13 Dance Performances to See in February & March
—
Shake off the winter doldrums with a baker’s dozen of exhilarating dance performances. The pre-spring season features the return of venerable NYC dance companies such as Mark Morris and Paul Taylor, spectacular out-of-town visitors and a farewell to a pair of beloved New York City Ballet principals.
In terms of COVID-19 safety protocols, all of these performances require audiences to provide proof of being fully vaccinated with an FDA or WHO authorized vaccine. Masks are also mandatory. Note that some venues are adding additional rules such as proof of a booster shot. While we are doing our best to keep this article up to date, before buying tickets to any event, double-check the COVID-19 rules to avoid disappointment.
If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to see what we’re selling as ticket inventory changes frequently.
—
Sankofa Danzafro: Accommodating Lie
The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs February 15-20. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
The legacy of kidnapped Africans reverberates in Sankofa Danzarfro, a Colombia-based collective of talented performers who blend Afro-Colombian and Afro-contemporary dance. Well known for its potent explorations of what it means to be Black, the company takes its name from a word from the Twi language of Ghana, “sankofa,” that loosely translates as the ability to move forward while reflecting on the past. That philosophy is on display in its new piece at The Joyce, Accommodating Lie, choreographer Rafael Palacios’ evening-length collection of solos and pas de deux that shatter centuries-old stereotypes about Africans and Black bodies. Rather than simply call out the ugliness of racism, the company uses live singing, music and Palacios’ beautifully emotional dances to reinforce the vibrancy of Black lives and the ongoing fight for equality.
—
Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets on the Upper East Side
Runs February 16-March 6. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Proof of booster shot required.
When the Park Avenue Armory commissioned interdisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome to create an installation for its cavernous Wade Thompson Drill Hall, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: transform the arena into a multimedia temple of Black and queer celebration. From noon to 7 p.m. daily, the Armory’s walls are covered in holographic sculptures, West African textiles, visual prints, Black queer iconography, poetry and masks. Tuesday through Saturday at 9 p.m., audiences can enjoy a rotating roster of live performances, including singers, musicians and voguers as they dance like their lives and liberation depended on edifying onlookers. In addition to their own singular moves, the dancers are buoyed by Newsome’s vision and choreographic phrases created by Kameron N. Saunders, Ousmane Omari Wiles and Maleek Washington.
—
New York City Ballet: Winter Season
David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza at 62nd Street and Columbus Avenue in Lincoln Square
Runs through February 27. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
New York City Ballet’s winter season continues through the end of the month with a selection of classics and storybook spectacles created by cofounder George Balanchine. These treasures include the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Four Temperaments, Serenade (often cited as a favorite by the women in the company), Prodigal Son, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and his one-act version of Swan Lake. Longtime principal ballerina, Teresa Reichlen, will give her farewell performance as the Swan Queen on Saturday, February 19, followed by principal dancer Gonzalo Garcia, who will take his final bow on the last day of the season, Sunday, February 27, in a program featuring works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and the company’s resident choreographer, Justin Peck.
—
Raphael Xavier: The Musician & the Mover
New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs March 3-5. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Proof of booster shot required.
More than two decades of break dancing and research have gone into Raphael Xavier’s The Musician & The Mover. In addition to showcasing the genre’s jaw-jumping stunts, Xavier explores the social, mental and physical aspects of the movement and its relationship to another improvised art form: jazz. A live jazz quartet and two additional break-dancers, Josh Clubreath and Martha Bernabel, join him in this rhapsodic deep dive.
—
Artists at the Center: Tiler Peck
New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Runs March 4-6. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Proof of booster shot required.
After recovering from a neck injury that nearly ended her career, New York City Ballet star Tiler Peck is keen to try new artistic adventures. This March, she’ll do just that as City Center’s inaugural curator of its Artist at the Center series. Peck has gathered some of the most talented dancers working in America today—including Isabella Boylston, India Bradley, Herman Cornejo, Jovani Furlan and Cassandra Trenary—for a diverse program that includes her own choreography, a world-premiere collaboration with award-winning tap genius Michelle Dorrance, a duet by Alonzo King and William Forsythe’s The Barre Project, Blake Works II, which was initially created as a dance film during the pandemic. The entire cast (Lex Ishimoto, Roman Mejia, Brooklyn Mack and Peck) returns for this in-person premiere.
—
Gibney In Person: Company Created
Runs March 16-19.
Proof of booster shot required.
—
New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs March 16-19. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Proof of booster shot required.
—
The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs March 22-27.
—
Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street at Ninth Avenue in Midtown West
Runs March 23-April 3.
—
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Runs March 24-27.
Proof of booster shot required.
—
New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs March 24-27.
Proof of booster shot required.
Despite dancer-choreographer Nai-Ni Chen’s untimely and unexpected death late last year, the company she built into a thriving enterprise over three decades continues to share her vibrant vision. Chen was renowned for fusing classical Taiwanese dance with modern and contemporary movement, and well known for nurturing astonishingly talented dancers. These dazzling movers have united under the direction of a trio of new leaders—interim artistic director Greta Campo, director of contemporary/creative dance PeiJu Chien-Pott and director of traditional dance/preservation Ying Shi—to present Chen’s final program, Awakening, filled with her longing for society to overcome trauma and division. The evening also includes her seminal work Incense.
—
New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Runs March 24-31.
Proof of booster shot required.
—
BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Hanson Place
Runs March 29-April 2.
Proof of booster shot required.
Brazil’s Cia Suave comes to Brooklyn with Cria, a tour-de-force exploration of what it’s like to be young, Black and ready to carve out your own destiny. Under choreographer Alice Ripoll’s direction, this full-length dance production uses dancinha—a funky blend of samba, breakdancing and street moves from Brazil’s favelas—to reveal the hopes and dreams of its 10 Black cis and trans performers.
—
Juan Michael Porter II is the staff writer for TheBody.com and a contributor to TDF Stages, Did They Like It?, SF Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, American Theatre, them, Into More and SYFY Wire. He is a National Critics Institute and Poynter Power of Diverse Voices Fellow. Follow him at @juanmichaelii. Follow TDF at @ TDFNYC.
Top image: Ailey II’s Elijah Lancaster. Photo by Nir Arieli.
Juan Michael Porter II