The Joyce Theater’s Ballet Festival, “UNITE,” directed and co-produced by Calvin Royal III, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, closes their spring/summer season from Aug. 13-18. In one week and in two programs, artists from nine companies, across five continents and spanning four generations, will merge classical and contemporary works. Alongside classical works by George Balanchine’s Apollo, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, excerpts from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s “Romeo & Juliet” and “Manon,” contemporary works from Lauren Lovette, James Whiteside, Duncan Lyle, Aleisha Walker, Zhongjing Fang, Adji Cissoko, Adriana Pierce, My’kal Stromile and Royal will also take the stage. Additionally, works by Jae Man Joo, Alonzo King, and Christopher Rudd round out the program. Joining Royal, there will be performances by Isabella Boylston, Tristan Brosnan, Adji Cissoko, Tyson Ali Clark, Kyra Coco, Kenny Corrigan, Luigi Crispino, Herman Cornejo, Shuaib Elhassan, Chyrstyn Fentroy, and Youth America Grand Prix 2024 Award winner Crystal Huang, to name a few. Finally, the programs will feature live musical accompaniment by Youba Cissokho on the kora, Kobi Malkin on violin, Jacek Mysinski on piano, and vocals by Rozzi. For more information visit https://www.joyce.org/performances/118/unite/ballet-festival
STILL RUNNING:
Through Aug.3: Five of NYC’s dance companies—Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem—return for the fourth annual BAAND Together Dance Festival, as part of Lincoln Center’s third annual Summer for the City. This year, the performance moves indoors to the David H. Koch Theater. For more information visit https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/baand-together-dance-festival-696
Through Aug. 11: Choreographed by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” the reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical based on T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” runs at Perelman Performing Arts Center. “The Jellicle Ball” is inspired by New York’s over 50 year old Ballroom culture that has spread worldwide. For more information visit www.pacnyc.org.
Through Aug. 24: Flamenco Latino “2024 Más Allá Series” runs at various venues. This year, the series centers on the notion that “we’ve been here before,” and features guest artists Omar Edwards (tap) and Paige Stewart (hip-hop), who each compliment Flamenco Latino’s creative mission and style. The “Más Allá Series” continues to produce innovative flamenco with salsa, jazz, blues and hip-hop flavors. For more info, visit https://www.flamencolatino.com/.
Through Sept. 29: At Arts on Site, choreographer Jessica Chen brings back “AAPI HEROES,” where audiences follow a young explorer, Kai, on a captivating journey across time to meet iconic Asian figures. For more information visit www.ticketleap.com
ALSO THIS MONTH:
Aug. 4: As part of Lincoln Center’s “Summer for the City” series at the Hearst Plaza, the Brooklyn-based collective Urban Bush Women continues their 40th anniversary celebration with “Haint Blu | Episodic Chapters,” and “takes us to the magical place where spirits share their legacies, journey onward, and leave the thick residue of their knowing behind.” Audience members will travel throughout the Lincoln Center campus, notes the release. This event is free and general admission, first-come, first-served. For more information visit https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/haint-blu-episodic-chapters-361
Aug. 7: At Summerstage in Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, Ballet Hispánico will share the joy and celebration of Latinidad culture in offerings of performances and a meet-and-greet bringing the community together. The program will include repertory, “Pas de O’Farrill” and “Club Havana” by Pedro Ruiz, and “Sombrerísimo” and “House of Mad’moiselle” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. For more information visit https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/ballet-hispanico/
Aug. 11-17: Battery Dance celebrates the 43rd Anniversary of its free summer (rain date on Aug. 18), at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City. The in-person and livestreamed performances will feature A’nó:wara Dance Theatre, Battery Dance, Focus Dance Company, Sun Kim Dance Theatre, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Lucas Crew, Rutkay Özpinar, Capoeira Luanda NYC, FANIKE! African Dance Troupe, Nai-Ni Chen Dance, and many more. For more information, visit batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival/.
Aug. 15-17: As a recipient of The Shed’s Open Call initiative, a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists, Kayla Hamilton will offer the world premiere of “How to Bend Down/How to Pick it Up.” This “…immersive, community specific, multidisciplinary dance performance explores lineages of Black disabled imagination and alternative world building. The work utilizes an elaborate multimedia design, multiple audio descriptions, ASL, a multi vantage-point performance space, and a performance structure that can reconfigure every night based on the performers’ changing needs,” according to the release. The performances are free. For more information visit https://www.theshed.org/program/402-open-call-kayla-hamilton