Announcing American Idle, a performance by Maia Chao, Times Square Arts’ Second Public Artist-in-Residence

Model for American Idle. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Chao’s immersive work studies the human dynamics in the heart of Times Square, which sees an average of 250,000 people each day.

Wednesday, July 9 | Broadway between 46th & 47th Sts | 3pm, 6pm, 8pm 
(Rain Date: Thursday, July 10)

Times Square Arts is pleased to announce their second Public Artist-in-Residence Maia Chao, and her work titled American Idle. During her two-year residency, Chao developed a live performance for Time Square by observing the social behaviors in the public plazas of one of the city’s busiest centers. The hour-long performance, choreographed by Lena Engelstein, will take place on Wednesday, July 9 at 3pm, 6pm, and 8pm in the middle of Times Square. 

American Idle by Maia Chao
Wednesday, July 9 | 3pm, 6pm, 8pm
Duffy Square | Broadway & 46th St
RSVP to timessquarearts@culturalcounsel.com

In her artistic practice, Chao becomes deeply embedded in her environment, and in American Idle, the artist blurs the line between life and performance, mirroring the dynamics of the crowds and real life scenarios.

Choreographed by Lena Engelstein, and devised with dancers Miguel Alejandro Castillo, Marin Day, Benjamin Hard, and Ampersand Paris, American Idle is a movement series drawn from Chao’s studies of the crowds’ bustling patterns amidst the blinking lights in Times Square. Through durational looping and techniques of doubling, glitching, and mirroring, the piece enacts a recursive system where unscripted social behavior becomes performance, and the outline of certain archetypes begin to form – the kissing couple, the tired mother, the lost tourist. American Idle explores how the unique conditions of a public space can homogenize public behavior, including the performance of self for the ever-present camera. In this feedback loop of image and enactment – being seen supersedes being present. Blurring the roles of spectator and subject, American Idle momentarily reframes the commodification of attention, visibility, and movement in one of the most densely populated commercial districts in the country.

As part of her research, Chao shadowed the Times Square Alliance’s sanitation and public safety teams, whose often-overlooked work revealed a practiced eye for noticing what the average visitor may tune out—cracks in the sidewalk, graffiti on a street sign, a sticker on a bench. The sanitation and safety staff document each of the tasks that require repair or removal, capturing the fleeting moments when what is meant to disappear becomes visible: french fries scattered across the plaza, an empty stroller left on the sidewalk. From these evocative images, Chao began inventing narratives, imagining the everyday dramas that gave rise to these accidental tableaus, then turning her attention to the close observation of pedestrian behaviors, which ultimately shaped American Idle, the performance.

As well, Chao consulted with the broad network of the Times Square Alliance, including the in-district organization, Theater of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC), the non-profit dedicated to using theatrical games and exercises to empower communities from adverse backgrounds. In these programs, actors and audiences engage in theatrical brainstorming with the aim of catalyzing creative change on individual, community, and political levels. Chao pursued further training in this method with independent practitioners, Morgan Fitzpatrick Andrews and Christian Hayden. 

Designed around the unique characteristics and communities of Times Square, the Times Square Arts Public-Artist-in-Residence program supports multidisciplinary artists interested in exploring social, cultural, or political concerns within the context of New York City’s most iconic commercial and cultural district. As part of the program, Times Square Arts facilitates connections with relevant individuals and organizations in Times Square – which could include theaters, restaurants, retailers, hotels, non-profits, or street vendors – and provides resources and expertise from the broader Times Square Alliance team across departments, including from operations, to policy and research. In addition to a fee covering the residency period, artists are eligible for funding toward the public presentation of an artwork in Times Square.

American Idle is created in collaboration with choreographer Lena Engelstein and devised with dancers Miguel Alejandro Castillo, Marin Day, Benjamin Hard, and Ampersand Paris. 

ABOUT MAIA CHAO
Maia Chao is an artist who works collaboratively in performance, film, and social practice. She is co-creator of the social practice project, Look at Art. Get Paid (2015-20) with Josephine Devanbu, which piloted at the RISD Museum. She has since made collaborative works with artists Ethan Philbrick, Fred Schmidt-Arenales, and Ree Bradley. Chao has created commissioned films and performances for the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, The Shed, and MoMA Education. Her work has been presented at the Bronx Museum, Cuchifritos Gallery, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Boston Center for the Arts, Tufts University Art Galleries, Smack Mellon, and Oregon Contemporary. She has completed fellowships and residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art. In 2022, she was named a Pew Fellow and in 2023, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Based in Philadelphia, Chao is an artist-member of the art collective and DIY space, Vox Populi. She holds a BA from Brown University, and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently full time faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). 

