What is the audience’s role in live performances? When Bill Bragin, executive director of the NYUAD Arts Centre, arrived in Abu Dhabi in 2014, he was on a mission to bring performance art to the city. Not just any performance art, however – performance art that challenged its audience, excelled in its field and pushed the boundaries of the genre itself. This season’s performances at NYUAD Arts Centre are no different.

The programme consists of an eclectic mix of artists, all of whom have built their careers by making engaging art that encourages audience participation. Bragin says the local community is primed to embrace the unknown, something which he wanted to reflect in the centre’s programming.

Host Razmig Bedirian, culture writer at The National, is joined by Bragin to talk about the upcoming events in the Arts Centre spring programme. Artists who are pushing the boundaries of their genre such as Kaki King, Kid Koala, Circus Abyssinia and performace duo Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers.