This month’s performance calendar packs some serious punch, with a landmark anniversary, a jazzy new Broadway production, and a bevy of premieres examining deep questions about humanity and society. Here’s what grabbed our attention.
In the Thicket
Davarria Ford and Johnny Huy Nguyen in BRIAR. Photo by Robert C. Bain, courtesy John Hill PR.
SAN FRANCISCO Drawing on the writings of Hanif Abdurraqib, bell hooks, Robin D.G. Kelley, and others, Chafin Seymour’s seymour::dancecollective questions the possibilities and limitations of abstracting Blackness in BRIAR. The hip-hop-inflected, evening-length dance theater work premieres Nov. 1–2 at ODC Theater. odc.dance.
Flip the Script
Corey Scott-Gilbert. Photo by Florian Hetz, courtesy Baryshnikov Arts.
ONLINE Corey Scott-Gilbert (aka vAL) and Roderick George move through a perpetual loop in STAGED, pushing against their assigned roles in an unending “American Gothic.” Accompanied by the voice of the late Gus Solomons jr, the short film will be presented online by Baryshnikov Arts beginning Nov. 1. baryshnikovarts.org.
Right Action
Ragamala Dance Company. Photo by Adam Kissick/APAP, courtesy Northrop.
MINNEAPOLIS Keerthik Sasidharan’s 2020 novel The Dharma Forest retells the Hindu epic The Mahabharata, zooming in on the individuals at the center of a devastating war of succession. Aparna, Ranee, and Ashwini Ramaswamy take the novel as inspiration for Ragamala Dance Company’s newest work, Children of Dharma, tracing the ripple effects of both dharma (“right action”) and warfare on the self through a series of vignettes. Part of Northrop’s Centennial Commissions program, the work premieres Nov. 2. northrop.umn.edu.
Half a Century of Danspace
Rashaun Mitchell, one of the artists contributing to Danspace Project’s 50th celebrations. Photo by Amitava Sarkar, courtesy Danspace.
NEW YORK CITY To celebrate its 50th year, Danspace Project invited more than 50 artists from across its five decades to create 50-second short films in response to the prompt “The Future Is…” Those will appear on its website throughout the year, but on Nov. 2 they’ll be screened at the organization’s home at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery alongside performances and offerings by mayfield brooks, Silas Riener, and Angie Pittman, a DJ set by Ali Rosa-Salas, and more celebratory activities during this 50 Forward gathering. danspaceproject.org.
Which Witch
Nejla Yatkin in her The Other Witch. Photo by Enki Andrews, courtesy Yatkin.
CHICAGO Inspired by Mary Wigman’s 1914 Hexentanz (witch dance), Nejla Yatkin’s The Other Witch delves into archetypes of the witch and the shaman, plumbing the human psyche through ritual and dance while alluding to the untamable aspects of nature. The multimedia solo, which premiered as a three-part dance film in 2021, makes its live performance debut at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts Nov. 9. ny2dance.com.
There Will Be Blood
Royal Danish Ballet’s Stephanie Chen Gundorph Møller as Blood Wedding’s Bride. Photo by Maria Albrechtsen Mortensen, courtesy Royal Danish Ballet.
COPENHAGEN Royal Danish Ballet soloist Eukene Sagues adapts a story by Federico García Lorca for the company’s first commissioned female-choreographed evening-length ballet. Blood Wedding depicts a woman, trapped within her expected role in a patriarchal society, who runs away from her wedding with her former lover, only for the night to end in bloodshed and death. Nov. 9–22. kglteater.dk.
From the Big Easy to the Big Apple
James Monroe Iglehart, as Louis Armstrong, and DeWitt Fleming Jr., as Lincoln Perry, in A Wonderful World. Photo by Jeremy Daniel, courtesy The Press Room.
NEW YORK CITY After runs in New Orleans and Chicago last fall and beginning previews last month, A Wonderful World opens on Broadway Nov. 11. The musical, directed by Christopher Renshaw, who co-conceived it with the late Andrew Delaplaine, traces the life of jazz legend Louis Armstrong (Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart) as told by his four wives. Animating the musician’s more than 50-year career as it moves through New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and Hollywood is choreography by Rickey Tripp, who makes his lead-choreography Broadway debut after serving as Camille A. Brown’s associate on Once on this Island, Choir Boy, and Hell’s Kitchen, plus tap choreography by DeWitt Fleming Jr., who pulls double duty playing Lincoln Perry. louisarmstrongmusical.com.
A Longstanding Partnership
Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith’s STAMINA. Photo by Maria Baranova, courtesy Lieber and Smith.
NEW YORK CITY Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith return to Roulette with Prairie Dawn, a fully improvised work unfolding over three evenings that pushes back against femme objectification and shame in dance, touches on the complexity of topics like grief and parenting, and draws on their long-term creative partnership to explore improvisation as a “feminist exclamation.” Nov. 14–16. roulette.org.
Akram Khan Returns
Akram Khan’s GIGENIS: The generation of the Earth. Photo by Maxime Dos, courtesy Sadler’s Wells.
LONDON Akram Khan, renowned for his particular blending of kathak and contemporary dance, returns to the stage and his roots with GIGENIS: The generation of the Earth. Sirikalyani Adkoli, Renjith Babu, Mavin Khoo, Mythili Prakash, Vijna Vasudevan, and Kapila Venu—well-regarded practitioners of various forms of classical Indian dance—and seven live musicians join Khan to trace the threads of history and mythology surrounding our relationship to nature and civilization. After debuting in Aix-en-Provence, France, at the end of August, the work makes its UK debut in London at Sadler’s Wells Nov. 20–24 ahead of a 2025 tour with engagements in Paris, New York City, Santa Barbara, and Washington, DC. sadlerswells.com.
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