Dance in New York: Critics' picks

Having put The Nutcracker to bed for another year, NYCB returns to Lincoln Center for six more weeks. Principal among the offerings are the world premieres of resident choreographer Justin Peck's Mystic Familiar, set to a commissioned score by Dan Deacon, and artist in residence Alexei Ratmansky's suite of dances from Paquita. Other attractions include a centennial salute to ballerina Maria Tallchief and the return of Christopher Wheeldon's Carnival of Animals, narrated by John Lithgow; the engagement concludes with a two-week run of Peter Martins's full-length version of the Tchaikovsky classic Swan Lake (February 19–Mar 2). Also on the lineup are multiple pieces by Wheeldon and City Ballet's legendary founding choreographers, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. The troupe's current constellation of étoiles includes Ashley Bouder—who bids farewell to the company on February 13, after 25 years, in Balanchine's Firebird—alongside Tyler Angle, Chun Wai Chan, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Megan Fairchild, Jovani Furlan, Emilie Gerrity, Joseph Gordon, Anthony Huxley, Isabella LaFreniere, Sara Mearns, Roman Mejia, Mira Nadon, Tiler Peck, Unity Phelan, Taylor Stanley, Daniel Ulbricht, Andrew Veyette, Emma Von Enck, Peter Walker and Indiana Woodward. Visit the City Ballet website for a full schedule of events. Ashley Bouder in Firebird | Photograph: Courtesy Erin Baiano

Irish Arts Center presents the world premiere of its commissioned collaboration between Dublin's John Scott Dance and composer Mel Mercier: a tribute to the legacy of modern dance master Merce Cunningham and his partner, the pioneering avant-garde composer John Cage. Mercier performs his own score with three other musicians; the piece also incorporates recorded voices of former members of the Cunningham's company. The evening also includes four solo works by Cunningham himself—Changeling (1957), Solo (1975) and excerpts from RainForest (1968) and Travelogue (1977)—set to music by John King and performed by Morgan Amirah Burns, Boris Charrion and François Malbranque. 

[Note: Queen of Hearts returns in February for an encore run, with Lindsay Rose in the title role.] Lewis Carroll's trippy Alice in Wonderland books have inspired many theatrical spectacles, but Company XIV's seductive Queen of Hearts is a singular sexcess: a transporting fusion of haute burlesque, circus, dance and song. Your fall down the glamorous rabbit hole begins upon entering the troupe's louche Bushwick lair, where scantily clad server-performers slink about in flattering red lighting. A cursory knowledge of the source material will help you make sense of the show’s three-act cavalcade of Alice-inspired routines, as our blue-haired heroine embarks on an NC-17 coming-of-age journey under the guidance of the White Rabbit. As usual, Company XIV impresario Austin McCormick has assembled an array of alluring and highly skilled artists, who look smashing in Zane Pihlstrom's lace-and-crystal-encrusted costumes. A contortionist emerges in an S/M-vinyl cocoon and transforms into a beauteous butterfly; mustachioed twins, as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, perform a cheeky spin on the Marx Brothers' mirror trick. As the title royal, voluptuous vocalist Storm Marrero rules over all in her stunning 11-o'clock number. With its soundtrack of pop songs, attractive ensemble cast and immersive aesthetics—plus chocolate and specialty cocktails—Queen of Hearts feels like Moulin Rouge! for actual bohemians. Hell, it even has a cancan. Like Alice, you may resist returning to reality when...

Hip-hop dance auteur Rennie Harris has been a beloved figure for decades, whether creating exceptional dances for troupes like New York's Alvin Ailey and Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance or for his own company of more than 30 years, Puremovement. He is also dedicated to educating young folk, which is one reason he keeps returning to the New Victory, which is kind of BAM for kids. His seventh show at the New Vic—a collection of short pieces in a miscellany of styles that was also performed in Prospect Park in 2023—illustrates what he calls "the three Laws of Hip-Hop": individuality, creativity and innovation.

The internationally celebrated English choreographer Akram Kahn, whose work gives modern inflections to the classical South Asian dance form of Kathak, shares his newest full-length work, which explores connection to tradition amid the flux of the modern world. His company at the Joyce includes specialists in several other forms: Kutiyattam artist Kapila Venu, Nrityagram artist Sirikalyani Adkoli, Bharatanatyam soloists Mavin Khoo and Mythili Prakash and the Bharatanatyam duo Vijna Vasudevan and Renjith Babu.

The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation celebrates the upcoming sesquicentennial of the pioneering modern dancer's birth with a pop-up series of immersive "living sculpture gallery performances," in which dancers posed as sculptures gradually come to life in an environment of archival photos, artwork and quotations. Lori Belilove directs the happening for her Isadora Duncan Dance Company. (The Saturday night performance is a gala for the organization, and the Sunday matinee is aimed at families.) 

Longtime American Ballet Theatre principal Herman Cornejo, who was born in Buenos Aires, is the creator of a full-length work freely adapted from Caaporá, an abandoned 1915 libretto (by Argentina's Ricardo Guiraldes and Alfredo González Garaño) that was intended to be staged by the legendary aslav Nijinsky. The piece is inspired by the indigenous Guaraní people's legend of the mystical Urutaú bird. The production features choreography by Anabella Tuliano and an original score by Luis Maurette "Uji" and Noelia Escalzo; it is performed by Cornejo with Tuliano's Argentinian dance company, Grupo Cadabra.

The dance-theater company Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet, now 30 years young, returns to BAM for its annual celebration of Black History Month. Its multimedia production mixes contemporary and African dance with music, drumming and spoken word to dramatize the Middle Passage, slavery and emancipation.