NOT TO BE MISSED Jason Samuels Smith and Pandit Chitresh improvise in front of classical Indian and American jazz ensembles in "India Jazz Suites" April 20-22. |
The spring opens with strong programs from local dancemakers. DEBORAH ABEL DANCE COMPANY presents Calling You: A Tale of Ancient Wisdom in the Modern World, an evening-length work, with original music by company resident composer Lee Perlman. The piece weaves a tale of a modern American couple with a parallel story from an Indian parable. That's at Tsai Performance Center for two performance (March 24-25; 617.353.8728) before the company takes the show to India.Meanwhile, AUDRA CARABETTA invites you to "Please Be Seated" — the name of the program she's presenting with guest choreographer BRIAN CRABTREE. Carabetta's pregnancy made a recent duet between the two particularly tender and poignant. Her Green Street Studios program (March 9-10; greenstreetstudios.org) includes dancers from ages 12 to 60. MARIAH STEELE/QUICKSILVER DANCE explores the cultural history of tea, the experience of female immigrants, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Simon & Garfunkel. That show, "Tempest in a Teacupt," is free at MIT's Simmons Hall (April 20-21; quicksilverdance.com). KELLEY DONOVAN is producing a progressive banquet of area choreographers in a series of informal one-Saturday-night-only performances at Third Life Studio in Somerville (March 24, April 14, May 5, and June 16; brownpapertickets.com).
Just in time for Mother's Day, choreog-rapher JOANIE BLOCK and visual artist Linda Klein have created Dear Olivia, inspired by the transitions in women's lives, with an original score by Billy Novick and videography by Lynn Bikofsky. It plays at Green Street (April 27; 617.864.3191 or greenstreetstudios.org) and at the Leventhal-Sidman JCC in Newton (May 3; 617.965.5226 or jccboston.com).
Tilting at windmills? We get Don Quixote danced two ways this spring, with Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev of the BOLSHOI BALLET broadcast from Moscow to the screen of the Coolidge Corner Theatre (March 11; coolidge.org/programs/ballet) and, at the Opera House, BOSTON BALLET reviving the Nureyev version they toured around the world (April 26-May 6). Boston Ballet also salutes Jerome Robbins's Fancy Free (May 10-20; bostonballet.org).
BALLET HISPANICO celebrates "the Latino voice in dance" with Ronald K. Brown's tribute to Peruvian songstress Susana Baca plus works by Eduardo Vilaro and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa at the Cutler Majestic Theatre (March 9-11; celebrityseries.org). JOSE MATEO's 25th anniversary ballets include Of Worlds Apart, featuring works set to Mozart, Ortiz, and Stravinsky (March 16-April 1), and the premiere of Absurdus (April 20-May 6), at the Sanctuary Theatre in Cambridge (ballettheatre.org).
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER returns for its annual engagement (April 26-29; celebrityseries.org) bringing The Hunt and Takademe by director Robert Battle, as well as classics by Paul Taylor and Ohad Naharin to Citi Wang Theatre. The stylish TREY McINTYRE PROJECT memorializes Etta James, goes down to NOLA with the Preservation Hall Band, and presents McIntyre's signature Leatherwing Bat (to the music of Peter, Paul and Mary) at the ICA (March 16-18; worldmusic.org).
In "India Jazz Suites," legendary Kathak dance guru PANDIT CHITRESH DAS improvises alongside gifted hoofer JASON SAMUELS SMITH in front of dual ensembles of classical Indian and American jazz instrumentalists. The result is sheer rhythm heaven (ICA, April 20-22; worldmusic.org).
In The Muir, MARK MORRIS DANCE COMPANY takes Beethoven's musing on Scottish folksongs to another dimension. Sharing the bill at the Cutler Majestic Theatre are Morris's Socrates and Festival Dance (May 17-20; celebrityseries.org).
GREEN STREET STUDIOS blows out candles on a 20th anniversary cake with works by LORRAINE CHAPMAN THE COMPANY, SEAN FIELDER/BOSTON TAP COMPANY, PHILIP HAMILTON with special guest JESSIE STINNETT, DAVID PARKER/THE BANG GROUP, NICOLE PIERCE/EGO ART INC., MARCUS SCHULKIND, and more (May 12; greenstreetstudios.org).
