{"id":114235,"date":"2026-08-03T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=114235"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:58:09","slug":"hamptons-dance-project-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette-2026","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/hamptons-dance-project-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamptons Dance Project Brings Ballet to the Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jose Sebastian
Photo Credit: Erin Baiano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hamptons Dance Project returns to Springs for its eighth season August 7\u20139<\/a>, as stars of American Ballet Theatre trade the Metropolitan Opera House for Fireplace Lodge, a sweeping bluff-top stage overlooking Gardiner\u2019s Bay. The weekend has become one of the East End\u2019s<\/a> most distinctive cultural events, bringing together world-class dancers and choreographers in an intimate coastal setting. This summer\u2019s program features ballets by Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied, Lar Lubovitch, and Jorma Elo, alongside a new work by ABT alum Gemma Bond, a rising choreographic voice marking her fifth commission for Hamptons Dance Project, as well as pieces by current company members James Whiteside and Duncan Lyle.<\/p>\n

Hamptons Dance Project is the brainchild of Jose Sebastian, an ABT company member and director of the ABT Incubator choreographic workshop. Adopted from New York City foster care at age two, he discovered his love of movement on his first trip out East with his mother, Pat. Along with his sister, they vacationed there throughout the 1990s, when Pat, a public school teacher, was able to stretch her tax refund to cover a modest summer rental. \u201cI just have these magical memories,\u201d Jose says. \u201cI was always running in the wind and jumping in the ocean.\u201d One night in 2018, after a performance at Lincoln Center, mother and son were walking uptown when they began talking about those formative holidays. \u201cJose said, \u2018Mom, someday I want to bring the dancers to East Hampton to dance,\u2019\u201d Pat recalls. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Don\u2019t say someday, just do it. I\u2019ll help you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jared Alexander in his This Present Moment,<\/em> 2025
Photo Credit: Erin Baiano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project\u2019s success has come in part from the Sebastians\u2019 belief that anything is possible. Hamptons Dance Project\u2019s inaugural 2019 season was held at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The following summer, Covid-19 restrictions forced a drastic shift: The show moved outdoors, with just 50 people allowed, including the artists. \u201cI curated a program with a bunch of solos and one group piece with three guys, and we made it work,\u201d Jose recalls. That improvisational spirit ultimately shaped Hamptons Dance Project\u2019s identity. In 2021, the program relocated to its current venue, a former girls\u2019 camp transformed in the 1970s by artist Mary Bayes Ryan for community use. The property includes a barn, yurts, and a platform stage, but no dance-specific infrastructure. \u201cThere is no sprung floor, dressing rooms, seating, or stage lighting, so we rent a Marley [floor] and some tents and chairs,\u201d Pat says. \u201cAnd I ask the sun to shine a light on us at certain points during the show,\u201d Jose jokes.<\/p>\n

He aims to make Hamptons Dance Project performances accessible both to ABT fans summering out East and to neighbors who are not regular balletgoers, programming works that move between what he calls \u201cpurely classical tutu pieces\u201d and more interdisciplinary forms. Guest tap artist Jared Alexander will return for his third season, while pianist David Evans will play Brahms live on stage for Lubovitch\u2019s male pas de deux Each Within Their Own Time,<\/em> danced by Jose and Aran Bell. A defining feature of the weekend is its embrace of dancers as multi-hyphenates. Bell will also dance a Whiteside-choreographed solo performed to a live rendition of pop-soul singer Rozzi\u2019s \u201cJoshua Tree,\u201d with dancer Tristan Brosnan on guitar backup. Meanwhile, Lyle\u2019s neoclassical Pas d\u2019Aurore<\/em> will feature Brosnan and Fangqi Li in pastel costumes the dancer-choreographer-costume designer stitched himself.<\/p>\n

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Lauren Bonfiglio and Tyler Maloney in Justin Peck’s Chutes and Ladders,<\/em> 2025. Photo Credit: Erin Baiano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pas d\u2019Aurore<\/em> debuted during the 2025 ABT Incubator, alongside another Whiteside work on the program, Mantle,<\/em> set to Ren\u00e9e Fleming\u2019s recording of Franz Schubert\u2019s lieder. The later ballet evolved from an earlier duet, On the Water,<\/em> which Whiteside performed with Isabella Boylston at Hamptons Dance Project\u2019s inaugural season in 2019 and again in 2024. \u201cI\u2019m a big beach person, so I feel really lucky to be able to dance and show my dances in this beautiful natural environment,\u201d Whiteside says. But Hamptons Dance Project is not all work and no play: The dancers spend a week rehearsing together, with time to revisit the founder\u2019s childhood haunts, from swimming at Main Beach to dinners at Il Cappuccino and ice cream at Big Olaf in Sag Harbor. \u201cSomething about the light, landscape, and pace of the Hamptons invites creativity,\u201d Bond says. \u201cNew work seems to arrive there with a little more freedom and a little more wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read <\/span>GRAZIA USA’<\/em>s Hamptons Gazette<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n