Performances Onstage this Month

September 28, 2014

 

Flying High

NASHVILLE

Look up, Nashville: Bay Area vertical dance company BANDALOOP is taking over downtown buildings on Oct. 6. The special event will kick off the company’s performances of Harboring at the city’s new contemporary arts venue, OZ, where dancers will hang from three different spaces as audiences are guided from one room to another. Oct. 10–11. oznashville.com.

 

Above: BANDALOOP at the New World Center in Miami Beach. Photo by Atossa Soltani, Courtesy Blake Zidell & Associates.

 

 

Giordano Returns to Its Roots

CHICAGO

Giordano Dance Chicago
has expunged the word “jazz” from its name. But judging from its next premiere, the company could put that word back in. Commercial artist Ray Leeper, who has choreographed for Cher and Snoop Dogg and on “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” is cooking up a piece with touches of Broadway flavor. Oct. 24–25, Harris Theater in Millennium Park. harristheaterchicago.org.

 

Right: GDC’s Martin Ortiz Tapia and Maeghan McHale. Photo by Gorman Cook Photography, Courtesy GDC.

 

 

Eiko’s New Body Art

PHILADELPHIA

After four decades as a duo, Eiko & Koma are taking on separate ventures. While Koma delves into visual arts, Eiko is working on a long-term project that places her body in different environments. This month, she performs Eiko: A Body in Station in three-hour stints at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. It may be rush hour for others, but it’s the opposite for Eiko. Select dates, Oct. 3–25. pafa.org.

 

Left: Eiko; Photo by William Johnston, Courtesy Johnston.

 

 

 

 

Dance and Degas in DC

WASHINGTON, DC

Edgar Degas’ sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is one of the most famous works of impressionist art in the world. But very few know of its seedy back story. The girl who modeled for Degas, Marie van Goethem, was a poor dancer at the bottom of Paris Opéra Ballet’s ranks, whose father died when she was young, leaving her mother to raise three girls on a laundress’ meek income. In Little Dancer, Susan Stroman’s new half-fact, half-fiction coming-of-age musical, Marie is caught stealing from Degas to pay for pointe shoes. The punishment: She must pose for the artist to pay off her debts.

New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck, who first worked with Stroman in The Music Man at age 11, will dance (and act and sing) her way through the role of Young Marie. “It’s a lighthearted story, but it’s also dark,” says Peck. “I think everyone, especially dancers, can relate to it. Ballet is such a difficult career. We all have to have a little fight in us to get to where we are.” Catch its premiere at The Kennedy Center, Oct. 25–Nov. 30, and stop by the National Gallery of Art, where the original sculpture will be the centerpiece of a Degas exhibition. Oct. 5–Jan. 11. kennedy-center.org.

 

Right: Tiler Peck as Young Marie. Photo by Matthew Karas, Courtesy The Kennedy Center.

 

 

A Choreographer On the Rise

NEW YORK CITY

New York City Ballet dancer Troy Schumacher has quickly made a name for himself for his fresh perspective on the neoclassical vocabulary. He had his choreographic debut with NYCB in September and this month, his pickup company of NYCB dancers, BalletCollective, will premiere two works. Oct. 29–30. nyuskirball.org.

 

Left: BalletCollective’s Harrison Coll and Ashley Laracey. Photo by  Whitney Browne, Courtesy Dancers Responding to AIDS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dracula Takes Over

Bram Stoker’s vampire tale is becoming the Nutcracker of All Hallows’ Eve. Here’s where you can catch it this month.

The Alabama Ballet

By Wes Chapman and Roger Van Fleteren

Oct. 30–Nov. 2

Ballet San Antonio

By Gabriel Zertuche

Oct. 16–19

Ballet Quad Cities

By Deanna Carter

Select dates, Oct. 17­–25


Brandywine Ballet

By Nancy Page

Oct. 24­–26


Carolina Ballet

By Lynne Taylor-Corbett

Oct. 9–26

Colorado Ballet

By Michael Pink

Oct. 31–Nov. 2

Mark Bruce Company

By Mark Bruce

Touring Sept. 26–Dec. 4

 

Right: Colorado Ballet’s
Dracula. Photo by Terry Shapiro, Courtesy Colorado Ballet.