By Linda Buchwald
This fall is all about dance, with dance-driven television (Dancing With The Stars), movies (Fame), and Broadway shows (Fela! and Burn the Floor) to choose from. If that whets your appetite, then mark your calendars for these ten dance shows, listed in chronological order.
1) In-I (BAM Harvey Theatre)
September 15-26
Academy Award-winning actress Juliette Binoche makes her dance debut in this piece, which she also conceived and directed with choreographer Akram Khan. Binoche has said in interviews that she does not plan on continuing dance after the global tour, so this might be your only chance to see how the actress moves on the floor.
2) Groovaloo (The Joyce Theatre)
September 15-27
If hip-hop is more your speed, then check out ,Groovaloo based on the troupe's own life experiences. Billed as featuring "the authenticity of A Chorus Line with the energy of Stomp," this show should appeal to both dance and theatre lovers.
3) Fall For Dance Festival (City Center Mainstage)
September 22-October 3
At $10 a ticket, you can't really go wrong. This year's festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In addition to dance programs featuring eight different companies, the DanceTalk series will offer illumination on the Ballets Russes and how it helped shape dance today.
4) Lucinda Childs' Dance (The Joyce Theatre)
October 6 - 11
This is a chance to see a rarely performed 1979 work by influential postmodern dancer-choreographer Lucinda Childs, featuring music by Philip Glass and a film by Sol LeWitt projected on a translucent scrim.
5) American Ballet Theatre (Avery Fisher Hall)
October 7-10
The ABT fall season is less than a week long, so you may want to plan ahead. The season features premieres from Benjamin Millepied, Aszure Barton, and Alexei Ratmansky, plus encores of Clark Tippet's Some Assembly Required and Jerome Robbins' Other Dances.
6) Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (The Joyce Theatre)
October 20-25
The company will be performing Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Orbo Novo, based on the idea of North America as "The New World," with an original score by Szymon Brzoska.
7) Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company (City Center Mainstage)
October 13-18
The transatlantic ballet company continues the Ballets Russes theme at City Center. The programs include two U.S. premieres from Christopher Wheeldon and Tim Harbour.
8) Itutu (BAM Howard Gilman Opera House)
November 4-7
You can catch Karole Armitage's (known as "the punk ballerina") choreography in Hair on Broadway, but she also leads modern dance company Armitage Gone! Dance. The ballet will feature live music by Burkina Electric, which blends traditional African and electronic dance music.
9) Serenade/ The Proposition Joyce (The Joyce Theatre)
November 10-15
Bill T. Jones, who won a Tony Award for his Spring Awakening choreography, will return to Broadway this fall as the writer, director, and choreographer of Fela! Additionally, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will perform this New York premiere, which is a part of a suite of works Jones created for the 2009 Abraham Lincoln bicentennial.
10) Really Real (BAM Harvey Theatre)
November 17-21
Wally Cardona and his company perform this exploration of the human species. An added bonus is Phil Kline's score, sung by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Linda Buchwald blogs for Critic-O-Meter and her own blog, Pataphysical Science, and is a member of the Independent Theater Bloggers Association. Her writing has appeared in various publications including The Sondheim Review, PopMatters, International Musician, and Making Music Magazine.
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