Great Neck’s Dance Visions NY is taking the common perceptions of the subway and flipping it on its head.

The dance company is performing a 28-minute dance piece titled “Subway Windows” that incorporates a collection of different dance styles, from breakdancing to modern, to transform New Yorker’s daily commutes into an artistic expression. It will be performed on Sept. 15 at Manhattan’s The Chain Theatre as part of the SPARK Theatre Festival.

“On the subway there’s so many people coming from so many different places, so many different emotional states, so many different life stories,” artistic director and choreographer Beth Jucovy said. “…[The performance is] about connections and what’s possible even in the city.”

The dance piece is based on artist Ilene Isseks’ “The Subway Series” paintings, which illustrate riders on the subway yet oftentimes take a surrealistic interpretation of their daily commutes.

The dancers and Jucovy worked closely with Isseks in creating the dance piece, integrating her in the process as they built up to their complete piece. Isseks described it as seeing the paintings “come to life.”

“The collaborative aspect of [the performance], between Beth and her vision, between the music and the musicians who are just wonderful, and then the individual dancers who are so incredibly talented, really bringing not only their character but also themselves to the piece I think is what makes it so incredibly engaging and relatable and exciting to watch,” dancer Abby Dias said.

Isseks, a resident of Floral Park, is a native New Yorker who said she’s been riding the subway even before she was born.

Her painting series of the subways began in 2016 when she returned to her home city and found herself once again riding the subway every day.

“I was really taken aback by the preponderance of faces I was seeing and I was just totally amazed and I couldn’t be staring at everybody,” Isseks said, so instead she painted them.

Each dancer selected a person from Isseks’ paintings to embody in their performance.

Dias, who has been with Dance Visions since 2021, is a dancer in the performance but also took a lead role in its casting.

Dias’ role is based on a mermaid-like individual in Isseks’ “14 Next Stop Mermaid Avenue” adorned in fish scales and a mermaid tale but with a typical hairstyle and modern attire.

“The mixture between Ilene’s artwork and maybe my crazy imagination, I wanted to bring this character to life so I created this storyline that was kind of more naturalistic, realistic version of the Little Mermaid but not nearly as whimsical or fun,” Dias said. “Kind of a creature who lived in the ocean who wanted to escape due to violence, due to climate change and ended up in New York City hoping for a better life but found a world equally as terrifying and uninhabitable.”

Tyler Brunson, a New Jersey-based dancer specializing in modern and contemporary dance, selected an individual wearing headphones from Isseks’ painting “Subway #3.”

“I could see myself moving and being that person in everyday life,” Brunson said.

Jucovy said the dance performance encompasses the spirit of the subway, with riders acting individually and isolated from their surroundings. Yet the riders are not all that isolated after all, Jucovy said, interacting with their environment in many small and big ways.

“[On the subway], people are so involved in themselves,” she said. “Even in any kind of waiting situation, a waiting room, they have their own lives and they’re not connecting but their own lives we sort of see it at a bird’s eye view where everyone’s anonymous but meanwhile if you actually focus on one person there’s such a big story.”

Brunson described the process from audition to final rehearsals as a “collective journey” with the dancers as they become the individuals from the paintings.

Jucovy said that, like the diverse array of strangers the dancers portray, they were strangers when they came together to perform this piece. They came from different backgrounds and specialized in different dance styles. Despite this challenge, Jucovy said they have flourished together.

“I believe audience members can see themselves in the dancers,” Jucovy said. “[The dancers are] becoming characters from the paintings but they’re also themselves.”

She said the performance can offer solace for New Yorkers and combat the subway-weariness of many commuters.

“People that are kind of disillusioned with city life I think there’s hope in this piece,” Jucovy said. “It’s showing possibilities that can happen even in the most drudgery moments of one’s day. There are still possibilities, there are still moments of joy so in a way it’s sort of countering all the negative media about New York City.”

The performance will be held on Sept. 15 at Manhattan’s The Chain Theatre located at 312 W 36th St, 3rd Floor as part of The Factory Series @Chain Theatre. The performance will begin at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door and can be purchased online.