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Carolina Alonso Bejarano and inter-disciplinary artist Miguel Alejandro Castillo’s dance-theater project, ELMO-MENTO, has received a Finalist Award for the National Dance Project Production Grant. This $10,000 award is granted by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and it allows winners to apply for $100,000 to produce a proposed performance piece.

Premiering at Abrons Arts Center in Spring 2027, ELMO-MENTO is a multidisciplinary dance-theater work, centering the stories of immigrant New Yorkers who make a living as cartoon character street performers in Times Square. Conceived and choreographed by Castillo in collaboration with Alonso Bejarano, and devised with a cast of seven street performers, this piece investigates notions of labor, anonymity, hybridity, and migration.

By blending personal narratives with surreal embodiment, ELMO-MENTO immerses audiences in the lives and imagination of the performers, who reveal their perspectives on the costs and value of the American Dream. Building upon Castillo’s choreographic practices and Alonso Bejarano’s anti-colonial research methods, this visually striking and thought-provoking performance challenges audiences to consider who is seen, who remains invisible, and what it means to truly belong.

Find out more about the National Dance Project Finalists:

Image: Carolina's collaborator Miguel with Sesame Street's Elmo in Times Square.