A DJ booth in the corner, photographs constellating the walls, dancers off duty in their Dimes Square finest. At first glance, through the fogged glass street side, the event looks like your average Wednesday night gathering of beautiful people in some gallery space on the Lower East Side. In some ways, The Corner Vol 1 Launch party is just that, in others, it is anything but.
The Corner, a digital archive for dance, was started by Evan Sagadencky with the mission of cultivating a platform for dance content. Through a series of short videos showcasing the work of dancers and choreographers, The Corner does just that. It offers an entry point for dance spectator-ship in the digital space that reaches beyond the dance community.
Dance is subject to this paradox of being completely ubiquitous and yet incredibly opaque. Movement, it seems, is all around and yet dance, itself, is rarely protagonized. In the commercial space, it vignettes that which is being sold: dancing feet in a sneaker advertisement or disembodied hands moving mesmerizingly in sync to endorse a product in a Superbowl ad. In creative spaces, too, dance faces a similar problem of being supplemental to other more legible art forms: ie back up dancers to a pop artist, or dance corp in a Broadway show.
It was this very always the bridesmaid, never the bride problem that inspired founder and creative director, Evan Sagadencky to create The Corner. Evan’s credits are extensive, from campaigns to music videos to currently touring as one of two dancers on Lorde’s Virgin tour. When creating The Corner, he brought on Kate Collins, Lilah Beldner, and Serena Hughes, all who wear similarly impressive laurels.
Volume 1, released September 16th, 2025, is the first of an episodic series spotlighting New York City based choreographers and dancers across genres. The episodes are released bi-weekly and run two to four minutes. Ranging from modern and contemporary to hip hop and voguing, the episodic installments share a common goal: for dance to act as the centerpiece. The production and directorial style of the videos aid in this focalization. Shot beautifully with paired down production design and few frills, the episodes open a space for dance to enunciate itself; to articulate itself without being ornamental to more “legible” art forms.
When creating the Corner, Sagadencky took cues from other platforms. Tiny Desk does well to spotlight musical artists in a bare bones setting. Vimeo provides a way for low budget and alternative films to reach audiences. The videos released on these platforms are multipurpose. They serve as digital portfolios as well as entertainment. They facilitate engagement with artists beyond the commercial space. And, subsequently, they push audiences to expand their awareness of the art they’re engaging with.
When speaking on The Corner, Sagadencky cites this increased awareness as part of his vision, “all these other art forms have full ecosystems to support the artist. Dance is the only field that doesn’t have that yet.” A large part of that ecosystem is the audience. “People are interested [in dance] but they don’t know what to look for.” It’s commonplace to have a favorite musician or director, but maybe more rare to name a favorite choreographer.
People love to dance: at the club, in the kitchen; with friends, with strangers; out of joy or necessity. The Corner seeks to channel that reverence and refine it. By acting as an entry point for dance discovery, the platform challenges viewers to increase their curiosity. It pushes viewers to increase their movement literacy. It works to empower them as audience members so that they may become curators of their own tastes. In Sagadencky’s perfect world, admiration for the practice becomes admiration for the medium. That People love to dance might become people love dance, and that someday soon, we may all be on a crowded dance floor not talking about a new indie album or a new A24 film, but about the up and coming choreographers soon to dominate in the creative zeitgeist.
In the age of the multi-hyphenate, in the city of the interdisciplinary, dance still faces the problem of being relatively inaccessible to those who are not, themselves, dancers. This disciplinary blind spot, though, is not intimidating to Evan Sagadencky. Rather, it’s exciting.
“I think we’re in this moment of commercial contemporary dance. It’s everywhere, but because dance is so often left out [of the creative multi-hyphenate], it creates a lot of intrigue.”
It’s this very intrigue responsible for the eclectic mix of artists that came together at the Volume 1 launch party. Cinematographers chatted with dancers, choreographers with photographers, and writers with directors, designers, actors, textile artists, and anyone else who they might get the attention of.
The dance world attendees celebrated the focalization of their art form, while the non-dancer contingency crackled with curiosity for a creative world not yet discovered. All around, there was an excitement unique to being the first; to being on the ground floor of something boundless. An air of palpable newness that is rare in a city so saturated with iterations of that which preceded it.
After the congratulations were given and the speeches were made. After the mingling was done and the contacts exchanged. After the cigarette break asides were taken and the free natural deodorant applied. The talking died down, the DJ took charge, and the guests deferred to dancing.
