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Megan Garcia Ziminski and Luke Romanzi from Parsons Dance, which performs at The Joyce Theater this month. Photo by Rachel Neville.
Eclectic companies at The Joyce, Ballet Hispánico, Limón Dance Company and more
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Chelsea's top dance stages, The Joyce Theater and New York Live Arts, present a diverse array of artists this month, including Bill T. Jones, Parsons Dance and tap genius Ayodele Casel. Ballet Hispánico and Limón Dance Company share new and classic works, and the spotlight shines on up-and-comers in various dance showcases. Remember, New York City Ballet's spring season, which we profiled last month, continues through June 1 and concludes with a week of George Balanchine's delightful A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs May 6-11. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Gina Gibney's enterprising repertory company returns to The Joyce with a triple bill, including two world premieres. Rigorous postmodernist Lucinda Childs has created Three Dances (for prepared piano) John Cage performed to music by the famed avant-garde composer, while Peter Chu's Echoes of Sole and Animal, with a score and sound design by Djeff Houle, incorporates traditional Chinese movement philosophies. The final work is the US debut of Israeli choreographer Roy Assaf's A Couple, which interrogates the interplay between two people.
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The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street between 38th and 39th Avenues in Long Island City, Queens
Runs May 7-10.
Brooklyn-based performer-choreographer Anna Sperber presents her latest evening-length work Beacons, set to an immersive score by experimental electronic musician Lea Bertucci. Three dancers, Tim Bendernagel, Owen Prum and Zo Williams, explore the concept of safety in numbers followed by a Sperber solo examining the limits of intimacy and space.
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New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs May 8-10.
To mark her troupe's 25th anniversary, Amanda Selwyn presents the world premiere of Awaken, which fuses new material with choreography from her preexisting body of work. Through evocative movements performed to live original music by Jojo Soul, her 15 dancers explore how to stay present in an era of infinite distractions.
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The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs May 13-24. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
David Parsons' popular company showcases athletic dancers in works set to a wide range of music. For its two-week Joyce run, Parsons has crafted a new solo for his longtime featured dancer Zoey Anderson, set to songs by Roberta Flack, and also invited the in-demand Rena Butler to choreograph the world premiere Sheep's Gothic, inspired by Aesop's Fables and created in collaboration with composer Darryl J. Hoffman. Robert Battle's intensely percussive The Hunt with alternating male and female casts, and repertory works by Parsons including his signature solo Caught, round out the program.
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New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs May 15-24.
Award-winning iconoclast Bill T. Jones and his company return to their home base with a pair of programs featuring politically minded works both expansive and intimate. Curriculum III: People, Places & Things is a world premiere that began as an exploration of the plight of refugees and explores the need to choose where we live, who we love and what we do. Memory Piece: Mr. Ailey, Alvin… the un-Ailey? is a solo meditation on Jones' legacy as he combines movement, music and spoken word to reflect on his career in relation to his peers'.
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NYU Skirball, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South in the West Village
Runs May 16-17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
On the cusp of going pro, the dozen young dancers of American Ballet Theatre's junior troupe exhibit their skills and range in this spring showcase. The lineup includes new choreography by Brady Farrar, Houston Thomas and Madison Brown, a former Studio Company standout who's now dancing with the main company, along with classical repertory by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Kevin McKenzie's Black Swan pas de deux.
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The Center at West Park, 165 West 86th Street at Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side
Runs May 16-17.
Jody Oberfelder conceived, choreographed and directed this new work for five dancers that upends fairy tale tropes and stereotypes. Familiar characters act in novel ways in this piece that's enhanced by the atmosphere of the landmarked church venue.
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Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Lincoln Square
Runs May 16-17.
In addition to their intensive performance training, the intrepid undergraduates in the Juilliard Dance Division are encouraged to test their wings as choreographers. This showcase features student pieces selected by faculty from workshops presented during this past year.
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92NY, 1395 Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street on the Upper East Side
Runs May 21-22.
92NY closes its season with a fascinating program by a troupe that has enjoyed a long, distinguished history on its stage. For its 79th anniversary season, the Limón Dance Company revives founder Josė Limón's rarely seen La Malinche, a 1947 work drawing on his Mexican heritage, as well as his 1949 masterwork The Moor's Pavane, a concise distillation of Othello. The lineup also includes Two Ecstatic Themes, a dynamic early solo by Limón's mentor Doris Humphrey, along with a world premiere by Aszure Barton inspired by an ambitious but unrealized Humphrey project, set to a score by Grammy-nominated composer Ambrose Akinmusire.
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BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Runs May 23-26.
The centerpiece of BAM's annual Memorial Day weekend celebration of African dance honors the culture of Mozambique. Mozambique: Movement! Magic! Manifestation! showcases traditional dance forms that reflect the country's history, spirituality and resilience with performances by The Song & Dance Company of Mozambique, Mama Coumba Saaraba, The Billie's Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble and the DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers.
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The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
May 28-June 8.
An adventurous and visionary tap-dance artist, Ayodele Casel moves the genre in new directions while drawing on long-standing traditions. Her world premiere for The Joyce, directed by her frequent collaborator Torya Beard, explores the connections between tap dance and '90s hip-hop and R&B music.
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Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th Street between Second and Third Avenues in the East Village
Runs May 29-31.
As part of its 50th anniversary season, Danspace Project has devoted several programs to remounting landmark works from its past. The final installment in the series is Marjani Forté-Saunders' reimagining of Chicken Soup, a seminal 1981 solo by the late Blondell Cummings. For this surrealist work, Cummings, an imaginative performer-choreographer who worked with Meredith Monk, drew on recollections of her grandmother in the kitchen with warmth and humor.
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Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street at Washington Street in the West Village
Runs May 29-31.
The Martha Graham Dance Company's vibrant student ensemble performs in the troupe's historic studio space one last time before the org's move to a larger Midtown Manhattan location. The youthful dancers tackle a program of works that span 65 years of Graham's influential career, including the 1916 solo by Ted Shawn that turned her into a star followed by her own powerful, rigorous creations.
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Runs May 29-June 1.
NYC's dynamic Ballet Hispánico, which celebrates Latine culture and artists, returns to City Center with CARMEN.maquia, a dramatic full-length production choreographed by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano that reinvents the tale of Carmen, Bizet's charismatic and complicated character through explosive movement and vivid theatricality.
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New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs May 30-31.
The Yonkers-based MorDance presents a new evening-length work by artistic director Morgan McEwen that draws on the research of forest ecologist Dr. Suzanne Simard to celebrate the splendor of nature.
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Susan Reiter covers dance for TDF Stages.
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