within urban environments. Students will develop interventions that test how gesture, costume, voice, and behavior can alter social dynamics and provoke unexpected interactions. Readings will introduce artists who have used public performance as a counter-cultural force. The class will emphasize experimentation, risk-taking, and collective critique. The course will culminate in short public performances.
THIS CLASS IS AVAILABLE IN PERSON
​AT ABRONS ARTS CENTER:
466 Grand Street, NY, NY

TUESDAYS 6-8 PM
October 6 - 27 , 2026
4 sessions +
culminating share out on Friday, October 30
Sliding scale tuition: 
$45, $120, $220, ​or $320
+ $30 non-refundable registration fee

INSTRUCTOR

Gianfranco Reyes is a transdisciplinary artist from Lima, Peru, currently working in New York City. Working across performance, Reyes creates site-responsive actions that investigate power, mimicry, public behavior, and social interaction within urban environments. Drawing from his social practice, Reyes creates supportive spaces where participants can experiment with storytelling and public intervention while developing confidence in their own artistic voice. Reyes has worked in arts education at The School of Making Thinking, The Children's Art Carnival, Columbia University and The Cooper Union.
Image credit :Adrian Piper, Catalysis III, 1970, Photo by Rosemary Mayer.
This program is supported, in part, through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Additionally, our classes are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.