A new dance work built around table tennis gets its world premiere on the Lower East Side next month. Daily Diversions, by choreographer and filmmaker Cherrie Yu, plays three nights, November 12 through 14 at 7:30 p.m., in the Playhouse Theater at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street at Pitt Street.

The piece treats ping pong as a way of building community. Yu made it with table tennis players from around the world and a group of dancers spanning several generations, and it looks for the shared vocabulary between postmodern dance and the everyday motion of people who play a sport for fun. Abrons ran an all-ages ping pong tournament on October 24 as part of the project's lead-up.

A week earlier, on Thursday, November 5, Abrons opens a separate film installation and exhibition by Puerto Rican artist Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, with a free opening reception at 6 p.m.

Who Is Behind Daily Diversions

Cherrie Yu was born in Xi'an, China, and has lived and worked in the United States since 2013. She works across choreography, film, writing and installation, and her practice deals with how knowledge passes from one body to another, how archives work, and the idea of the artist as an amateur. She holds a BA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she has held residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Yaddo, MacDowell and the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program. Her work has been shown at ICA Maine, Movement Research at Judson Church and Essex Flowers Gallery, among other places.

Daily Diversions grew out of Yu's Performance AIRspace residency at Abrons, an 18-month development residency for two early-career performing artists at a time, followed by a production period the next year. The residency is funded by the Jerome Foundation and the city's Department of Cultural Affairs.

Performance Dates

  • Thursday, November 12, 7:30 p.m., Playhouse Theater
  • Friday, November 13, 7:30 p.m., Playhouse Theater, masks required at this performance
  • Saturday, November 14, 7:30 p.m., Playhouse Theater

Tickets are sold online through the links on the Abrons program page. The box office opens one hour before each show, and Abrons does not sell tickets by phone.

Also Opening: En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy

En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy runs November 5 through December 20. Lassalle-Morillo, who was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, reworks the Greek myth of Antigone with two ensembles of nonprofessional actors: one drawn from New York City's Puerto Rican community and one based in Puerto Rico. At Abrons it appears as a two-part film installation. Part I follows the New York cast as they rehearse and rebuild the myth, and Part II follows the Puerto Rico ensemble developing its own version.

An exhibition of works made with the performers accompanies the films and traces nearly eight years of research and exchange between New York and Puerto Rico. The project was directed during Lassalle-Morillo's two-year La Residencia residency, a partnership between Abrons and Pública Espacio Cultural in San Juan, and was organized by residency curator Natalia Viera-Salgado. It is presented with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. Lassalle-Morillo took part in the 2026 Venice Biennale, and her work has also been shown at the Cooper Hewitt and the National Portrait Gallery.

The opening reception on November 5 at 6 p.m. is free, with an RSVP through the program page.

Getting There

Abrons Arts Center is a program of Henry Street Settlement and sits at 466 Grand Street, at the corner of Pitt Street. The closest subway stops are East Broadway on the F and Delancey Street-Essex Street on the F, J, M and Z. The building is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and general questions go to (212) 598-0400.

Daily Diversions plays November 12, 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m., and En Parábola opens with a free reception on November 5 at 6 p.m. Tickets and RSVPs for both are on the Abrons calendar.

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