Dance
Pilobolus, Twyla Tharp Dance, Grupo Corpo, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and more!
Sat, Nov 2, 8pm Sun, Nov 3, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Washington DC’s celebrated step dance company celebrates its 30th anniversary with a powerful production that tells the story of the Great Migration through Black dance forms, bold visual art, and vivid theatricality. The Migration is based on Jacob Lawrence’s famous series of paintings from the early 1940s that explored the Black American migration experience in a modernist style with a distinctive earth-tone color palette. Set to an uplifting soundtrack that includes music by Nina Simone and John Coltrane, gospel, and West African drumming, the movement traces a historical arc from Africa to the post–Civil War South to a new life in the North, the choreography a mix of stepping, tap, body percussion, and modern dance. Step Afrika’s past season performances sold out, so get your tickets now! "A life-affirming evening of theater" (DC Theatre Scene). Step Afrika's past season performances sold out, so get your tickets now!
An Illuminations: "Fractured History" event.
Sat, Nov 30, 2pm & 8pm THANKSGIVING WEEKEND Sun, Dec 1, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Pilobolus invites us to step into a realm where imagination knows no limits. In this retrospective production, the boundaries of gravity and creativity blur, offering an intimate window into the essence of the creative process. Following a triumphant three-week summer residency at the Joyce Theater in New York, Pilobolus’ re:CREATION tour embarks on a nationwide journey, bringing the company’s celebrated collection of repertory to delighted audiences from coast to coast. re:CREATION is a transformative odyssey of reinvention where audience and artists rediscover, redefine, and recreate timeless narratives through new visions of history, myth, and the innate human need for expression.
Sat, Dec 14, 8pm Sun, Dec 15, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Explosive tap dance meets hot jazz rhythms in acclaimed company Dorrance Dance’s intoxicating production of the holiday classic. Danced to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s marvelously inventive 1960 reinterpretation of the original Tchaikovsky score, The Nutcracker Suite boogies, slides, struts, and dives through the magical story of a young girl and her fantastical Christmas adventure. Along with collaborators Hannah Heller and Josette Wiggan, Artistic Director Michelle Dorrance transforms the Sugar Plum Fairy into a slinky Sugar Rum Cherry, the "March of the Toy Soldiers" becomes a swinging brass "Peanut Brittle Brigade" romp, and the original ballet’s pageant of national dances gets a fresh new twist. "The orchestrations are playful, surprising, imaginative. Ms. Dorrance and her collaborators…have responded in kind" (The New York Times).
MICHELLE DORRANCE, HANNAH HELLER, JOSETTE WIGGANThe Nutcracker Suite (music: Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s interpretation of the Tchaikovsky score)
Listen to a clip from Dorrance Dance's performance of The Nutcracker Suite
Fri–Sat, Feb 7–8, 8pm Sun, Feb 9, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Tharp is America’s crossover dance queen…. She melds classical ballet with modern dance, avant-garde experiment with Broadway pizzazz, technical rigor with off-the-cuff attitude, uptown glamor with downtown grit."
A titan of American dance, Twyla Tharp celebrates 60 years crafting strikingly original, thoroughly accessible, and utterly uncategorizable works with a new collaboration with Philip Glass, the artists’ first partnership in nearly 40 years. Performed live by Chicago’s Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion ensemble, the score is based on Glass’ 1993–99 work Aguas da Amazonia and reflects on the crisis of climate change. Tharp also revives Diabelli, her 1998 triumph that challenges 11 dancers and a pianist to embody Beethoven’s endlessly inventive Diabelli Variations.
Patron Sponsors: Toni Ratner Miller and Joyce Ratner (2/7), Rockridge Market Hall (2/8)
see full program
Sat, Feb 22, 8pm Sun, Feb 23, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Among the world’s most exciting makers of contemporary dance, Ohad Naharin brings his powerhouse company to Berkeley for the Bay Area premiere of a daring recent work. In the company’s words, "MOMO has two souls. One sends long roots to the depths of the earth—a soul that embodies archetypes and myths of hardened, raw masculinity, and the other is in a constant search for an individual and distinct DNA; one moves within its own autonomous and independent force field and the other is a constellation of elements that spin around the same nucleus—alternately drifting away and towards it, making room for necessary tenderness and catharsis." Recordings of Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s Landfall and Philip Glass’ Metamorphosis: Two provide the slow simmering musical backdrop, alongside a song/prayer by Venezuelan musician Arca.
Lead Sponsor: Nadine TangMajor Support: The Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust
Fri–Sat, Apr 25–26, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall
Brazil’s riveting Grupo Corpo visits in its Cal Performances debut, with two works that showcase the company’s distinctive style, rooted in classical ballet but enriched by folk and popular dance. Co-led by brothers Paulo and Rodrigo Pederneiras, the troupe’s dancers are celebrated for their athleticism, versatility, and deep respect for the connections between music and movement. The choreography in 21 is derived from the rhythmic sequences in the score by Marco Antônio Guimarães and Brazilian instrumental group Uakti. Gira (“SPIN”) is inspired by the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda and features music by São Paulo band Metá Metá that combines ritual chanting with animal cries, bird calls, and searing saxophone. “Their…dancers are masters of a scintillating eclecticism of style, able to whip a languorous Latin shimmy into a sharp pirouette, to flip from samba to jazz to ballet in a single phrase” (The Guardian).
Please note: this performance contains nudity.
RODRIGO PEDERNEIRAS
21 (music: Marco Antônio Guimarães & Uakti)Gira (music: Metá Metá)
Tue–Thu, Apr 8–10, 7:30pm Fri, Apr 11, 8pm Sat, Apr 12, 2pm & 8pm Sun, Apr 13, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Strength, precision, and passion remain the hallmarks of the august Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater more than 65 years after its inception. The company’s legendary dancers return to Berkeley with vibrant programs of new and classic works that showcase and synthesize a dazzling range of cultural influences, from spirituals and church hymns, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop, to African dance and classical ballet. Many of the earliest Ailey works and the newest company creations share a common focus: illuminating the rich panorama of Black American experience. Ailey’s monumental Revelations serves as a beacon through it all, and as former company dancer and longtime keeper of the Ailey flame Sylvia Waters observes, "It’s a testament to Alvin’s understanding of humanity and the human spirit. That, yes, people experience despair, struggle, repression, oppression, but they have the resilience and strength to go forward."
Fri–Sat, May 9–10, 8pm Sun, May 11, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
Pepperland is back! Mark Morris Dance Group presents its joyous romp through the Beatles’ beloved, groundbreaking concept album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Bursting with energy and buoyant creativity, neon costumes, and spectacular ensemble numbers, the playful and often poignant production features a score of inspired Beatles arrangements plus originals by longtime Morris collaborator Ethan Iverson for an ensemble of voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone, and keyboards. "Morris continually plays around with the Beatles’ own contrasts between sentiment and abstraction and sheer fantasy, although he throws in an extra helping of irony now and then" (Los Angeles Times).
Patron Sponsors: Helen and John Meyer (May 9), Beth DeAtley (May 11)
Watch clips from dance performances, and hear how each piece showcases the company’s distinct style!
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