To the audience of a Broadway show, what’s being presented onstage is crisp, harmonious, and expertly crafted. But in most cases, the production has had a yearslong journey to that polished final product—a journey that often winds through one or more other theaters.

JaQuel Knight has squeezed so many genres of dance into the long-awaited revival of “The Wiz”—fresh off a pre-Broadway national tour, and opening at the Marquis Theatre in April—that he finds it easier to share the only style he didn’t include.

Unexpected collaborations, women-led ballets, superstar choreographers turning their talents to opera and musical theater, singular dancemakers wrestling with issues of labor, environmental justice, and more—here’s what our contributors are looking forward to most as the 2023–24 season gets underway.