Topping this month’s calendar are the Limon Dance Company (April 29-May 4) at the Joyce, Frederic Nauczyciel (May 3-5) at Julie Meneret Contemporary Art and Francesca Harper (May 2-18) at Susan Batson Studio Theater.
The Limon Dance Company returns to the Joyce with two masterworks by founder Mexican choreographer Jose Limon, “Mazurkas” (1958) and “Psalm” (1967), plus the world premieres of “She Who Carries the Sky” by dance icon Dianne McIntyre for Roxane D’Orleans Juste on the occasion of her 30th anniversary with the company as principal dancer and Associate Artistic Director Dianne McIntrye, and the full company work “Nocturnes for Ancestors” by Sean Curran. The season will be dedicated to Alan Danielson, a treasured colleague and school director of the Limon Institute who died earlier this year. For more information, visit www.limon.org.
Nauczyciel will present “The Fire Flies [Baltimore/Paris],” a solo show at Julie Meneret Contemporary Art inspired by voguers of Baltimore and Paris. For Nauczyciel, “voguing is a subculture that brings a radical understanding to performance and performativity,” according to the release. This exhibition will include large-and medium- format Ilfochrome photography, video installations and performances. For more information, visit www.juliemeneret.com.
Nauczyciel performs as part of the three-week series presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy titled “DANSE,” a multifaceted initiative centered on contemporary dance. For more information on the entire festival, visit frenchculture.org.
To celebrate the life of an American dance pioneer and her mother, Denise Jefferson (1944–2010), Francesca Harper premieres “The Look of Feeling,” true stories told through dance and song. Harper promises to “reveal the woman behind her mother and her struggle with independence, feminism, single motherhood, civil rights, men and, ultimately, cancer … [by taking] … on her mother’s courageous journey … from slavery in Coffeeville, Miss., in the 1800s, then onto her husband’s role as a prominent attorney during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, to becoming an internationally acclaimed dance educator as the founding director of the Ailey School,” according to the release. For more information, visit http://slices-of-lives-productions.ticketleap.com.
Also this month:
April 30-May 4: “Age and Beauty, Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or and :-/” presented as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial created by Miguel Gutierrez and performed by Gutierrez and Mickey Mahar, “is the first of a new suite of queer pieces. Part 1 addresses what the title says,” notes the press release. Performances happen at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For more information, visit whitney.org/Events/MiguelGutierrez.
May 1-2: Described as leading exemplars of Odissi, one of India’s classical dance forms, Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy of Nrityagram Dance Ensemble will present the U.S. premiere of “Songs of Love and Longing,” choreographed by Sen, at Baryshnikov Arts Center. For more information, visit www.bacnyc.org.
May 2: Virginia Johnson, artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, moderates the panel “In Good Company” with guests Abdul Latif, Camille A. Brown and Sean Curran to talk about their training and how it shapes their work, at Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theater. For more information, visit http://lc.lincolncenter.org.
May 3: Tap dancer Maurice Chestnut joins Claire Porter and Timothy Kochka and other Jersey dance artists from Nai Ni Chen Dance Company, Cleo Mack Dance Project, American Repertory Ballet for the second evening of “Jersey Moves! Festival of Dance” in the Victoria Theater at NJPAC. For more information, visit www.njpac.org.
May 3-31: The Bronx Academy of Art and Dance’s annual festival, the Boogie Down Dance Series, features “homegrown” dances from the Bronx, including works by Esteban Arana and Leticia Pliego, Renardo Domeico-Grays’ VISIONS Contemporary Ballet, Jane Gabriels, Trina Mannino, Sage Rivera, Awilda Rodríguez-Lora, Alice Teirstein and Marsi Burns, Nelida Tirado and Jesse Vega. For more information, visit www.BronxAcademyofArtsAndDance.org.
May 5: Saul Ulerio, Jeanine Durning, Deborah Hazler and Phoebe Morris present works as part of Movement Research at the Judson Church. This is a free event. For more information, visit www.movementresearch.org.
May 8-10: Okwui Okpokwasili returns to Danspace Project with her solo show “Bronx Gothic” after a sold-out run in January. For more information, visit www.danspaceproject.org.
May 10–11: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for their annual Mother’s Day weekend performance at NJPAC featuring three works by Ailey to Duke Ellington’s music (“Night Creature,” “Pas de Duke” and “The River”), two season premieres (“LIFT” and “D-Man in the Waters”) and the audience favorite “Revelations.” For more information, visit www.njpac.org.
May 18: Dancing in the Streets and BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance), in partnership with Westchester Square BID, brings Merian Soto’s “Branch Dances” to the grounds of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church the Bronx, featuring Soto, Arthur Aviles and 10 Bronx-based dancers. This is a free event. For more information, visit www.dancinginthestreets.org or www.baadbronx.org.
May 23-25: For the 37th year at BAM, DanceAfrica, under the artistic direction of Baba/Dr. Charles “Chuck” Davis, returns for the annual Memorial Day weekend of dance, music, film, visual arts and community events. This year, celebrating Africa’s “Bantaba” (“dancing ground”), the spotlight falls on Madagascar for the first time and will feature the music and dance ensemble Groupe Bakomanga of Madagascar, founded and led by Malagasy music star Mariette Rasoarinala, plus so much more. For more information, visit www.bam.org.
May 29-June 29: Kota Yamazaki and many others are part of SOAK, a festival presenting acts and workshops in theater, butoh, dance and performance art LEIMAY’s CAVE. Yamazaki will present his solo “Running” on a shared bill. For more information, visit www.leimay.org.
To be listed, send a press release to amnewsdancecalendar@comcast.net.