Summer @ The Well is back, offering a refreshing social experience at a 21+ pub in the lower level of Yale Schwarzman Center. Each month of summer, The Well becomes the spot to gather with friends and colleagues to savor live performances and the consummate pub experience. Mark your calendar for all three events in this series. We’ll keep you humming all summer long.
Summer @ The Well
Ross Wightman & Amanda Ekery Duo
June 11 | 6pm–10pm | The Well
Free and open to the public ages 21+
SIGN UP and let us know you plan to attendPop into The Well for Ross Wightman and Amanda Ekery in a night of jazz standards, reimagined pop classics, and original music. Two dynamic and versatile musicians, Amanda and Ross have performed everything from creative improvised music and Texas swing to musical theater and new music world premieres. And on top of it all? They’re Residential Fellows at Ezra Stiles College.
Mark your calendar to enjoy the whole summer!
Summer @ The Well
Oasis - hosted by Seeing Sounds
July 9 | 6pm–10pm | The Well
Free and open to the public ages 21+
SIGN UP and let us know you plan to attend
For this installment, Yale Schwarzman Center presents an intimate iteration of Seeing Sounds, artist Trey Moore’s New Haven-based creative brand and cultural hub known for music-driven social experiences and a strong local following.
Summer @ The Well
Jeff Brock Trio
August 13 | 6pm–10pm | The Well
Free and open to the public ages 21+
SIGN UP and let us know you plan to attend
Yale Professor Jeff Brock is an accomplished jazz musician, performing with talented friends for our last Summer @ The Well before the academic year sneaks up on us! Brock is Dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the William S. Massey Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Statistics & Data Science.
Yale Schwarzman Center fan bonus!
Special group discount for tickets to
Pilobolus Other Worlds at Shubert Theatre!
In advance of their six-week summer dance class series EveryBody Dances @ Yale Schwarzman Center, Pilobolus has extended a group discount code to their June 18 show at Shubert Theatre. This discount is good for our Yale Schwarzman Center subscribers and friends!
Pilobolus
Other Worlds
June 18 | 8pm | Shubert Theatre | PURCHASE TICKETS
20% off on purchases of 10 or more tickets
Code: GROUP20
Pilobolus’s Other Worlds Collection traverses the spaces we inhabit—from the realms within ourselves, society, and the universe—with wit, wisdom, and whimsy.
This collection features collaborations with visionaries who see the world through the lens of theater, music, and dance, including award-winning playwright and director Aaron Posner, multi-instrumentalist and composer Stuart Bogie, choreographer and former Pilobolus dancer Gaspard Louis, original Pilobolus member Lee Harris, and composer Paul Sullivan.
Let Pilobolus take you on a journey through the multitudes of the human condition, seamlessly fusing sensuality, humor, and extraordinary physical prowess into a performance that will leave you spellbound.
Mark your calendar for
EveryBody Dances with Pilobolus!
EveryBody Dances with
Pilobolus
Summer Series
Sundays July 12 - August 16 | 11am–12:30pm | Dance Studio
Free and open to the public with registration.
REGISTRATION opening soon
July 12 REGISTRATION opens July 3 4pm
July 19 REGISTRATION opens July 10 4pm
July 26 REGISTRATION opens July 17 4pm
August 2 REGISTRATION opens July 24 4pm
August 9 REGISTRATION opens July 31 4pm
August 16 REGISTRATION opens August 7 4pm
EveryBody Dances @ Yale Schwarzman Center brings local and visiting dance artists to our Dance Studio to teach masterclasses in jazz, hip hop, salsa, modern, contemporary, precision dance and more! All community members are welcome. This summer we are offering six weeks of classes led by rotating members of Pilobolus; Reneé Jaworski, Emily Kent, Matt Kent, and Derion Loman.
Join a six-week, studio-based dive into Pilobolus’s core practices—improvisation, partnering, and collaborative choreography. Each session blends a playful warm-up, skill labs, and a fast composition, ending with a brief share.
Drop-ins are welcome any week, and the series is designed to build progressively for those who attend regularly.
This class will develop the following areas of practice:
Improvisation range
Physical listening
Partnering literacy
Weight-sharing, counterbalance, and trust
Group composition tools
Structure, editing, and clarity
Ensemble skills
Communication, consent, and creative leadership
Hair, Home & Belonging
June 17 | 6pm–9pm | The Underground and The Well | JOIN THE WAITLIST
Free and open to the public with registration
Hair, Home & Belonging is an intimate panel conversation that centers Black hair as a site of identity, culture, politics, and community.
Join us for a wine and cheese reception in The Well at 6:00 PM, followed by the panel conversation in The Underground at 7:00 PM.
The evening brings together hair practitioners Luvena Leslie, Renee Loren, and Jazmi Zanders, historian Siobhan Carter-David, and Academy Award-winning Yale Professor Theodore Kim for a conversation moderated by celebrated author, journalist, and publicist Stacy Graham-Hunt.
The event takes on additional resonance alongside RUSUNUNGUKO (liberty/independence/freedom), the current installation in the Yale Schwarzman Center Dome by Zimbabwean-born artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti. Featuring site-specific vinyl braids woven throughout the space, the installation creates a powerful curatorial dialogue with this panel. As Yale Schwarzman Center’s Rachel Fine noted, “It’s more than coincidence. It’s a curatorial statement.”
Co-Presented with International Festival of Arts & Ideas
RUSUNUNGUKO
(liberty / independence / freedom)
Extended through June 2027 | The Dome
Free and open to the public PLAN YOUR VISIT
Designer and visual artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti is the assistant professor and director of graduate studies in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. Mutiti’s printed works, films, and installations engage with the history and aesthetics of hair braiding in black life. “Ruka” (Shona for “to weave, braid, or knit”) brings social binding alongside physical braiding; the arrangements of salons, living rooms, and porches where hair is braided provide social contexts for her projects.
The Mercy Velvet Project
June 26 | 7:30pm | 53 Wall Street | PURCHASE TICKETS
June 27 | 3pm | 53 Wall Street | PURCHASE TICKETS
June 27 | 8:30pm | 53 Wall Street | PURCHASE TICKETS
The 1999 album, Live in Vain by Mercy Velvet, exists on zero streaming platforms, and few people have heard it…until now. The Mercy Velvet Project (premiere June 2026) is an embodied re-creation of the album with a queer and femme cast exploring different barriers to experiencing love.
Over twenty-five years after the albums’ release, kamrDANCE and their collaborators tell the story of the album through tap dance as percussion, contemporary dance, original text, and instrumentation via bass, guitar, vocals, and electronics.
Live in Vain by Mercy Velvet is the music that Choreographer Alexis Robbins grew up with. Her father, Mark Robbins, was the drummer and co-composer for Mercy Velvet, alongside lyricist and vocalist Deb Lili, and guitarist Lou Lili. Now, Alexis, Musical Director Christie Echols, and their collaborators bring Live in Vain to audiences for the first time.
Co-Presented by kamrDANCE and Yale Schwarzman Center with support from Yale Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
Five Exhibitions Now Open
Free and open to the public
No registration required.
Plan your visit today!
Visit 168 Grove Street to experience six dynamic exhibitions showcasing exceptional artworks from 53 student artists, and one instructor who call New Haven home. Witness original and colorful works by New Haven high school students, Yale undergraduate students, Yale graduate students, and Yale faculty. The student artists come with a range of experience, from self-taught to professional, encompassing a wide array of mediums and art practices. LEARN MORE
