This fall, the Joyce Theater will present its first live dance season since it was forced off in March 2020. The season, announced on Tuesday, runs from September to February and includes 18 ensembles, including some such as the British hip-hop ensemble Far From the Norm, which is performing in the theater for the first time.
“We had a few priorities of rebooking and canceling shows the companies that were scheduled to perform here last year,” said Joyce CEO Linda Shelton, “as well as reaffirming our mission to promote diversity.”
Another consideration, given numerous travel bans and the difficulty of obtaining visas for performers amid changing waves of Covid, was “who can actually reach us when all these borders open and close,” added Ms. Shelton. As a result, only four companies arrive from abroad, Far From the Norm; Malpaso from Cuba, whose show was canceled last year; LEV from Israel; and the Colombian ensemble Sankofa Danzafro, whose piece “Accommodating Lie” deals with stereotypes of Afro-Latin culture.
The season kicks off on September 22nd with a visit to the prestigious Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company, which performs the evening-length work “Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim”. The piece uses the classical Indian dance style Bharatanatyam to explore themes of life and death through the lens of Hindu rituals.
Choreographer Caleb Teicher, who was scheduled to perform last year, presents the delayed debut of their Lindy Hop and Swing program, created in collaboration with a team of dancers and choreographers including LaTasha Barnes from “Jazz Continuum” and the Ballroom and Lindy Hop specialist Evita Arce. This show, titled “Swing Out” (October 5-17), will be accompanied on stage by a live swing ensemble, the Eyal Vilner Big Band.
Other highlights include Lucinda Childs’ 1979 minimalist juggernaut, “Dance,” set for Philip Glass (October 19-24); and Ayodele Casel’s cheerful tap and live jazz evening “Chasing Magic”, which had its virtual premiere in April of this year, will be premiered live from January 4th to 9th.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the cross-dressing ballet troupe, will hold their usual holiday run (December 14th to January 2nd). Among various sharp-eyed parodies of famous ballets – and the ballet itself – there will be a new work, “Nightcrawlers”, based on Jerome Robbins’ portrait of three couples dancing to Chopin Nocturnes, “In the Night”.
The theater will decide at a later date whether to require actors, staff and viewers to be vaccinated.
Tickets for the fall-winter season will go on sale on August 9th.
