The season brings new works by Kyle Abraham and Helen Pickett, as well as revivals of City Ballet’s “Coppélia” and Bill T. Jones’s “Still/Here.”
The dance world is in a festive mood this fall: It seems like everyone has a big anniversary to celebrate. All that attention on the past may explain why the programming sometimes tilts conservative, especially in ballet, where evening-length storytelling remains de rigueur. But the stories are getting more ambitious, the voices telling them more varied. And there are still plenty of artists pushing in the opposite direction. Some of the season’s most exciting dances can’t even be contained by theater walls, finding their stages in parks, museums, historic buildings, farm fields. (Locations are in Manhattan unless otherwise specified; dates are subject to change.)
September
YANIRA CASTRO / A CANARY TORSI Started in July, “Exorcism = Liberation,” a sweeping public art and performance project by Castro and a team of collaborators, calling for collective change, continues with immersive, participatory events at multiple sites in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts. (Through Nov. 1; various locations)
THE JOYCE THEATER The dozen programs on offer at the Joyce from September to December feature an abundance both of dance styles and premieres. London City Ballet brings four U.S. debuts to the Joyce as part of its first international tour in more than 30 years (Sept. 17-22). A new work by Kayla Farrish reimagining two of José Limón’s lost dances highlights Limón Dance Company’s Joyce season (Nov. 5-10). Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s 30th birthday celebrations include a retrospective for Dwight Rhoden, an artistic director of the company, whose sinewy, sinuous choreography has become its hallmark (Nov. 19-Dec. 1). And the drag ensemble Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo celebrates 50 years of lovingly skewering ballet: Durante Verzola’s “Symphony,” in its New York debut, makes a comedic meal of George Balanchine’s delectable “Symphony in C” (Dec. 17-Jan. 5).
NEW YORK CITY BALLET On the heels of its 75th birthday festivities, the company presents another anniversary-focused season, with programs commemorating 90 years of its affiliated School of American Ballet, 50 years of George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova’s sunny “Coppélia,” and 10 years of Justin Peck’s tenure as resident choreographer. The annual fall fashion gala (Oct. 9) will include a world premiere by Caili Quan, costumed by designer Gilles Mendel. (Sept. 17-Oct. 13, David H. Koch Theater)
FALL FOR DANCE “Eclectic” remains the word, and $20 (plus fees), the ticket price, for this long-running festival. But its five sampler-style programs are notably ballet-forward this year, with the National Ballet of Ukraine in Alexei Ratmansky’s poignant “Wartime Elegy,” Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet in a premiere by Cameron Fraser-Monroe, and the American Ballet Theater stars Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo in Cornejo’s new production of “The Specter of the Rose.” (Sept. 18-29, New York City Center)
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