L’Alliance New York announces upcoming performances of Alessandro Sciarroni’s Save the Last Dance for Me, set for Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 2 & 4PM and Sunday, March 1, 2026 at 2PM (followed by a two-hour workshop) at Le Skyroom, L’Alliance New York, 22 E. 60th Street, 8th Floor, NYC. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased https://lallianceny.org/event/save-the-last-dance-for-me/.

A dazzling revival of the nearly forgotten Italian folk dance Polka Chinata, Save the Last Dance
for Me is a breathtaking duet of whirling spins and sweeping knee bends. Hailed as “engaging,
delicate, and terribly attractive” (La Terrasse), this acclaimed work reimagines tradition with
boldness, beauty, and contemporary flair. The performance is 20 minutes.

Following Sunday’s performance, dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini will host a workshop to teach Polka Chinata to the public. Borzillo says: “The workshop is for every kind of body, every age. The dance is difficult. It took us six months to learn. Mastering it isn’t the goal of the workshop. The goal is to save the dance — maybe not from extinction, but from memory loss. A folk dance survives as long as someone has a memory of it. People who come to the workshop may not be able to dance it completely, but they will know what it is, and that’s how it survives.”

These performances and the workshop are part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival in New York.