Seven North Texas dance companies will share one outdoor stage at Klyde Warren Park on October 3, when Avant Chamber Ballet presents the second annual Together We Dance, a free, family-friendly celebration of dance and live music running from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the park's Muse Family Performance Pavilion.
The lineup brings together Avant Chamber Ballet's professional company and trainees alongside Dallas Black Dance Theatre: Encore!, Pegasus Contemporary Dance, Bombshell Dance Project, and Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, according to CultureMap Dallas. Pianist Kamilya Akhemtova will provide live accompaniment, a detail the outlet notes fits Avant Chamber Ballet's identity as a company built around live musical performance rather than recorded scores. Event listings on Facebook show an expanded roster beyond that core group, including Ballet Frontier and Grackle Dance Collective, aiming to showcase regional dance diversity in one afternoon.
A Company Built on Live Music, Now in Its 15th Season
Avant Chamber Ballet was founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Katie Puder specifically to fill what she saw as a regional void in North Texas concert dance: professional ballet performed with live music rather than recordings, according to Arts and Culture Texas Magazine. The 2026–2027 season marks Puder's 15th as artistic director and includes the highest number of scheduled performance dates in the company's history, per the Ballet Herald. Outside of free outdoor programming like Together We Dance, the company's main subscription series is staged at the 750-seat Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District, the same publication notes.
Guest Companies Span Four Decades of Dallas Dance History
The showcase's guest roster spans generations of Dallas dance-making. Dallas Black Dance Theatre, whose second company, DBDT: Encore!, is on the bill, was founded in 1976 by Ann Williams and stands as the oldest continuously operating professional dance company in Dallas, according to the company's own history. DBDT: Encore! itself was created in 2000 to showcase classically trained emerging dance artists.
Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, another participant, was co-founded in 2010 by former New York City Ballet dancer Bruce Wood and arts patron Gayle Halperin and is now led by Artistic Director Joy Bollinger, per the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The company maintains Wood's choreographic repertory while also commissioning new works. Bombshell Dance Project, meanwhile, was established in Dallas in 2016 by co-artistic directors Emily Bernet and Taylor Rodman with a mission of amplifying the female choreographic voice through physical dance-theater works, according to TACA-Arts; the pair first met as dance students at Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
A Deck Park Built to Reconnect a Divided Downtown
The setting carries its own history. Opened in October 2012, Klyde Warren Park is a 5.4-acre urban deck park built over the recessed Woodall Rodgers Freeway, constructed to physically reconnect Downtown Dallas with the Arts District, according to the park's own account of its founding. The park now draws more than 1.5 million visitors annually across its green space.
That civic ambition is still expanding. Dallas is investing $200 million to add 1.7 acres to the park over Woodall Rodgers Freeway, including a new event pavilion and flexible outdoor space slated to open in late 2028, FOX 4 News reported. The park has generated an estimated $6 billion in economic development since it opened.
Admission to Together We Dance remains free, continuing the event's role as an entry point for audiences who might not otherwise walk into a traditional theater. The performance is scheduled for the Muse Family Performance Pavilion at Klyde Warren Park, located at 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Dallas.
