As winter melts away and the world comes alive again, I find myself seeking out artistic engagement that refreshes and reinvigorates the senses, that signals an emergence into a new season. This spring, many of the dance performances that will illuminate venues in Greater Boston relate to temporality as well as what it means to be human and mortal. In The Dance Complex’s “What We Ask of Flesh,” the limitations of the physical realm are explored, as the work navigates illness and aging. Boston Ballet’s “Spring Experience” features a piece called “Petite Mort,” a reflection on the precariousness of life. Within the production “Dance Distinctive,” City Ballet of Boston offers “Ginko Leaves,” a meditation on impermanence and embracing the moment. Here, we’ve rounded up dance events you’ll want to catch.
Urban Bush Women 40th Anniversary: ‘This is Risk’
Institute of Contemporary Art | March 21-23
Revel in the spirit of spring with this performance brought to audiences by Urban Bush Women, a “Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble” based in Brooklyn, New York. The group emerged in 1984, founded by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and this month, it celebrates its 40th anniversary by looking to both the future and its rich, daring past. The troupe will present works including “Shelter,” examining the ideas of displacement and dislocation, “Visible,” representing an immigrant’s story in a foreign land, and “Quartet,” drawing from the legacy of John Coltrane.
Arrow Street Arts | March 28-29
Visit Harvard Square’s Arrow Street Arts for a meditation on the cycle of death, renewal and birth, presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and singer Caroline Shaw and dancer/choreographer Vanessa Goodman collaborated to create “Graveyards and Gardens,” an exploration of “the rich, nurturing bed of soil” as a metaphor for the eternal circle of life. The project seeks to understand memory as a kind of reconstruction, taking into account “elaborations, distortions, and omissions,” according to a press release.
Strand Theatre | April 12-13
A unique honoring of diverse voices will captivate this spring, merging “classical elegance with contemporary stories.” The program will feature “Voices from the Past,” a striking piece by choreographer Gianni Di Marco. It will also spotlight the artistry of Chu Ling in a world premiere of “Ginko Leaves,” merging classical Chinese dance with ballet. In this performance, the symbol of nature represents the “wisdom and strength of the ancient East,” according to a press release. The Caldecott award-winning children’s book “Ben’s Trumpet” has also been adapted for the stage, with choreography by founder Tony Williams. And the program includes a world premiere for the company by Lorraine Chapman.
Boch Center Wang Theatre | April 24-27
Spring heralds the return of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to the city, enlivening viewers with four distinct programs made possible through Celebrity Series of Boston. Alvin Ailey’s interim artistic director Matthew Rushing has created “Sacred Songs” in 2024, using music originally heard in the 1960 premiere of Alvin Ailey’s famed “Revelations.” A new work from multidisciplinary choreographer Lar Lubovitch, “Many Angels,” poses enigmatic questions, set to music by Gustav Mahler. Of course, the acclaimed “Revelations” will conclude each show.
Spring Dance Concert: ‘Limitless’
Boston Conservatory Theater | April 24-27
Every year, Boston Conservatory at Berklee organizes a spring dance concert exhibiting sensitivity and talent. American choreographer Lar Lubovitch offers “Dvořák Serenade,” while Andrea Miller, founder and artistic director of the dance company GALLIM, has staged a work called “SAMA.” The lineup also includes new pieces envisioned by Ken Ossola, who has choreographed for internationally renowned groups for over 20 years, and Aszure Barton, currently in residence this spring through a four-year partnership with Boston Conservatory.
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre | April 25-26
Global Arts Live delivers a production from New York City’s Dorrance Dance, an award-winning tap dance company established in 2011 by artistic director Michelle Dorrance. “The Center Will Not Hold” is an expansion from a brief duet called “a little room,” created by Dorrance and Ephrat Asherie in 2022. The work blends a range of different styles of dance, including house, hip-hop, tap, breaking, Chicago Footwork, Memphis Jookin, Detroit Jit and Litefeet, as well as body percussion. Donovan Dorrance composed original music, accompanied by rhythms from John Angeles.
The Dance Complex | April 25-26
Choreographer Christal Brown has developed a dance and installation event, influenced by her own caregiving experience encountering Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. “What We Ask of Flesh” navigates the overlaps between memory, loss and identity, while drawing from poet Remica Bingham-Risher’s writings and finding grounding in live music by Zimbabwean composer Farai Malianga and Deborah Felmeth of Middlebury College. Projected illustrations will conjure a “mythical shifting world,” according to a press release, while the cast will explore the idea of flesh as “the veil between the world and the soul.”
Citizens Opera House | May 15-25
Boston Ballet’s “Spring Experience” promises to be an awakening for audiences. In Jiří Kylián’s “Petite Mort,” a demonstration of swordplay and provocative physicality will grace the stage, a reminder of the fleeting nature of life, as well as the fact that we are never far away from death. The choreographer also presents “27’52,” a piece comprised of three duets inspired by poems and set to music by German composer Dirk Haubrich. The production will also showcase Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda,” the story of an abducted countess who is saved by her fiancée, a French knight. This year’s envisioning of the work will be different from last winter’s in that it is slightly shorter, with two variations having been cut and an extra one added.
Institute of Contemporary Art | May 16-17
A dance company grounded in inclusion and a “radically humanistic” approach comes to Boston from New York, courtesy of Global Arts Live. The work “truce songs” delivers a message of peace and connection, asking spectators to wonder what the world around them might be like if small truces were prolonged for increasingly greater increments of time. Step by step, we might end “one small war on humanity.” The piece has an original score by Lizzy de Lise and Sam Crawford, met with text by David Dorfman and the company.
Citizens Opera House | May 29–June 8
Shakespeare’s beloved tale is related through enchanting and graceful choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot in Boston Ballet’s production of “Romeo and Juliette.” Featuring the full score by 20th-century composer Sergei Prokofiev, the story conveys the tragic lovers’ passion, excitement and tumultuous conflict. Scenic design by Ernest Pignon-Ernest and costume design by Jérôme Kaplan are fairly minimal in style, emphasizing the movement of the dancers.
