The spring performance season is moving full steam ahead with literary-inspired ballets, a queer reimagining of Carmen, and premieres drawing from everything from the upcoming solar eclipse to contemporary American politics. Here’s what’s grabbing our attention.

Electric performances, thought-provoking choreography, buzzy bodies of work—the artists on our annual list of dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies poised for a breakout share an uncanny knack for arresting attention. They’ve been turning heads while turning what’s expected—in a performance, from a career trajectory—on its head. We’re betting we’ll be seeing a lot more of them this year, and for many years to come.

The idea that led to plunging a theater seven stories beneath Chicago’s Millennium Park first came in the 1980s. At first called the Music and Dance Theater—MAD, for short—skeptics justifiably wondered if the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance would ever be realized.

The summer performance season is already kicking into high gear with works that take a look back, a pop musical’s long-awaited Broadway opening, an intriguing collision of big-name collaborators, and more.

From major Broadway transfers to a jazzy anniversary extravaganza (and much more in between), March’s performance calendar is chock-full of excitement. Here’s what we’re making time in our schedules to see.

What will the dance world of tomorrow be like? An answer—or several—might be illuminated by our annual list of dancers, choreographers and companies on the brink of skyrocketing. 

As we head into August, here are seven outdoor festivals, series and shows bringing summer to a close with a bang. American Ballet Theatre’s Calvin Royal III Erin Baiano, Courtesy Vail Dance Festival VIPs in the Valley VAIL, CO Vail Dance Festival returns, headlined by a comfortingly familiar cast of characters. As the festival’s artist […]