Performance calendars are full to bursting over the next two months, with the premieres of ballets, contemporary works, musicals, and immersive-theater productions, surprising collaborations, and a pair of centenary celebrations. Here are the shows our contributors are most curious to see.
New Works in the Windy City
South Chicago Dance Theatre’s Mya Bryant. Photo by Michelle Reid, courtesy Silverman Group.
CHICAGO South Chicago Dance Theatre alights at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on May 1, premiering new works by David Dorfman, Natasha Adorlee, and founder Kia S. Smith alongside It Begins, which Donald Byrd crafted for the company in 2024. southchicagodancetheatre.com. —Courtney Escoyne
Ballet With Soul
Natasha Adorlee
leading rehearsal at Oklahoma City Ballet. Photo by Jana Carson, courtesy Oklahoma City Ballet.
OKLAHOMA CITY The increasingly busy Natasha Adorlee turns her talents to the music of Otis Redding for a premiere for Oklahoma City Ballet. It’s bookended by the North American premiere of Edward Clug’s Radio & Juliet—which sets the Shakespearean tragedy to the music of Radiohead—and the local premiere of Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye’s Tone it Bach. May 8–10. okcballet.org. —CE
Practicing Peace
Rosy Simas. Photo by Irmanda Ward, courtesy Simas.
MINNEAPOLIS Seneca artist Rosy Simas opened a meditative visual exhibition at the Walker Art Center earlier this year titled “A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind).” Now, she premieres a dance performance by the same name at the museum. Both draw on the material culture and history of the Haudenosaunee—the six-nation confederacy to which the Seneca belong—from around the turn of the 19th century, an era of increased colonization. Simas and her collaborators explore time, embodied knowledge, and relationship to the earth as they ask what it means to move through the world with a mind of peace. May 13–16. walkerart.org. —Sheila Regan
Around the Campfire
Welcome to Campfire’s Ingrid Kapteyn and Tony Bordonaro. Photo by Stephanie Crousillat, courtesy Welcome to Campfire.
NEW YORK CITY Dance theater duo Welcome to Campfire—aka Sleep No More alums Tony Bordonaro and Ingrid Kapteyn—continues its intimate performance experiments with the premiere of Chalk Outline Portal. The immersive danceplay melds questions about the nature of grief, consciousness, and the self into a surrealist production that integrates live sound mixing, real-time video, and audience feedback (via video game controllers). May 14–22. welcometocampfire.com. —CE
Swans, Sinéad, and Sonya Tayeh
Sonya Tayeh and Melanie Moore (Nina) rehearsing Black Swan. Photo by Maggie Hall, courtesy A.R.T..
CAMBRIDGE, MA, AND MANCHESTER What do Black Swan and Sinéad O’Connor have in common? For the moment, Sonya Tayeh. She directs and choreographs a musical adaptation of Darren Aronofsky’s divisive psychological thriller set in a dark mirror of the ballet world, which has its premiere run at American Repertory Theater May 26–June 28. Across the pond, Manchester’s Factory International hosts the premiere of The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor (June 25–27), a new dance work by Tayeh for 10 women set to the music and writings of the Irish iconoclast. americanrepertorytheater.org and factoryinternational.org. —CE
Boats and Rainbows
Doug Varone and Dancers’ Courtney Barth, Ryan Yamauchi, and Dareon Blowe. Photo by Kevin Colton, courtesy Doug Varone and Dancers.
NEW YORK CITY Doug Varone and Dancers marks its 40th anniversary with No Matter What the End, a new work set to Radiohead’s In Rainbows album. The company rounds out its Joyce Theater run (May 27–31) with existing repertory, including Varone’s lauded Boats Leaving, for which the current company will be joined by members of the original 2006 cast on May 28. joyce.org. —CE
Who Is American?
Martha Graham’s Jai Perez and Philadanco’s Brittany Wright. Photo by D. Jackson, courtesy ALMA Communications.
PHILADELPHIA Tommie-Waheed Evans draws from Martha Graham’s 1938 American Document for in case of fire, speak, a newly commissioned work for the Martha Graham Dance Company—closing out its 100th anniversary celebrations—and Philadanco that questions what defines an American. It premieres at Penn Live Arts as part of the presenter’s America Unfinished programming alongside the Graham company in Hope Boykin’s recent En Masse and Graham’s Night Journey and Frontier. May 29–30. pennlivearts.org. —CE
Well-Seasoned
BalletX’s Itzkan Barbosa. Photo by Gabriel Bienczycki, courtesy BalletX.
PHILADELPHIA AND SARATOGA SPRINGS BalletX is going all out for the premiere of The Four Seasons Reimagined. Each season is animated by new moves from a different choreographer—Morgann Runacre-Temple for summer, Penny Saunders for fall, Jamar Roberts for winter, and Trey McIntrye for spring—set to original music by Dan Deacon, who will perform live onstage. The work debuts at the Festival at Highmark Mann June 4–5, and on June 11 will mark BalletX’s first full-company appearance at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. balletx.org. —CE
Heads or Tails?
Aszure Barton rehearsing Luck with Gauthier Dance. Photo by Jeanette Bak, courtesy Freie PR.
STUTTGART Gauthier Dance presents new works on seemingly contradictory subjects by two of its resident choreographers: Aszure Barton playfully conjures Luck, while Hofesh Shechter breaks his own superstitions for the creation of Unluck, for a split bill debuting June 26–July 5. theaterhaus.com. —CE
Once Upon a Dream
Paris Opera Ballet in Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon. Photo by Julien Benhamou, courtesy Paris Opéra Ballet.
PARIS Micaela Taylor makes her Paris Opéra Ballet debut with the premiere of Dreams This Way. It appears alongside the company debut of Mats Ek’s Solo for Two and Crystal Pite’s landmark The Seasons’ Canon. June 27–July 14. operadeparis.fr. —CE
Forward and Back
Two UK-based companies take contrasting approaches to centennial celebrations.
Rambert
Rambert in (LA)Horde’s Hop(e)storm. Photo by Hugo Glendinning, courtesy Rambert.
LONDON This year, Rambert will become the first British dance company to mark 100 years of operation. Rather than paying homage to the choreographers who helped establish its boundary-pushing identity over the last century, the company’s This Is Rambert triple bill—debuting at Sadler’s Wells before a UK tour—is framed as a “glimpse of the future.” It will feature in-demand French collective (LA)Horde’s Hop(e)storm and Dutch choreographer Emma Evelein’s Gallery of Consequence, both created last year. June 10–13. sadlerswells.com. —Emily May
Sir Peter Wright at Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet rehearsing Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table. Photo by Hannah Beveridge, courtesy BRB.
BIRMINGHAM, UK Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrates the 100th birthday of its founding director, Sir Peter Wright, with a gala program of classic works he choreographed or brought into the company’s repertoire. It will feature excerpts of classics like Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty, yet it’s a restaging of Expressionist dance pioneer Kurt Jooss’ 1932 The Green Table that promises to be the highlight of the night. Last performed by BRB in the ’90s and one of Wright’s favorite works, the ballet depicts the unstable political landscape of post-World War I Germany—a timely reminder of the human cost of conflict. June 18. brb.org.uk. —EM
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