Once the rhythm compels you, it may be hard to avoid feeling moved, both emotionally and physically, because of the cultural traditions and creative expressions these Autumnal dance performances have to offer. This fall, check out how the area’s choreography-centered events plan on keeping tempo with the local community.
Kaleidoscope, American Repertory Ballet
As a bold opener to the season, American Repertory Ballet’s “Kaleidoscope” will run for one weekend only at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center from September 23 to 25. The four “never-before-seen” shows cover both regular (7 p.m.) and matinee (2 p.m.) times, with ticket prices that range from $25 to $45.
The American Repertory Ballet, currently led by Artistic Director Ethan Stiefel, is a Princeton and New Brunswick-based group for classical ballet. “Kaleidoscope” programming includes a piece inspired by Salvador Dali’s “Swans Reflecting Elephants,” which is brought to life by ARB dancer Ryoko Tanaka and pianist-composer Ian Howells.
Howells, who graduated in jazz studies from the Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music and Mercer County Community College, is described on his website as a “musical chameleon” across genres. According to an ARB press release, Howells “accompanies classes at Princeton Ballet School, as well as Princeton, Rutgers, and Rider University.”
It’s only fitting that ARB, which was founded by “New Jersey’s First Lady of Dance” Audrée Estey, is set to show another performance of Claire Davison’s “Bewitched.” Davison is an American Ballet Theatre dancer whose work incorporates the “iconic vocals” of jazz musician Ella Fitzgerald, also known as the “First Lady of Song.”
ARB also commissioned work from former Dance Theatre of Harlem choreographer Da’ Von Doane, who collaborated with New Jersey visual artist Grace Lynne Haynes for the piece.
Haynes, who took on the task of “designing scenic elements and costumes” for Kaleidoscope, according to ARB, graduated with a master of fine arts from the art and design program at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has previously conveyed her artistic vision through two colorful cover illustrations for the New Yorker magazine.
The last of the performances is a pas de deux, or dance duet, choreographed by Stiefel with music by 19th century composer Léo Delibe. Those who want more can buy 2022-’23 season tickets to all three scheduled ARB and NBPAC performances: Kaleidoscope, Giselle from March 3 through 5, and PREMIERE3 from June 9 through 11.
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. www.nbpac.org.
Indigenous Liberation
The American-Canadian intertribal dance troupe, Indigenous Enterprise, is back with “Indigenous Liberation,” a night of pow wow dancing and traditions for all ages. The show will be held at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre on Friday, October 14, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $50.
Indigenous Enterprise is an award-winning collective known for their appearances at the Sydney Opera House, on NBC’s television competition show “World of Dance,” and in President Biden’s virtual inauguration parade. The group strives to share their culture in ways that highlight the importance of Indigenous representation through the three P’s — preservation, performance, and progression.
Founded by CEO Kenneth Shirley, a champion Fancy Dancer and filmmaker, Indigenous Enterprise is sure to never miss a beat with song, dance and stories from “all over Turtle island,” as the McCarter Theatre website explains. “Turtle Island” is a name that certain Indigenous communities use(d) to refer to North America, with the animal having a positive presence in creation lore and oral histories.
McCarter Theatre describes the upcoming production as a powerful combination of “explosively jubilant dance and colorful regalia honoring the legacies of their elders” across varying Indigenous tribes.
Pow wow dances differ in regional origin and styles, which is reflected in the October show’s agenda: “Men’s Fancy War Dance (Ponca), Jingle Dress (Ojibwa), Hoop (Taos Pueblo), Chicken Dance (Blackfoot), Flute (Cree) and Grass Dance (Omaha)” will all be performed.
All guests in attendance are required to wear face masks in the theater regardless of age or vaccination status. Commemorate the beauty of these sacred social gatherings with “Indigenous Liberation” and see the diversity of graceful onstage footwork in motion.
Matthews Theater, McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton. mccarter.org.
Ailey II, State Theatre New Jersey
Modern dance has its moment at State Theatre New Jersey, where on Thursday, November 10, at 8 p.m., Ailey II carries on the legacy of the late pioneering choreographer Alvin Ailey in a show led by Artistic Director Francesca Harper.
On the State Theatre website, Ailey II is described as “the next generation of dance” for ages 10 and over. Tickets are $29 to $49.
Ailey founded New York’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958, which continues to grow globally in celebration of “the African-American cultural experience and the American modern dance tradition,” their online pressroom states.
His second company for younger participants, Ailey II, “is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s finest early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding emerging choreographers,” according to the AAADT website, which is where Harper shines.
Before taking on her new role in 2021, Harper, a professional dancer and Broadway star, choreographed for both of Ailey’s companies. She also has her own collective, the Francesca Harper Project, and was a ballet consultant for the 2010 Darren Aronofsky film “Black Swan.”
Harper’s mother, Denise Jefferson, was the director of Ailey’s dance training program, the Ailey School, for about 26 years until her passing in 2010.
State Theatre New Jersey, 15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. www.stnj.org.
Fall 2022 Princeton Dance Festival
This year’s lineup of student performers from the Princeton University dance program will be featured in “new and repertory works” in collaboration with the season’s eight faculty and guest choreographers, many of whom have local connections.
A total of four shows will be held at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter on Friday, December 2, 8 p.m.; Saturday, December 3, 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, December 4, 2 p.m.
Tickets are $12 in advance, $17 day-of, and $10 for Princeton students, and advance tickets will be available to purchase in October.
Michael J. Love’s website says that he is “an interdisciplinary tap dance artist, scholar, and educator” whose “research intermixes Black queer feminist theory and aesthetics with a rigorous practice that critically engages the Black cultural past as it imagines Black futurity.”
Love is a 2021-2023 Princeton University Arts Fellow and lecturer. For the festival, Love will be presenting a rhythm tap dance piece — the same subject matter was present in his Fall 2021 introductory course, then expanded on further in his Spring 2022 lab, “Explorations in Black Embodied and Electronic Music.”
Susan Marshall has been a professor and the director of dance for Princeton University since 2009 and a past MacArthur “Genius” Fellow.
Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener are a dancing duo from New York whose over 25 works together feature “the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction,” according to their website.
Reiner is a Princeton graduate who earned his degree in comparative literature, as well as certificates in creative writing and dance, then taught classes of his own for the University, according to his Lewis Center for the Arts page.
Ronald K. Brown, the founder of the Brooklyn-based dance company Evidence, uses “African and contemporary dance” coupled with spoken word. Similarly, Davalois Fearon often pairs her performances with advocacy efforts, tackling issues like white supremacy and “structures of inequities that affect people of African descent.”
Guest choreographers include Caili Quan and Sun Kim, the former who is penning a “contemporary ballet work” co-staged with Zachary Kapeluck, and the latter showcasing her specialization in “popping – a style of street dance in which she finds strength and freedom to speak her truth,” her Lewis Center artist biography continues.
Although popping owes its start to the funk genre, it is now more commonly found in electronic and hip-hop music, with the Kennedy Center (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) describing it as “fluid movements of the limbs, such as moving arms like an ocean wave, that emphasize contractions of isolated muscles,” in their “Hip Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice” digital resource. Kim previously taught a class as part of Princeton University’s ‘Hip-Hop Techniques and Foundations’ series in 2021.
According to the Lewis Center’s director of communications, Steve Runk, “more than 50 Princeton student dancers will perform, with auditions just wrapping up” as of Sept. 7.
The Lewis Center page for the event will be continually updated with more information.
Berlind Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton. arts.princeton.edu.
