The Arts Center 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 program 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 Center 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 September 5 concert brings the musical traditions of New Orleans and North African France into vibrant conversation. For nearly 50 years, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has reshaped the New Orleans brass band tradition through a distinctive blend of bebop, jazz, funk, and R&B. The group’s roots lie in New Orleans’ Black mutual aid societies. These “social aid and pleasure clubs” historically helped communities cover funeral costs and gave rise to the city’s ‘second line’ tradition, where brass bands lead processions that move from solemn reflection into dancing, movement, and collective release. On stage, that history becomes a high-energy sound the band describes as a “musical gumbo”, carrying New Orleans brass into funk, soul, jazz, and contemporary live performance.
Joining them is Fanfaraï, whose music draws on Arab-Berber, Afro-Cuban, Latin, and jazz influences. With roots in North African street-band traditions, the France-based ensemble combines brass, traditional percussion, keyboards, bass, and drums to reimagine Algerian and Moroccan festive music for the stage. Their double bill with Dirty Dozen Brass Band introduces the program with a performance shaped by rhythm, movement, and the meeting of musical traditions.
The second production of the season, The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, condenses the atmosphere and intensity of a three-day rave into an hour of continuous physical performance. Set to the landmark Detroit techno album Nocturbulous Behavior by Suburban Knight, and driven by relentless endurance, the work begins before the audience is fully settled, with music already filling the space and the dancers moving without pause. Created by Oli Mathiesen, with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer, and made possible by the generous support of Arts Council New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, the performance explores repetition, release, and the body’s response to music, with choreography detailed down to every beat. After each performance, audiences will be invited to remain in The Black Box for Raving Ovation, a techno-fueled after-party from 9pm featuring DJ sets from Dubai’s beloved Analog Room, extending the energy of the work into a shared social space. Featured DJs include Moe Amin on Thursday, September 10, Cyrill Reaidy on Friday, September 11, and Bazzzuk on Saturday, September 12.
Further events will be announced in the weeks and months ahead, with upcoming events spanning music, dance, film, contemporary circus, artist residencies, workshops, and community-centered performance. The program 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.
Listings information
Event: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band | Fanfaraï (double bill concert)
Date: Saturday, September 5, 7:30pm
Venue: The Red Theater, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi
Visit here for details and tickets
Event: The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave by Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer
Date: Thursday to Saturday, September 10 to 12, 7:30pm, followed by Raving Ovation, a techno-fueled after-party featuring DJs from Analog Room, at 9pm
Thursday, September 10: Moe Amin
Friday, September 11: Cyrill Reaidy
Saturday, September 12: Bazzzuk
Venue: The Black Box, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi
Visit here for details and tickets
