Editors' Picks: Five Must-See Performances This August
Summer’s end is in sight, and while it might seem like everyone is on layoff (or at Jacob’s Pillow or Vail), there’s still plenty of dance to see before the fall season starts in earnest. Here are our top five performance picks for August.
Natalia Osipova Bewitches as Isadora Duncan
Natalia Osipova as Isadora Duncan. Photo by Sergei Misenko, Courtesy Segerstrom Center for the Arts
COSTA MESA, CA
Isadora Duncan was famously derisive toward ballet, but ballet has long been fascinated by her—both Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan created works for The Royal Ballet inspired by Duncan. International ballet star Natalia Osipova is the latest to be bewitched by the modern dance revolutionary. She’s starring in a new ballet titled ISADORA, with choreography by the Mariinsky’s Vladimir Varnava to music from Prokofiev’s Cinderella. Premieres at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Aug. 10–12. scfta.org. —Courtney Escoyne
A Rom-Com Romp Hits Broadway
Samantha Barks and Steve Kazee in the pre-Broadway run of Pretty Woman: The Musical. Photo by Matthew Murphy, Courtesy Polk & Company
NEW YORK CITY
August isn’t the biggest time for Broadway openings, but Pretty Woman: The Musical, based on the beloved 1990 movie, arrives in New York City this month after a Chicago run. Directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots), it has music and lyrics by Canadian pop star Bryan Adams and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance. Andy Karl, the trouper who was last seen on Broadway in a knee brace while starring in Groundhog Day, plays the Richard Gere role. Samantha Barks (Les Misérables) has the finesse, the poise and the voice to play Vivian, but can she break out laughing as infectiously as Julia Roberts? Opens Aug. 16. prettywomanthemusical.com. —Wendy Perron
Another Day of Sun at Lincoln Center
Janis Claxton’s POP-UP Duets (fragments of love) emerges in public spaces. Photo by Lucas Kao, Courtesy Lincoln Center
NEW YORK CITY
Free performances at an iconic New York City campus under the summer sun—is there anything more delightful? Lincoln Center Out of Doors continues its three-week extra-vaganza this month. Dance Theatre of Harlem brings a mix of the old and new to its Aug. 4 performance: resident choreographer Robert Garland’s New Bach (1999), which sprinkles balletic formations with boogying; Christopher Wheeldon’s dreamlike, sinewy duet, This Bitter Earth (2012); Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven (1993), Ulysses Dove’s dramatic requiem to the celestial music of Arvo Pärt; and the jazzy Harlem on My Mind (2018), by Darrell Grand Moultrie. The opening by honey-voiced pop singer ALA.NI, all the rage in Europe, will be a treat. Also try wandering by the Josie Robertson Plaza Aug. 1–5. You just might catch Janis Claxton’s POP-UP Duets (fragments of love) (2016), a series of hypnotic, playful dances for two—each clocking in at five minutes—that expose relationships with exquisite sensitivity. lincolncenter.org/out-of-doors. —CE and WP
Familiar Faces Descend on Edinburgh International Festival
Akram Khan’s Kadamati. Photo by Kois Miah, Courtesy Edinburgh International Festival
EDINBURGH
Strange and spectacular are consistently accurate adjectives for the offerings at Edinburgh International Festival. But this year’s dance programs are full of familiar faces: Akram Khan brings his latest (and last) solo Xenos and a companion community-dance piece, Kadamati; Company Wayne McGregor performs his Autobiography; and L-E-V will dance Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s Love Cycle, comprising OCD Love and the more recent Love Chapter 2. But just as intriguing, if less familiar, is Michèle Anne De May’s Cold Blood, a narrative-driven, cinema-dance show featuring choreography just for hands. Aug. 3–27. eif.co.uk. —CE
Royal New Zealand Ballet Celebrates Women’s Suffrage
Royal New Zealand Ballet dancers in rehearsal. Photo by Stephen A’Court, Courtesy RNZB
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND
Patricia Barker has commissioned four female choreographers to create premieres for a program celebrating the 65th and 125th anniversaries of Royal New Zealand Ballet and women’s suffrage in New Zealand, respectively. Strength and Grace features new works by Penny Saunders (choreographer in residence at Barker’s former artistic home, Grand Rapids Ballet), Danielle Rowe, Sarah Foster-Sproull and Andrea Schermoly. Aug. 17–18. rnzb.org.nz. —CE
