The fall performance season is undeniably in full swing as we head into October. Here are the shows that most stood out to our contributors that are happening during this jam-packed month.
What Is True?
LONDON “A politician and a journalist sit down for an interview” might not seem the most likely scenario for a dance work. But that’s the starting point for DEEPFAKE, a new full-length by choreographic duo Jess & Morgs (Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple) that uses dancers in green-screen bodysuits, live film, and text in its thoroughly contemporary rumination on truth, technology, and uncertainty. The duo’s first independent stage work premieres at Sadler’s Wells East Oct. 1–3. sadlerswells.com.
—Courtney Escoyne
Dining Out
NEW YORK CITY MasterZ at Work Dance Family and Works & Process give new meaning to dinner and a show, bringing performances of Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington’s The 24/7 Diner to the Free Food Refettorio Harlem, “New York City’s only free restaurant.” Oct. 2, 7, 16, and 21. worksandprocess.org.
—CE
Reclaiming Roots
NEW YORK CITY Described as a “fantasy Japanese American court dance,” Benjamin Akio Kimitch’s Allegra interweaves a complex array of inspirations. There is the ancient dance form bugaku, and the role it played in post–World War II international relations between Japan and the U.S. Then there’s George Balanchine’s ballet Bugaku, created as a vehicle for ballerina Allegra Kent. And there’s Kimitch’s own family history, marked by the removal of his grandparents and aunt from their homes on the West Coast to U.S. Japanese incarceration camps in the early 1940s. After years of research, the work arrives at New York Live Arts Oct. 8–10. newyorklivearts.org.
—CE
Cubist Choreography
CHICAGO For its 25th anniversary, Chicago-based troupe The Seldoms and its founding artistic director Carrie Hanson explore how to realize the flattened perspective of Cubist painting through dance in All at Once. Featuring six dancers and set to a live percussive score composed by Tim Daisy, the new work draws inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s influential Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Picasso sought to depict three-dimensional space by layering multiple geometric planes; Hanson’s choreography grapples with his innovation even as it interrogates the power dynamics of seeing. Oct. 16–17. theseldoms.org.
—Sheila Regan
A Joyous Homecoming
MIAMI Following her Tony Award–winning choreographic work (with husband Justin Peck) on Buena Vista Social Club, Patricia Delgado returns to her former home base for her first solo ballet commission. Push the Buttons of the Civilized, for Miami City Ballet, is propelled, she says, by the “energy and soulful honesty” of the beat-buoyant score, performed live—in tandem with the company orchestra—by its composer, fellow Cuban American Emily Estefan. Joy permeates the movement, with fresh stylistic explorations complementing Delgado’s balletic know-how. The ballet premieres alongside Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Oct. 16–18, then heads to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale Oct. 24–25. miamicityballet.org.
—Guillermo Perez
Rememberings
COLUMBUS, OH Continuing its multidisciplinary trilogy digging into the transatlantic slave trade, Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born) premieres adaku, part 2 this month. Set in the near future of the U.S., the work of speculative mythology questions the consequences of the forced erasure of ancestral history, and what happens when it is remembered. Accompanying the premiere at the Wexner Center for the Arts Oct. 20–22 is an ongoing museum exhibition (on display through January) showcasing Sweat Variant’s research; it will move to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in February. The performance work will appear in New York City at the BAM Next Wave festival Nov. 11–15, with further touring planned in 2027. wexarts.org.
—CE
Speaking the Unspoken
NEW YORK CITY Choreographer Adrienne Westwood and composer Angélica Negrón premiere [ ] at Target Margin’s Doxsee Theater in Brooklyn Oct. 23–25. Placing eight femme dance artists within an interactive sonic sculpture, the work reclaims stories of invisible labor by drawing attention to its lack of acknowledgment in dominant narratives. adriennewestwood.com.
—CE
Before The Odyssey
SAN FRANCISCO For IPHIGENIA, Sharp & Fine (the devised dance theater troupe of sisters Megan and Shannon Kurashige) re-center the woman who was ritually sacrificed by her father, Agamemnon, so he could fight the Trojan War. The evening-length work questions the nature of sacrifice and imagines what Iphigenia would have to say if the myth allowed her a voice. Premieres at Z Space Oct. 23–25. sharpandfine.org.
—CE
A Rose Meets Ballroom Realness
NEW YORK CITY The irrepressibly imaginative choreographer Christopher Williams continues his queering of the classical canon with Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose, a 1911 ballet portraying a dreamlike encounter between a Young Girl and the spirit of the Rose. In Williams’ reenvisioning, the protagonist is a young man, and the tale nods to the world of ballroom culture, with an expanded cast of characters drawn from vivid historical and contemporary archetypes. Rounding out the double bill at 92NY is the New York City premiere of his Baroque-tinged La Rhétorique des Dieux, which tells a story of Greco Roman mythological figures that slides fluidly between divine and mortal realms. Oct. 29–30. 92ny.org.
—Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
The post 9 Must-See Performances Hitting Stages This October appeared first on Dance Magazine.
