Hot Tips for What to See in the Cold Weather
Does the frigid weather make you want to curl up by the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa? Resist! Go out and see some dance. This list is for those of you in northern climes, may it warm up your winter—artistically if not meteorologically.
Driscoll’s Thank You For Coming: Play. PC Julieta Cervantes
• Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming: Play
Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Jan. 12-14
A pack of wild-animal dancers act out multi-layered scenes that can puzzle or move you. Equal parts maniacal and moving. The audience is part of the plot. See her “Choreography in Focus” —our latest.
• Michelle Dorrance
Boston, Cutler Majestic Theatre, Jan. 13-15
Michelle Dorrance is as popular in Boston as she is in New York and at Jacob’s Pillow. You can catch a glimpse of why in her “Choreography in Focus.”
• Richard Move’s XXYY
The gloriously androgynous Richard Move shows a work-in-progress with theater artist Alba Clemente that explores the chromosomal combinations that produce gender identity. The program also celebrates 20 years of Move’s spot-on impersonation of Martha Graham. Co-presented by Jacob’s Pillow.
Albany and other cities
Ronald K. Brown bring his rich, spiritual blend of modern dance and West Africa on tour.
• Kyle Abraham
Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa, Jan. 27
and Des Moines Performing Arts, Feb. 1
Abraham’s mercurial movement quality is beguiling whether or not the often-political content comes across. He talks so easily about his work, including race and gender, in this “Choreography in Focus.”
Spectrum Dance Theater in The Minstrel Show. PC Nate Watters.
• Spectrum Dance Theater
Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Leo K. Theatre, Jan. 19–Feb. 4
Now is the time for political work, and Spectrum director Donald Byrd does not hold back. In his new work Shot, he confronts the growing incidents of police brutality against people of color. To see how tough Byrd is on his dancers, check out his “Choreography in Focus.”
• Ragamala Dance Company
Cowles Center, Minneapolis, Jan. 27-29
This contemporary company, trained in classical Indian dance, focuses on issues of environmental and social justice. The new work, Written in Water, has live music by Amir ElSaffar that utilizes Iraqi, jazz and Carnatic instruments.
• Boston Ballet in William Forsythe’s Artifact
Boston Opera House, Feb. 23–Mar. 5
The only American company to produce the complete, convention-shattering Artifact (1984) with its go-for-broke dancing.
• Batsheva Dance Company
Tour includes Ann Arbor, Chicago, NYC, Seattle
Batsheva Dance Company’s winter tour brings Ohad Naharin’s Last Work (no, its not his last work) to 11 cities in North America. (I will moderate a post-showing Q & A about the film Mr. Gaga at BAMcinématek on Jan. 30.)
Last Work by Ohad Naharin, photo by Gadi Dagon, courtesy BAM
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, Feb. 7–11
The dancers continue to be smashing, and director Robert Battle has expanded the repertoire with bracing additions. John Inger’s crazily inventive Walking Mad is something to behold. Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain blankets the theater with a tender quietness. Kyle Abraham’s Untitled America brings to the stage the painful issue of mass incarceration. And there is always the glorious Revelations.
• Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks
The Joyce Theater, NYC, Feb. 28 to Mar. 5
In a new work titled Some of a Thousand Words, the brilliant ballet-to-modern Whelan and choreographer Brooks further explore their experiments in weight and weightlessness. The string quartet Brooklyn Rider plays live.
Brooks and Whelan, photo by Nir Arieli
• Martha Graham Dance Company
The Joyce Theater, NYC, Feb. 14–26
With world premieres by Annie-B Parson and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui plus chestnuts like Primitive Mysteries and Maple Leaf Rag. In this “Choreography in Focus,” Parson talks about working with the Graham dancers.
• Malpaso Dance Company
Columbia College Dance Center, Chicago, Mar. 9
This Cuban company has heated up the Joyce and Jacob’s Pillow, and now they come to Chicago with a new work by Aszure Barton.
• Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host
Wexner Center, Columbus, OH, Mar. 11
This wonderfully funny yet rueful mix of radio smarts and dancer smarts is brought to you by radio host Ira Glass and his savvy dance pals Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass.
• Dirty Dancing
Tour
Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, OR, Feb. 28–Mar. 2
This hit movie translates surprisingly well to the stage. And hey, what could be hotter than Johnny and Baby?
• KT Niehoff
Velocity Dance Center, Seattle, Mar. 9–April 1
Always questioning, Niehoff asks an astronaut, an athlete, a survivor of a near-death experience and a differently-abled person this question: “What is it like to be in your body?” Be ready to participate because this piece, which is titled Before We Flew Like Birds, We Flew Like Clouds, is an “audience activated installation.” In her “Choreography in Focus” Niehoff talks about her aversion to proscenium performance.
