Dance Your Way Into the Fall With Festivals That Take You to the Past and To the Future

Dance Your Way Into the Fall With Festivals That Take You to the Past and To the Future
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By Natasha Nesic, ZEALnyc Contributing Writer, September 16, 2016

No one enjoys returning to work after summer vacation. The leftovers of wanderlust sit chilling in the refrigerator of your soul. (Or the frigid air conditioning of your office.) Is there any chance for escape, when you've already used up your vacation time and Christmas seems too far off to be real?

Yes.

This fall's dance festivals allow you to tour worlds you've never seen -- all without leaving New York. So take a peek to see where you might want to go.

Movement to the People Dance Company performs La Ironia del Duende at the Making Moves Dance Festival in Jamaica, Queens on September 24. Award-winning choreographer Joya Powell invokes a dark, daring homage to Flamenco and Gypsy culture. The price is right--admission is free.

New York City Center's Fall For Dance Festival features many familiar faces, including Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theatre, alongside Hong Kong Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre. The 10-day festival runs from September 26 through October 8 and has five different programs for two performances each, so get your tickets pronto, since all seats are reasonably priced at $15. City Center, an active presenter for dance, will be bringing the Vail Dance Festival, the Netherlands Dans Theater, and Flamenco Festival 2017 in March of next year, among many others, so be sure to keep up with this venue's exciting programming.

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Netherlands Dans Theater

The day after the opening of Fall for Dance at City Center, the Joyce Theater, New York's only dedicated venue for dance, opens their season with NY Quadrille - conceived and curated by Lar Lubovitch where he has commissioned four different choreographers to develop new works for the series. The Joyce season continues presenting some of the world's preeminent companies in week-long residencies.

Having been recently honored by First Lady Michelle Obama, the Dance Theatre of Harlem will appear in a special benefit performance on September 28 at York College in Jamaica, Queens for the Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center honoring former Director Matthew Katz and Arts in Christian Theater's Executive Director Beverly Ceasar. It's a "first annual event" so your presence will ensure you being a trendsetter.

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Dance Theatre of Harlem

The dance world's equivalent of the Academy Awards are the Bessies (named for Bessie Shonberg) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music will host the 32nd annual celebratory event on October 18 this year. The pre-show "Angel Party" will be hosted at the nearby Mark Morris Studios and the afterparty at BRIC is free. Make your plans now.

If you're looking for ballet, the American Ballet Theatre presents a two-week season (October 21-29) at the David H. Koch Theatre with numerous performances of exciting repertoire including the premiere of Jessica Lang's visual memoir of her time in Rome, set to Das Jahr by Fanny Mendelssohn. Just prior to ABT's residency at Lincoln Center, the New York City Ballet presents their annual fall season with lots of Balanchine and 21st Century Choreographers represented prominently.

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American Ballet Theatre

In the wake of an accidental flood in August, Ballet Hispanico defies tragedy and is set to take on the Apollo Theater on November 18-19. And soon after, the holidays are looking bright with the arrival of various productions of The Nutcracker, from the traditional Balanchine version presented by New York City Ballet to The Mark Morris Dance Group's wonderfully retro-modern The Hard Nut presented at BAM. Or if you've had enough Nutcrackers, you can always check out Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo when they arrive at the Joyce Theater December 13-31. The antics of the all-male company will be sure to end your year on an a high note, or should I say, en pointe!

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Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

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Natasha Nesic is a Contributing Writer with ZEALnyc and writes about dance and fine arts.

For more of ZEALnyc's Fall Preview series read:

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