Reimagined classics, exciting originals, and celebrations abound on stages this month.
Choreographic Collages
Tere O’Connor Dance. Photo by Maria Baranova, courtesy New York Live Arts.
NEW YORK CITY Tere O’Connor celebrates 40 years of making dances with a double bill at New York Live Arts. He looks back with a restaging, on Tim Bendernagel, of his 1984 solo Construct-a-Guy, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop (Live Arts’ predecessor) as part of an earlier iteration of the Fresh Tracks program. The present—and perhaps future—is represented by the premiere of The Lace, a new work for six dancers in which O’Connor continues to spin out his complex, delightfully capricious-feeling choreographic ideas. Dec. 3–6 and 10–13. newyorklivearts.org.
Ailey’s New Era
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Photo by Alice Castro, courtesy AAADT.
NEW YORK CITY This month marks Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s first home season at New York City Center under the direction of Alicia Graf Mack—but that’s not all that’s new. The premieres of Maija García’s Jazz Island, inspired by Black Gods, Green Islands (Geoffrey Holder’s collection of Caribbean folk tales), and Matthew Neenan’s Difference Between mark both choreographers’ first works for the company. Fredrick Earl Mosley spins songs by Des’ree, Etta James, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, and more into an exploration of love with Embrace. For their new works, Jamar Roberts and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar both take inspiration from Ailey himself: Roberts’ Song of the Anchorite responds to the seminal choreographer’s Hermit Songs, while Zollar collaborates with Samantha Figgins and Chalvar Monteiro for The Holy Blues, named for a passage in Ailey’s journals. Also on tap is the company premiere of Medhi Walerski’s Blink of an Eye, a new production of Judith Jamison’s A Case of You, and a spread of Ailey repertory classics (including, of course, Revelations). Dec. 3–Jan. 4. ailey.org.
Winter at the Guggenheim
Leslie Andrea Williams and Lloyd Knight in The Hikers. Photo by Tony Prikryl, courtesy Michelle Tabnick Public Relations.
NEW YORK CITY The dance offerings at Works & Process this month run the gamut. First up, on Dec. 12, is the premiere of The NutWAACKer, Princess Lockerooo’s reimagination of the holiday classic as a story of found family told through the eyes of a nonbinary youth, brought to life through waacking, vogue, and more in a tribute to queerness and street culture. On Dec. 17, choreographer Claudia Schreier and Graham stars Leslie Andrea Williams and Lloyd Knight reunite to restage The Hikers, a response to the exhibition “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” currently on view at the Guggenheim, updating the 2019 work for the museum’s famed rotunda. And, of course, the annual presentation of Peter & the Wolf, Isaac Mizrahi’s interpretation of the family-friendly classic with choreography by John Heginbotham, returns Dec. 5–7 and 13–14. worksandprocess.org.
Holiday Gone Haywire
Wonderbound’s Hailey Stinchcomb and Tanner Thurn. Photo by Martha Wirth, courtesy Wonderbound.
DENVER Imagine a chaotic holiday show at the aesthetic intersection of Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, and David Lynch—but make it dance. Wonderbound artistic director Garrett Ammon premieres the dark comedy Holidays at the Hideaway Hotel, featuring music by Erik Deutsch performed by a live band, Dec. 11–21. wonderbound.com.
Rat King Revels
LED’s Cydney Covert in The Rat King. Photo by Michelle Bliss, courtesy LED.
BOISE Burlesque, tap, opera, aerial work, and…The Nutcracker? LED gives a mischievous take on the holiday classic in The Rat King, centering the tale on the titular antagonist for a multi-genre performance anchored by the company’s house band, part of LED’s first season in its new home theater at The Dixon. Dec. 12–20. ledboise.com.
All Together Now
Amari Marshall. Photo courtesy Blake Zidell & Associates.
NEW YORK CITY To close out the inaugural Powerhouse: International festival, curator David Binder invited commercial dance it-girl Amari Marshall to craft a celebration that is part performance, part dance party. The Imagining brings together Ladies of Hip-Hop, Lolita Leopard, Jore Marshall, and Tany Ora alongside DJs Alberto Reyes, Vonnie Mack, Tim Fields, and more for a movement ritual placing the performers on the floor of Brooklyn’s Powerhouse Arts alongside the audience. Dec. 12–13. festival.powerhousearts.org.
Starstruck
Rehearsal for Marla Phelan’s Birth + Carnage. Photo by Richard Mettler, courtesy Michelle Tabnick Public Relations.
NEW YORK CITY Choreographer Marla Phelan, astrophysicist Dr. Blakesley Burkhart, director Tim Richardson, video artists KLSR and REINFECTED.ME, and composer James Newberry team up for Birth + Carnage, a dance performance musing on the phenomenon of stellar birth, set against a digital installation crafted from abstracted astrophysical data. The multidisciplinary work debuts Dec. 19–21 at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. lamama.org.
A Classic Returns to the Studio
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo’s Juliette Klein and Ige Cornelis rehearsing Ma Bayadère. Photo by Alice Blangero, courtesy Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.
MONACO Is it possible to hold on to the sublime dancing of La Bayadère without reproducing its offensive orientalism? Jean-Christophe Maillot will make the attempt with Ma Bayadère, setting the tale of jealousy, love, and revenge at a dance company in a new evening-length narrative work for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. Dec. 27–Jan. 4. balletsdemontecarlo.com.
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