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5 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend
Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.
BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park (Aug. 11, 8 p.m.; Aug. 12-17, 7 p.m.; Aug. 18, 6 p.m.). With a breathtaking backdrop of the New York Harbor, this festival returns to Battery Park City (the closing event on Aug. 18 will be at the Schimmel Center) with eclectic programming by the artistic director of Battery Dance, Jonathan Hollander. Along with his company, participants include Ariel Rivka Dance and Douglas Dunn & Dancers, as well as out-of-town groups like Damir Tasmagambetov (Kazakhstan), Skopje Dance Theater (Macedonia) and Mophato Dance Theater (Botswana). The breeze is nice, too.
212-219-3910, batterydance.org
DRIVE EAST at La MaMa (Aug. 13-19). This annual festival, now in its sixth year and presented by the performing arts organization Navatman, returns to the East Village with its typically rich assortment of Indian music and dance. As for some highlights? The rising star Arushi Mudgal from New Delhi in a classical Odissi solo, the North Indian vocalist Rattan Mohan Sharma and a new program: “Dualities in Dance” featuring Mesma Belsare and Kiran Rajagopalan. It will be followed by a panel discussion on gender binaries in Indian dance. Drive East is admirable for many reasons — not least of all because it changes with the times.
732-580-2093, driveeastnyc.org
JEREMY MCQUEEN’S BLACK IRIS PROJECT at Marcus Garvey Park (Aug. 16, 8 p.m.). For SummerStage, Mr. McQueen celebrates the centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth with “Madiba,” which is based on the South African leader’s life, and stages a reimagining of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”: “A Mother’s Rite.” In this new work, Mr. McQueen focuses on a woman grief’s after her son is murdered by the police. The transfixing Courtney Celeste Spears, who portrays the mother, is a recent addition to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
212-360-1399, cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage
PERIDANCE CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY at East River Park (Aug. 10, 8 p.m.). This troupe of young dancers, formed by the dance educator and choreographer Igal Perry, makes its SummerStage debut with Norbert De La Cruz III’s “Face to Face,” which he collaborated on with the composer Nathan Prillaman. Mr. Perry offers his lush “Gran Partita,” set to Mozart’s serenade for wind ensemble of the same name.
212-360-1399, cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage
SARASOTA BALLET at the Joyce Theater (Aug. 14-15, 7:30 p.m.; Aug. 16-17, 8 p.m.; through Aug. 19). Under the artistic direction of Iain Webb, this respected company returns to the Joyce with two programs highlighting ballets by Christopher Wheeldon, Ricardo Graziano — the group’s resident choreographer and one of its principal dancers — and Frederick Ashton, the great British choreographer, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his death. The season includes a guest performance by Marcelo Gomes, who recently resigned from American Ballet Theater after an allegation of sexual misconduct. In the final pas de deux from Ashton’s “The Two Pigeons,” Mr. Gomes partners with another Sarasota principal dancer, Victoria Hulland.
212-242-0800, joyce.org
Stepping Into the World of Dance
The choreographer Emma Portner, who has spent her career mixing genres and disciplines, comes to ballet with an eye on its sometimes calcified gender relations.
In Irish dance, precision is prized. But perfection is beside the point at Gayli, a series of L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly ceili classes during March at Mary’s Bar, a queer Irish pub in Brooklyn.
A childhood encounter with an American soldier in Iraq led Hussein Smko to become a dancer. Now the artist performs on New York stages.
“Deep River” is in many ways an apt title for a dance work by Alonzo King, a choreographer fixated on flow.
Robert Garland has held many positions at Dance Theater of Harlem over many years. At long last, he has caught the most prized title: artistic director.
Alexei Ratmansky, arguably the most important ballet choreographer today, has stepped into a new role at New York City Ballet with a deeply personal first work that reflected his Ukrainian roots.
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