Season Preview 2022: Dance
We're so ready for these great dance performances, we're jeté-ing for joy.
SWING OUT.
- Grace Kathryn LandefeldThere’s no shortage of enticing offerings; indeed, let’s hope our only difficulty will be in picking and choosing which delights to sample. Here are ten dance performances I wouldn't want you to miss.
Jacob’s Pillow
Don’t be fooled by its converted barns and rustic Berkshire setting: The Pillow is one of the most important institutions of dance in this country. Yes, the simple beauty of its environment and the unfussy warmth of the staff make it a disarmingly charming destination, but the offerings — on its stages and in its educational programs — are world class. Its origin story is fascinating, tracing as it does, the early days of Modern Dance in the United States; the Ted Shawn Theatre, named for the Pillow’s founder, boasts the unique distinction of being the country's first theater built specifically for dance. One doesn’t, therefore, tear down such a hallowed shrine simply because it’s a bit worn down. Accordingly, the Shawn has been given the kind of gentle restoration it deserves.
1.“America(na) to Me” — Assorted Artists The Shawn’s grand reopening — featuring a variety of dance artists and activists performing an array of dance genres including West African, Classical Indian, Flamenco, tap, and ballet —is both homage to the mixed-bill programming of its early decades, as well as proof of the ways in which today’s Pillow strives to present the rich diversity that exists within the art of dance, by constantly asking, according to the Pillow’s website, “questions of heritage, tradition, and belonging.” June 22-26.
2. Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE The recipient of the prestigious 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, Brown will present his 35+ year-old company in, along with other repertory pieces, the [delayed] world premiere of “The Equality of Night and Day.” Set to music created for it by composer Jason Moran, the new dance was made, in part, during one of the Pillow’s coveted artist residencies. If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing Brown himself in action, you know that he is a lovely, sensuously lush dancer; fortunately, even if Brown isn’t able to grace the Pillow stage this time around, this physical richness is evident throughout his works, rippling through the group’s dancers, each formidable movers with their own special qualities. Brown’s choreography blends traditional African dance forms with contemporary/modern dance genres; the company’s mission speaks of promoting the “understanding of the human experience in the African diaspora through dance and storytelling. June 29-July 3.
3. “SWING OUT” Assorted Artists Quite possibly this summer’s strongest candidate for the Most-Likely-to-Pull-You-Out-of-Your-Funk award. Conceived by a team of tap/swing/social/jazz dance darlings including Caleb Teicher and LaTasha Barnes, Teicher and their dance ensemble will be joined by the Eyal Vilner Big Band in a rollicking presentation. Lindy Hop! Big Band! What more to say? Oh, yes, there’s this: at the end of the show, audience members will be invited on stage to join in and jam with the performers. You see? It’ll put the fun in your funk. July 6-10.
4. A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham The dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham is the recipient of many major artist awards, grants, and fellowships (including the Pillow Award), and is also in that group of sought-after contemporary modern choreographers receiving commissions from other dance companies. Abraham and his eponymous company have graced the Pillow stages multiple times in the past decade-plus, each performance delivering a delicious buffet of Abraham’s gorgeously weighted-yet-silken movement style. In his new “An Untitled Love,” there is some emotional weight, but there’s also a lot of playfulness, the atmosphere suggesting that, as New York Times writer Brian Seibert wrote, “this dance is a house party.” July 13-17.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Photo credit: Manny Crisostomo
5. Alonzo King/LINES BALLET Dancers are constantly seeking the fullest realization of the specific “lines” of various shapes and steps, to find the right balance of muscular strength and artistry, to be able to powerfully express, through their bodies, what they or a choreographer is trying to “say.” Those lines can be extended, or curved, sharply angled, purposely jagged, shimmering or wiggling. A choreographer, thus, is in some ways a sculptor — of bodies. Along King’s dances also can conjure architecture, but of the most organic kind. Even when he moves his dancers about the stage in seemingly random patterns (rarely does he arrange his ensemble in the other kind of lines we see in dance, those formal vertical or horizontal configurations), the effect is natural rather than chaotic. The company’s visit will feature King’s 2019 “AZOTH,” an enigmatic beauty of a dance whose mysteries are deepened with artist Jim Campbell’s striking light installation and a now-moody, now-ebullient jazz score. August 3-7.
6. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble This electric, Denver-based modern dance company presents dances inspired by and choreographed by artists of the African diaspora, including works by major choreographers long past, recently past, and those gloriously present. In addition to Parker Robinson’s own “Mary Don’t You Weep,” the Pillow program will also include “Ragtime,” by the great, influential dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham, and “Crossing the Rubicon,” a work exploring the lives of refugees, by the beloved Donald McKayle. It’s been 20 years since Parker Robinson’s 50+ year old company has visited the Pillow; if absence makes the heart grow fonder, it also probably makes the tickets disappear faster. August 17-21.
7. Miami City Ballet Yes, please, but where to begin with this particular embarrassment of riches? Well, first of all: it’s Miami City Ballet! The superb powerhouse company, founded by New York City Ballet’s legendary Edward Villella, is now directed by Lourdes Lopez, another former NYCB star. Accordingly, the program includes two iconic works by NYCB legends: George Balanchine’s shimmering, moonlit 1934 “Serenade,” and, from half-a-century later, Jerome Robbins’ otherworldly “Antique Epigraphs.” These ballets have never been performed at the Pillow (hard to believe, but I imagine “Serenade” wouldn’t have fit on the Ted Shawn stage prior to the renovations), and adding to the excitement is the fact that they’ll be performed to live music. And more, somehow: another legend, this one from the modern dance world, will be represented in the company’s performance of Martha Graham’s 1948 “Diversion of Angels,” a now-sensual, now-scintillating, now stately treatise on the various stages of love. Yes, yes, yes. August 24-28.
Other dance venues
8,“Song of Songs” Pam Tanowitz and David Lang at Fisher Center at Bard My, how often folks at the Fisher Center must thank their lucky stars they landed Pam Tanowitz as its choreographer-in-residence. The choreographer, who sculpts her dances into sharp, often witty blends of contemporary, modern, and ballet, is much in demand by many name-brand modern and ballet companies. Tanowitz’s works often feature live accompaniment, and for this world premiere, she’s collaborating with the renowned composer David Lang. Together they present their artistic take on the poetic biblical canticles (known as "Song of Solomon"). Tanowitz has said that the death of her father was part of what led her to this project; the texts have offered her a pathway to exploring her Jewish identity. Given Tanowitz’s increasing prominence, tickets may quickly disappear, so get yours — you’ll likely thank your lucky stars you did. July 1-3.
Vertigo Dance Company. Photo credit: Stephanie Berger
9. Vertigo Dance Company at PS21 The first time I saw the Israeli-based Vertigo Dance Company was a neat decade ago, and though I’ve longed for another chance. I can finally add to this one-and-only viewing when the group presents director Noa Wertheim’s work “One. One & One.” The charged physicality of the dancers is also thrillingly versatile; they can defy or release into gravity with equal ease, whether the choreography pitches them skyward or drives them earthbound. Indeed, the earth is conjured quite literally in this 2017 work, in which stagehands dump and rake out giant piles of dirt before the piece begins. In “One. One & One” the dancers toss the dirt about the stage, and then sweep and swirl their bodies in the mess they’ve just made. A metaphor for life, perhaps? July 28 and 29.
10. Mark Morris Dance Group at PS21 Though this “Gala in the Orchards” is a fundraising event, it’s too wonderful not to mention. Morris dancers will perform two of this treasured modern dance choreographer’s most sublime works: the masterwork “V,” choreographed to Robert Schumann’s Quintet in E Flat — made in 2001 and “dedicated to the City of New York” — and the playful “Water” (it’s set to excerpts of Handel’s “Water Music”) from 2021. There’ll be a pre-show farm-to-table dinner, but the icing on the cake, of course, is the dancing and the live music that’ll accompany it: Morris, renowned for his uncanny musicality, has long been a steadfast proponent of the necessity of live music in dance concerts. August 5.
