About

Dance Carousel is officially back! In 2023, the fun show format reopened to sold-out and raucous audiences at the Ground Floor Theatre. This uniquely formatted production of new contemporary dance and dance-based performance art was founded in 2004 by Ellen Bartel. Productions of the past integrated hundreds of choreographers, dancers, and dancegoers in a distinctly Austin (that is, weirdly wonderful…) event. The return of Dance Carousel has given a new life to an old tradition, cross-pollinating and enlivening the local community with a sweet mix of nostalgia and forward-looking innovation.
 
Two different programs, Carousel A on Wednesday, November 6th  and Friday, November 8th  and Carousel B on Thursday, November 7th and Saturday, November 9th  will each showcase the work of ten different choreographers. Each choreographer will create 4 one-minute dances that will be shown in a round, amounting to 40 minutes of dance.
 
The Austin Chronicle proclaimed in 2006 that Dance Carousel is “one of the most pleasurable, thought-provoking, eclectic hours you will ever spend in a theatre” and that “Ellen Bartel’s idea of having 10 choreographers create four dances each and then present them in a kind of round is not just a neat, quirky idea, but a brilliantly entertaining one.”