New York Notebook

Busting out at Danco

You can always depend on Philadanco for full-out, hold-nothing-back energy. This month the famed Philadelphia company brings a full palette: hip-hop master Rennie Harris’ new Wake Up, a restaging of George Faison’s 1971 Suite Otis (deemed an American masterpiece by the National Endowment for the Arts), a new work by Matthew Rushing, and Ronald K. Brown’s rousing Gatekeepers. Oct. 2–7 at the Joyce. www.joyce.org.

Tommie W. Evans and Lindsey Holmes.
Photo by Lois Greenfield, Courtesy Philadanco.

Jérôme Bel’s
The Show Must Go On. Photo © Mussacchio Laniello, Courtesy MoMA.

Line Dancing

Have you noticed that museums have re-caught the bug for exhibiting dance and performance art? Maybe they’ve figured out that, in a time when you can click to see a Picasso or a Rothko on the internet, live performance has a special cachet. The latest installment, a series at the Museum of Modern Art called “Some sweet day,” is created by choreographer Ralph Lemon. It includes French dancemaker Jérôme Bel, Steve Paxton, Faustin Linyekula, Deborah Hay, Sarah Michelson, and Dean Moss. Bel will teach his popular The Show Must Go On to New York City dancers—or nondancers. One wonders if it will have the same je ne sais quoi of giggle-worthy goofiness this time around. At MoMA, Oct. 15–Nov. 4.  www.moma.org.

Rodeo@70

Seventy years ago Agnes de Mille tried to teach the dancers of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo movements you might see on a ranch out west. The Russian contingent scoffed at the bucking bronco moves—or left the room for a smoke. That ballet was Rodeo and it was an instant hit. In 1950 de Mille brought it to Ballet Theatre (now ABT), where its popularity has never waned. This fall, ABT celebrates Rodeo’s 70th anniversary in a weeklong season that includes a world premiere by Ratmansky and José Limón’s powerful tale, The Moor’s Pavane. Also in rep are works by Tharp, Tudor, and Mark Morris. Oct. 16–20 at City Center. See www.abt.org or www.nycitycenter.org.

Rodeo in 1967 with Gayle Young, Eliot Feld, and Edward Verso. Photo by Jack Mitchell, DM Archives.