Dallas’ premier contemporary dance company opens its 15th season with a new name and a new choreographer in its repertoire. Bruce Wood Dance is now Bruce Wood Dance Dallas to reflect the troupe’s deep roots in North Texas.

The program includes Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) by legendary Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián, the former artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater. The contemporary ballet is built around five romantic duets set to a score by Gustav Mahler. Also on the bill is the male duet from Wood mentor Lar Lubovitch’s Concerto Six Twenty-Two, created at the height of the AIDS epidemic to depict compassion and healing, and two driving Wood works, Red and Piazzolla de Prisa.

Though it was created in the weeks before Sept. 11, Red has become associated with the state of the nation after the terrorist attacks because of its themes of human fortitude and perseverance. Piazzolla, set to the music of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, merges classical technique with the urgent energy and emotion of tango.

Bruce Wood started his first company in 1996 in his hometown of Fort Worth and returned to the dance scene in 2010 with the Dallas-based Bruce Wood Dance Project. The name was later shortened to Bruce Wood Dance. Wood died in 2014.

Details

Nov. 15-16 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. at Moody Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St. $25-$65. $15 student and senior rush tickets available at the box office 90 minutes before the show. brucewooddance.org.