16 Dance Performances to See in April
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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.
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Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca
The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs April 5-10.
Flamenco lovers have long known that Soledad Barrio is a world treasure. As a performer and choreographer, she is so powerfully charismatic, even her smallest gestures stir your soul. After being forced to postpone her January run due to omicron, she finally returns to The Joyce alongside her magnificent ensemble of singers, guitarists and dancers with a new program developed during the pandemic, a celebration of reconnection.
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The Joyce Theater at Chelsea Factory
Chelsea Factory, 547 West 26th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Chelsea
Runs April 5-16.
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BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Runs April 8-9. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Made up of disabled and nondisabled performers, the UK-based Candoco is renowned for proving that bodies of all types can and should dance. The troupe’s BAM engagement features a reimagining of postmodern master Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset for dancers of all abilities and the US premiere of Face In, Candoco’s 2017 collaboration with Israeli-American dance-maker Yasmeen Godder that takes a wacky dive into intimacy and personal reflection.
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Runs through April 10. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets to Ballet Hispánico, and the .
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The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs April 12-17.
Following his retirement as a much-loved principal with New York City Ballet in 2018, Joaquín De Luz took over as artistic director of Compañía Nacional de Danza, Spain’s premier ballet company. For the troupe’s Joyce debut, De Luz commissioned a reinvention of Carmen choreographed by Johan Inger, with George Bizet’s gorgeous score arranged by Rodion Shchedrin. Inger’s vision of the ballet updates the action to modern times while framing the drama through the eyes of a child.
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Ashwini Ramaswamy: Let the Crows Come
Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater, 450 West 37th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Runs April 13-15.
Minneapolis-based dancer-choreographer Ashwini Ramaswamy brings her genre-bending piece Let the Crows Come to BAC for its New York premiere. An exploration of a shared memory, the work features three solos depicting the same recollection in different styles: Ramaswamy in Bharatanatyam, Alanna Morris in Afro-Modern and Berit Ahlgren in Gaga. They are joined on stage by composers Jace Clayton (aka DJ /rupture) and Brent Arnold, who put a contemporary spin on the classical South Indian score.
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La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village
Runs April 14-May 1.
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Eiko Otake: The Duet Project: Distance is Malleable
NYU Skirball, 566 LaGuardia Place between West 3rd Street and Washington Square South in Greenwich Village
Runs April 15-17. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Note: Proof of booster shot required.
In recent years, legendary modern dancer Eiko Otake has stepped away from her longtime personal and professional partner, Takashi Koma Otake, to collaborate with others as part of an ongoing series called The Duet Project: Distance is Malleable, a cross-disciplinary collection of experimental duets. For this New York premiere, she is joined on stage by improvisational dance great Ishmael Houston-Jones, rapper DonChristian Jones, avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan and performance artist Iris McCloughan.
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The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street in Chelsea
Runs April 19-May 1.
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New York City Ballet: Spring Season
David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza at 62nd Street and Columbus Avenue in Lincoln Square
Runs April 19-May 29.
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Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, entrance on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues in Kips Bay
Runs April 20-23.
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The New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Midtown West
Unfortunately, the entire run of Stono has been canceled due to COVID-19.
The percussive dancers of Step Afrika! return to New York for a two-week run at The New Victory Theater with the sounds of freedom and liberation on their minds. In Stono, the group presents a beautiful breakdown of the Stono Rebellion, an insurrection of enslaved Africans in 1739 that included the use of drums. Using their universally acclaimed dancing as well as live music, Step Afrika! digs into this undertaught history while reminding audiences that the fight for emancipation is never quiet. Can’t make it in person? A recording of the show will be available to rent beginning on April 20.
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Shamel Pitts | TRIBE: BLACK HOLE: Trilogy and Triathlon
New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea
Runs April 21-23.
Note: Proof of booster shot required.
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NYU Skirball, 566 LaGuardia Place between West 3rd Street and Washington Square South in Greenwich Village
Runs April 22-23. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Note: Proof of booster shot required.
After more than 35 years, David Dorfman’s company is still going strong. The visionary choreographer collaborated with singer-songwriter Elizabeth DeLise on his latest premiere (A)Way Out of My Body, an aptly titled examination of feeling outside of one’s skin. Dorfman’s dancers are backed by DeLise’s four-person band as they trip the light fantastic through space, time and reality-bending lighting design by high-tech theatre-maker Andrew Schneider in pursuit of personal truths.
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Runs April 22-24.
Some of Spain’s most marvelous dancers and musicians converge at City Center for its annual Flamenco Festival, which celebrates the genre’s glorious traditions and latest innovations. For the fest’s 20th anniversary, Compañía Manuel Liñán’s VIVA! defies the strict gender rules of old-school flamenco in a one-night-only performance featuring six men in standard female costumes. Meanwhile, Gala Flamenca presents two performances by a trio of flamenco legends, Mercedes Ruiz, Eduardo Guerrero and María Moreno, joined by rising star María Terremoto.
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BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Runs April 28-30.
Sasha Waltz brings Terry Riley’s one-page score to life with her endlessly imaginative movement in In C. Backed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Waltz’s dancers create an ever-evolving movement vocabulary, proving that even one page of music can inspire limitless possibilities.
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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.
Juan Michael Porter II