Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.
CARRIE AHERN at various locations (Oct. 10-12, 8 p.m.; through Oct. 19). In 2016, Ahern read Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 seminal feminist treatise, “The Second Sex,” and found in it answers to many of the questions she had about femininity, authenticity and power. She then created “Sex Status 2.0,” an exploration of gender expectations and desire that premiered last year and now returns for an encore. To enhance the intimacy, and as a comment on how female identity is often tied to domestic spaces, Ahern and six other dancers perform the work in private homes in Brooklyn, the locations of which will be shared with ticket buyers upon purchase.
sexstatus20-borrowedprey.nationbuilder.com
DANCE HEGINBOTHAM at Baryshnikov Arts Center (Oct. 10-12, 7:30 p.m.). In 2017, in a most unlikely partnership, the choreographer John Heginbotham collaborated with the author and illustrator Maira Kalman to create a whimsical dance-theater work based on Kalman’s musings. They’ve teamed up again for “Herz Shmerz,” a new dance-play, this time inspired by the writings of the posthumously appreciated early-20th-century Swiss writer Robert Walser. Heginbotham handles the quirky movement, and Kalman, the charming design. Like their previous project, this one also finds humor and pathos in small, simple moments and big, profound questions.
866-811-4111, bacnyc.org
AUTUMN KNIGHT at Danspace Project (Oct. 5, 3 and 8 p.m.). In “WALL,” a work recently acquired by the Studio Museum in Harlem, Knight looks at physical barriers and their impact on personal and social psychology and spirituality. The walls in question are the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a contentious holy site, and the Galveston sea wall, a 10-mile hurricane barricade not far from Knight’s native Houston. Through abstract sounds and gestures, Knight and the performer Natasha L. Turner, joined by a supporting ensemble, create a sense of ritual that becomes a physical examination of the power of place.
866-811-4111, danspaceproject.org
NEW YORK CITY BALLET at the David H. Koch Theater (through Oct. 13). Even City Ballet is getting into the spirit of the Merce Cunningham centenary. On Saturday night, the company introduces a new program pairing Balanchine’s “Serenade” and “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” with Cunningham’s colorful, delicate “Summerspace,” a work that was first performed by this company in 1966 but has not been since 2000. The rest of the week includes an all-Balanchine program of “Valse Fantaisie,” “Kammermusik No. 2” and “Union Jack” (Friday) and Jerome Robbins’s episodic “Dances at a Gathering” with Justin Peck’s sprawling “Everywhere We Go” on Saturday afternoon, Tuesday and Wednesday.
212-496-0600, nycballet.com
[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]
JUMATATU M. POE AND JERMONE DONTE BEACHAM at Abrons Arts Center (Oct. 10-12, 7 p.m.). In their multipart “Let ’Im Move You” series, Poe and Beacham find many ways to express their love of J-sette, a sassy, marching dance style that has roots in historically black colleges in the 1970s and has more recently been embraced by queer black men. The latest segment, a stage production called “This Is a Formation,” will include seven dancers, a D.J. and a lighting designer. In addition to “Formation,” “Intervention,” another chapter of the work, will involve a mile-long procession led by Poe and Beacham through the Lower East Side on Wednesday starting at 5 p.m. An accompanying visual component, “Installation,” will be on display Oct. 10-13 at the center.
866-811-4111, abronsartscenter.org
SHANTALA SHIVALINGAPPA at the Joyce Theater (Oct. 8-9, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 10-12, 8 p.m.). This acclaimed classical Indian dancer returns to the Joyce with an evening of solos called “Akasha,” the Sanskrit word for “sky” or “space.” Shivalingappa, who was born in Madras (present-day Chennai) and raised in Paris, performs the Kuchipudi style, a kind of dance theater that emphasizes rhythmic feet, expressive hand gestures and physical fluidity in the service of dramatizing ancient narratives. In this 2013 work, Shivalingappa interprets five Hindi poems while accompanied by four traditional musicians.
212-242-0800, joyce.org
OLIVIER TARPAGA at FIAF Florence Gould Hall (Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m.). In “When Birds Refused to Fly,” this Burkina Faso-born choreographer and musician draws parallels between the post-independence era in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960s and ’70s and the African-American civil rights movement in the United States around the same time. Tarpaga has enlisted four dancers from Ouagadougou to perform his engaging mix of African and contemporary dance to music by Super Volta, the orchestra led by his father in the late ’50s.
212-355-6160, crossingthelinefestival.org
WASHINGTON BALLET at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (Oct. 6, 3 and 7:30 p.m.). Three years ago Julie Kent took the reins of this company after a long and storied dance career at American Ballet Theater. As a director, she has proved a champion of new work, and this visit to the Guggenheim offers a taste of three coming premieres comprising the season-opening NEXTsteps program in Washington. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s piece nods to Salvador Dalí, while Jessica Lang interprets Schumann piano études. John Heginbotham’s contribution is currently under wraps but will likely display his signature vibrancy and playfulness.
212-423-3575, worksandprocess.org
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