To move is to hope — to count on getting somewhere; achieving something; communicating, maybe with grace and flair. No wonder the word “spring,” the name of a hopeful season, can also be a dance-evoking verb. The tensions and conflicts of our times have seen fallout in the arts, but there is still much dance to look forward to, locally and around the country. Dance on. Hope on.
The Washington Ballet
The Washington Ballet is in the mood for love, with versions of two grand romances slated for spring. Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, who has choreographer credit on both, has reenvisioned “Giselle” and “Cinderella” to suit the company’s professional dancers and showcase Washington School of Ballet trainees and students. His “Giselle” at Harman Hall (Feb. 27-March 8), rooted in the 19th-century original’s portrait of death-defying passion, includes trainees portraying the ghostly Wilis. His Prokofiev-set “Cinderella,” which diverges more freely from other choreographers’ takes, features scores of students in roles including castle pages, young stepsisters, and pixies. Dates and venue for the spring production will be announced soon. washingtonballet.org.
Pilobolus
After the confining months of winter, why not rocket around the cosmos with Pilobolus’s “Other Worlds Collection” at Strathmore (March 5). The program by the idiosyncratic troupe includes, among other pieces, the breathtakingly athletic “Pseudopodia” — in which a soloist tumbles, somersaults and flares up from the ground like a flame — and the acrobatic, physics-referencing “Particle Zoo.” Also on the program: Pilobolus’s contribution to the “Lamentation Variations” project, an initiative launched by the Martha Graham Dance Company in which contemporary choreographers respond to Graham’s grief-steeped solo “Lamentation.” strathmore.org.
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance Theatre of Harlem’s “Firebird” was such a hit at its 1982 debut that, at one point, the audience “cheered as if it had just seen an adventure yarn,” reported the New York Times reviewer. Choreographed by John Taras, with set and costume design by the famed Geoffrey Holder, the work gives a Caribbean setting to a magic-steeped story drawn from the Russian folktale. As with several other ballet versions, the score is by Stravinsky. Dance Theatre of Harlem has newly revived, and is touring, this bright-flame classic to national and international venues including Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall (March 20-22) and New York City Center (April 16-19). dancetheatreofharlem.org.
San Francisco Ballet
Artificial intelligence: Looming threat? Dazzling opportunity? As the risks and rewards confront lawmakers, investors and anyone trying to do a Google search, San Francisco Ballet is bringing back choreographer Aszure Barton’s “Mere Mortals,” which muses about AI with a nod to the Greek myth of Pandora. A hit for the company when it premiered in 2024, the piece features an electronic and orchestral score by the composer known as Floating Points. After the Bay Area troupe reprises the dance on its home turf (April 24-May 3), the production heads to the Kennedy Center (May 27-31). sfballet.org, kennedy-center.org.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess has long been interested in the oft-overlooked modern dance trailblazer Michio Ito. In March, Burgess’s eponymous dance troupe revives several early 20th-century Ito pieces in a Library of Congress showcase celebrating its holdings of Ito’s papers (March 26). Later in the spring, the company premieres Burgess’s “Drawing in Space,” a salute to the artist Ruth Asawa, as part of a Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company engagement that also includes older Burgess works, such as “Charlie Chan and the Mystery of Love” (April 24-26 and May 1-3). dtsbdc.org.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is known for its bonanzas of summer hoofing, but the famed institution is busting past the estival. In what’s billed as its first-ever spring season, the dance center in Becket, Massachusetts, hosts the world premiere of Compañía Irene Rodríguez’s “Flamenco Soul” (April 24-26), as well as “Rowdies in Love” (May 1-3), a work for eight male dancers from choreographer Hari Krishnan and his company inDANCE, whose signature style draws on Bharatanatyam, contemporary dance and more. jacobspillow.org.
‘The Missing Element’
Early in the pandemic, Works & Process — the performing arts series at New York’s Guggenheim Museum — ran bubble residencies in the Hudson Valley, allowing choreographers and dancers a precious opportunity to create and rehearse at a time of widespread isolation and loss. One of those bubble-buoyed creations, “The Missing Element” — a fusion of beatboxing and street dance — is headed to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (April 25). Led by beatboxer Chris Celiz and B-boy Anthony “Invertebrate” Rodriguez, the piece showcases members of the Beatbox House, as well as breaking, krumping and flexN virtuosos. Dancer, emcee and filmmaker Kash Gaines adds a multimedia twist to the proceedings. theclarice.umd.edu.
Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
The Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival (Feb. 19-March 21) will soon glitter at multiple sites in New York City again. Its many offerings include Soa Ratsifandrihana’s “g r oo v e,” which draws on heritage dance from Madagascar, and Robyn Orlin’s “We Wear Our Wheels With Pride and Slap Your Street With Color … We Said ‘Bonjour’ to Satan in 1820,” a tribute to the history of South African rickshaw drivers performed by dancers from Moving into Dance Mophatong. Benjamin Millepied’s site-specific “Romeo & Juliet Suite,” interpreted at the Park Avenue Armory by a cast that includes L.A. Dance Project members, fuses dance, theater and film, with male/female, male/male and female/female partners channeling the eponymous lovers at different performances. dancereflections-vancleefarpels.
Martha Graham Dance Company
On April 18, 1926, dance visionary Martha Graham presented a showcase of her choreography, launching what is now America’s oldest dance company. In the final stretches of a three-year centennial celebration, the company performs at New York City Center (April 8-12), where the fare includes works by contemporary dancemakers, as well as classics choreographed by Graham, such as “Appalachian Spring” and “Night Journey.” Later in the spring, Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts sees the world premiere of “in case of fire, speak,” a collaboration with PHILADANCO!, choreographed by Tommie-Waheed Evans and inspired by “American Document,” Graham’s 1938 response to the rise of fascism in Europe (May 29-30). marthagraham.org.
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