Next Wave Festival

BAM’s prestigious Next Wave Festival was launched in 1983 to spotlight the experimental, cross-disciplinary programming introduced by Harvey Lichtenstein, BAM’s pioneering president and executive producer. Originally granting a larger stage to a handful of promising young emerging artists, the Next Wave has grown into a busy, vibrant festival scheduled each year during BAM’s fall season. Performances are often non-linear and imagistic, the result of adventurous, cross-disciplinary collaborations among artists both emerging and established. Many of the artists who’ve become inextricably associated with BAM and the Next Wave are now considered iconic, seminal names in contemporary performance.