Mt. Airy native Lila Kushner was 7 years old when she walked through the studio doors of Philadelphia Dance Theatre (PDT) for her first lesson.
Seventeen years and innumerable lessons later, the contemporary dance artist, choreographer and teacher is making her triumphant return to PDT on July 5 and 6 for the premiere of “This Time Tomorrow (I’ll Be Seeing You),” Kushner’s debut as a professional and the first performance of one of her dance compositions since she won Regional Dance America’s 2024 National Choreography Award.
Kushner – currently a teaching artist with Pilobolus, one of the nation’s leading modern dance companies – is bringing together 11 other young professional dancers from around the country for the outdoor performances, both of which will be at 8 p.m. at PDT on the New Covenant Campus at 7500 Germantown Ave.
“This Time Tomorrow (I’ll Be Seeing You)” is a 50-minute exploration of journeys and transitions built around the metaphor of a train ride. The dancers will join Kushner to perform a series of solos, duets, trios and larger group dances that evoke the powerful emotions associated with the universal human experiences of travel, change and coming together in a common meeting place.
“Community is paramount in my work, both in the artistic environment and in the final creation,” said Kushner, who earned her BFA in contemporary dance performance with an emphasis in composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2023 after graduating from Germantown Friends School in 2018. “I’m excited by the architecture of groups and the ways that people gather to go in the same direction, like a morning train commute, students in a dance program or dancers coming together to rehearse and perform. Those are the types of shared journeys that informed this show’s narrative.”
For Kushner and four other PDT alumni dancing in the performance — Ma’ayan Kaplan, Analiese Capponi, Olivia Chesla and Henry Griffin (a dancer with Boston Ballet) — having PDT host “This Time Tomorrow (I’ll Be Seeing You)” is both a celebration of community and a homecoming.
“PDT has played such an important role in my life,” said Kushner, whose first dancing role was as an angel in PDT’s annual winter production of “A Philadelphia Nutcracker” at age 8.
“Philadelphia Dance Theatre is the premier classical ballet school in the region, but its mission goes far beyond that,” Kushner said. “The dance theater’s artistic director, Joy Delaney Capponi, creates well-rounded dancers by including all styles. Her training fosters a love for the arts and instills lessons that we can use in other parts of our lives.”
Capponi founded PDT 24 years ago. She has trained hundreds of talented dancers, many of whom have been invited to study at the world’s most prestigious ballet schools and are dancing professionally around the globe.
“I knew Lila was special from the time she was very young,” Capponi said. “She is such a balanced human being. She’s gifted and talented, but she’s also humble, willing to learn and hardworking. Dancing isn’t easy; it’s going to be a struggle. Lila has shown that she can work hard and set ambitious goals without leaving others behind. She’s a natural-born teacher, communicator and connector.”
Kushner left Philadelphia to continue her intensive dance training at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2018, but her pathway to a degree was disrupted by the COVID pandemic. She decided to take a gap year and returned to Philadelphia in 2020-2021. Determined to grow, she threw herself into a rigorous, self-directed program of training and choreography at PDT with her friend and mentor Kiley Dolaway, a professional dancer and PDT alumna currently with Tanz Kassel, a contemporary dance company associated with Staatstheater Kassel in Germany.
“Lila never rested during COVID,” Capponi said. “She was in here working all the time with Kiley. It really catapulted her.”
Returning to Boston feeling “recentered” as an artist, she channeled that period of intense focus into the second half of her college education, a two-year period when Kushner performed works by notable artists including T. Lang and Victor Quijada; danced with Boston’s Hybrid Motion Dance Theatre; and choreographed work for the Boston Conservatory Summer Intensive.
The momentum continued after graduation. Kushner’s work “Parola” won the 2023 Regional Dance America Northeast Emerging Choreography Award, for which she received a full scholarship to the 2023 National Choreography Intensive (NCI) in Ohio. Kushner earned the 2024 National Choreography Award for “If, By Chance,” an eight-minute piece featuring 19 dancers, all PDT students.
For “This Time Tomorrow (I’ll Be Seeing You),” Kushner will have a dual role: choreographer and dancer. But is all the recent recognition for her choreographic work pushing her toward a career focused solely on choreography?
“I love choreography. I love dancing. I love teaching,” she said. “I can’t imagine a career in dance without all three. I’m so happy that, at least for now, I’ve found a way to make that dream possible in this city that I love so much.”
Tickets are $10, and are available at the door with cash or Venmo. Bring your own chair or blanket to sit on.
(online)
TICKET INFORMATION: Pre-sale tickets are available online here for seats with the best view of the stage. Additional tickets will be sold at the door via cash or Venmo, but guests will be required to bring their own chair or blanket, and the view isn’t quite as good. All tickets are $10.
