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About Pivot Arts

Sharing stories that connect us to who we are.

Pivot Arts Festival 2026
New work: local and urgent.

Every year, the Pivot Arts Festival hands the stage to Chicago’s boldest independent artists and lets you watch new work come to life. This year we turn toward some of the most searching, genuine work being made right now. Our four Artists-in-Residence move across theater, dance, photography, performance art, and installation, each wrestling with a question worth sitting with: What do we swallow to keep the peace? What if abundance came with no catch? What happens when the dancers become the music?

From Kayla Reefer’s photographic reckoning with Afro-Panamanian lineage to Sarah Bock’s raw, introspective theater, Mikee Parangalan’s multidisciplinary performance and installation, and Jessica Leyva’s live street-dance score, the 2026 festival is a bet on process, risk, and the artists shaping what’s next.

PIVOT ARTS FESTIVAL

New works-in-development by Kayla Reefer, Mikee Parangalan, Sarah Bock, and Jessica Leyva

Traces and The Money Tree to be shown in exhibition at Wirtz Center Chicago; exhibition dates to be announced. 

What I Wish I Could Say and JESSICA LEYVA PROJECT

Friday, August 14, 2026 | 7:30 PM CST

Sunday, August 16, 2026 | 2:00 PM CST

Wirtz Center Chicago — Abbott Hall, Northwestern University Chicago campus

710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Il
Pay-What-You-Can Tickets

 

In Community,

Jorge Silva

Executive Artistic Director

Sarah Bock

An abstract new play about the gap between what a young woman says and what she truly means. As she moves through her romantic and platonic relationships, reality unfolds in stark white light while bu

Jess Leyva

A live street-dance score rooted in popping, where dancers are assigned to elements of the beat and freestyle a sound score into being — asking, what if the dancers are the musicians?

Kayla Reefer

A photographic reckoning with Afro-Panamanian heritage that weaves family archives, alternative printmaking, and sound into an act of remembering, building belonging for Afro-Latine communities.

Mikee Parangalan

A tender, hopeful performance and installation, made after author Amy Krouse Rosenthal, that pushes back against a scarcity mindset with one radical proposition: abundance can arrive with no catch

Meet the Artists: WHAT I WISH I COULD SAY // JESSICA LEYVA PROJECT aka LIVING INSTRUMENTS

Jessica Leyva Project AKA Living Instruments: Creator

Jessica Leyva (she/her) is a professional dance artist, non-profit executive administrator and institutional giving consultant based in Chicago, IL. Earning a BFA from the University of California, Irvine, she quickly established herself as a leader in the local field of cultural development as a freelance grant writer and Executive Director of Chicago Dance Crash. Jessica was the 2025 recipient of Dance USA’s inaugural Emerging Leader Award in recognition of her contributions to Chicago’s dance and arts non-profit ecosystem. In addition to her work with Chicago Dance Crash, Jessica is also an active practitioner in Chicago’s street dance and popping community and has been known to grace the Crash stage when called upon.

Instagram: @jessleyva_

 

Jessica Leyva Project AKA Living Instruments: Performers

e j e c t
Instagram:e_j_e_c_t

What I Wish I Could Say: Performer

 

Lux Vargas is a Cuban-Chilean artist from Miami, Florida. A rising Senior at Northwestern University, she studies Theatre and Creative Writing, pursuing the music theatre certificate and playwriting module. Acting credits include Dede (lead) in In the Time of the Butterflies (Wirtz Center.) Recent Northwestern directing credits include Hercules of Houston County, Alabama (Wirtz Center), The Winter Guard Play, and her original play La Ventanita. On campus, she is a proud member of Griffin’s Tale, Vertigo Productions, and the Latin Music Ensemble.

 

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/luxvvargas

Instagram: @luxvvargas

What I Wish I Could Say: Creator

Sarah Bock (she/her) is a rising junior at Northwestern majoring in Theatre and Psychology. She is excited to be making her playwriting debut and thanks Pivot Arts for the opportunity! Born and raised in North Carolina, she was inspired by the intricacies of southern purity culture and hookup culture in the context of the modern generation, and the influences of differing value systems on a relationship. She is excited to explore what occurs when the social mask is removed in What I Wish I Could Say. She wants to thank Pivot Arts, Jorge, Dylan, Mengzhen, Lux, and Rose for helping bring these young women’s stories to life!
Instagram: @sarah_bock