ABOUT LENA ENGELSTEIN
Lena Engelstein is a Brooklyn-based dancer, performer, and choreographer. Her work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics and The New York Times lauded her and longtime collaborative partner Lisa Fagan as “fully committed comics, unafraid to make donkeys of themselves.” She and Fagan received a commission for New York Live Arts’ 2025 Spring season and the pair received the 2025 FCA Grants to Artist award in Dance. Engelstein has presented work at New York Live Arts, The Collapsable Hole, The Brick Theater, and Life World. This fall, she will be the inaugural resident of Colorado College’s Dance and Theater Alumni residency program. Recent performance credits: Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, Faye Driscoll, Isa Spector, Joanna Kotze, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Third Rail Company (Then She Fell company member, 2019-2020). She has taught choreography/direction at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Barnard College, University of Maryland, and The Field Center. Engelstein holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College.

ABOUT THE DEVISING COLLABORATORS 

Miguel Alejandro Castillo (Concept, Choreographer, Director) is a choreographer, director, educator, and performer from Caracas, Venezuela. Recognized as one of the ’25 to Watch’ in 2024 by Dance Magazine, Castillo is drawn to cross-disciplinary and multicultural collaborations. His current research investigates diasporic imagination and future folklore. As a dancer, he has performed in the U.S and internationally in works by Faye Driscoll, Jeanine Durning, Delfos Danza Contemporánea, among others. Residencies include danceWEB scholarship at ImPulsTanz Festival (2021); Fresh Tracks at New York Live Arts (2022-23). Castillo holds a BA in Dance and Theatre from Middlebury College, an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Smith College, and he is the 2025-2026 Opera Directing Fellow at the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard.

Marin Day is a dancer and arts worker currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She has been fortunate to perform works by Miguel Castillo, Brit Falcon and Betsy Miller and is half of the dance collective PEPTALK with Maddie Hopfield. Marin is currently on staff at Danspace Project and is the Associate Producer for sister sylvester. She holds a BA in Southwest Studies and Dance from Colorado College.

Benjamin Hard is an actor, dancer and comedian hailing from San Antonio, Texas. Recognized by Vogue for “Aw, Ben does Italian-guy voice while eating a New York City hot dog. I love him,” Ben is drawn to authenticity and naturalism and brings his charming spontaneity to any project he tackles. Recent performance credits include process dance works with Bessie award winner Nicole Mannarino, acting in a feature film with Troma pictures, recurring character in Hulu’s The Come Up and third place at the inaugural Pigeon Impersonation Pageant on the Highline. He’s extremely grateful and excited to be working with such an incredible crew on this project for The Times Square Alliance. 

Ampersand Paris is an interdisciplinary performing artist, fermentation revivalist, and the founder of FAILSPACE, a design and communications agency built for culture. She mostly recently collaborated with the experimental collective CHILD directed by Lisa Fagan. Their performance work has been shown at The Center for Performance Research, the School for Contemporary Dance & Thought (SCD&T), the Northampton Center for the Arts, multiple ACDA Regional Conferences, CAMP_iN Dance Festival, the Midwest RADfest, and the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera. Their “Field Guide to Lactofermentation” was published in the Spring 2022 Movement Research Performance Journal. They have taught nationally and internationally at Macalester College, SCD&T, DansArt Academy, and MAS & Co. Studio. They hold a B.A. in dance from Middlebury College where they were the recipient of the 2017 Mahlingaiah Family Dance Prize.

ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world’s most iconic urban places. Through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance’s own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, Mel Chin and Kehinde Wiley, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity.

ABOUT THE TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE
The Times Square Alliance works to improve and promote Times Square—cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture, and urban life for over a century. Founded in 1992, the Alliance keeps the neighborhood clean and safe, promotes local businesses, manages area improvements and produces major annual events with partners including New Year’s Eve, Solstice in Times Square and Taste of Times Square. As the custodians of Times Square, the Alliance works every day to improve the quality of life for the neighborhood residents and businesses while driving economic growth in New York City.

Support for Maia Chao’s American Idle is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.