International troupes are visiting the United States, and Washington ones are traveling. Dance that responds to visual art — something of a hoofin’ subgenre — will flourish, speaking to the kinship between art forms attuned to balance, shape and line. As for the repertoire of Pilobolus, scheduled to perform at Wolf Trap: The author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” might have called it “curiouser and curiouser.” But it’s the kind of curiouser that’s hard to resist.
10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography
As befits an event with a five-digit number in the title, this festival brings a bounty of dance to the Kennedy Center. Among other highlights: The Washington Ballet performs “home-coming” by Brett Ishida, whose spooky riff on “Macbeth” the company showed off this past fall, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet unfurls “The Veil Between Worlds” by Edwaard Liang, who happens to be the Washington Ballet’s artistic director. A special evening will honor the legacy of the late Choo San Goh, a pathbreaking artist who was the Washington Ballet’s resident choreographer. Curating the program with the Kennedy Center is Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an initiative to rid ballet of offensive Asian stereotypes and make it more inclusive.
June 18-23, Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F St. NW, Washington. kennedy-center.org.
Intriguing concepts jostle for attention in this 49-performance lineup. Ballet Hispánico will perform Eduardo Vilaro’s “Buscando a Juan,” inspired by the 17th-century Afro-Hispanic artist Juan de Pareja, who was enslaved — and painted — by Diego Velázquez. And from Baye & Asa, a company headed by a dancemaker duo, “4/2/3” alludes to both climate change and the riddle of the Sphinx. Taiwan’s Hung Dance swoops in with “Birdy,” which interweaves Western mythology and Eastern traditions while pining for flight.
June 13-July 28, with additional performances in September and October, at various venues around Durham, N.C. americandancefestival.org.
Performing in the summer, Washington’s contemporary ballet company can often be relied on for a bold conceptual gamble. The troupe’s 2024 season, titled “Ramblin,’” boasts live performances by the Red Clay Ramblers, the Tony Award-winning string band. The band’s tunes will accompany “Book of Stones,” a world premiere choreographed by Christian Denice, and the Washington premiere of “Ramblin’ Suite” by Diane Coburn Bruning, Chamber Dance’s founding artistic director. Additional repertoire rounds out the program, so ramble on by.
June 27- 29, Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW, Washington. chamberdance.org.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company has a busy summer planned, including the world premiere of “Landscapes,” a site-specific response to the work of artist Toshiko Takaezu, slated for the Noguchi Museum in Queens. Closer to home, the D.C.-based troupe will perform at the Hillwood Estates in July, with the planned bill including excerpts from Burgess’s historically inspired triptych “Seeds of Toil: Three Stories of Asian American Resistance and Resilience.” The company also performs in the Kennedy Center’s 10,000 Dreams and elsewhere.
“Landscapes”: June 14-15 at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd., Queens. “Dance on the Lunar Lawn”: July 11-13 at Hillwood Estates, Museum and Gardens, 4155 Linnean Ave., NW, Washington. dtsbdc.org.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
The British are coming! Well, the Royal Ballet, anyway. The company will do a grand jeté across the Atlantic to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the terpsichorean holy site in Massachusetts. Making its only stop in the United States in 2024, the ballet will perform, among other enticements, the U.S. premiere of choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s “Secret Things.” Also at Jacob’s Pillow this summer, Camille A. Brown and Dancers premiering “I AM,” inspired by an episode of HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” and the D.C. area’s KanKouran West African Dance Company making its Jacob’s Pillow debut.
June 26-Aug. 25, 358 George Carter Rd., Becket, Mass. jacobspillow.org.
New York City’s Little Island pier park has big artistic plans, and they include a major dance draw: a new full-length work by Twyla Tharp. Her “How Long Blues,” with original music and arrangements by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, kicks off the summer season at the park, located on the Hudson River. Also on the schedule: Tanowitz’s new dance “Day for Night,” designed to connect with Little Island’s landscapes and sounds.
“How Long Blues,” June 1-23. “Day for Night,” July 17-21. Little Island, W. 13th St., New York. www.littleislandtickets.com.
Pathways to Performance: Exercises in Reframing the Narrative
As a predecessor event did in 2022, Pathways to Performance: Exercises in Reframing the Narrative at the Kennedy Center will recognize and support the accomplishments of Black ballet artists. Curated by Theresa Ruth Howard, founder of the online resource Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet, the program includes a world premiere by Jennifer Archibald, whose credits include choreographing for many ballet companies, movement-directing Michael Kahn’s production of “The Oresteia” and working commercially for Tommy Hilfiger. Another highlight: a classical pas de deux choreographed by Kiyon Ross and performed by two nonbinary dancers from the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
July 2-3 at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, 2700 F St. NW, Washington. kennedy-center.org.
Step Afrika!’s “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence”
As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, Step Afrika! — which specializes in stepping, the percussive dance style popularized at Black fraternities and sororities — will bring its landmark work “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence” to Arena Stage for a multiweek run. The production pairs dance with images from Lawrence’s “The Migration Series,” his famous 60-panel suite of paintings about the movement of millions of African Americans from South to North in the 20th century. In addition to new costumes, this iteration of the dance will feature images from “Migration Series” panels at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection in Washington; previously only panels from the latter were represented.
June 7-July 14, Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater, 1101 Sixth St. SW, Washington. arenastage.org
Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
The idiosyncratic troupe Pilobolus will bring its signature blend of athleticism, intensity and whimsy back to Wolf Trap on July 10. Titled “re: CREATION,” the program will include the quirky classic “Gnomen”; the mysterious duet “Symbiosis”; and “Noctuary,” a sextet set to a thunder-quoting score by Jad Abumrad of Radiolab fame. If you can prolong your summer through the first week of September — and now that we can wear white after Labor Day, why be uptight about other arbitrary seasonal boundaries? — you can catch the Washington Ballet on Sept. 5. On the announced bill are works by Archibald and Liang, plus George Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto.”
Pilobolus: July 10. The Washington Ballet: Sept. 5. Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Filene Center, 1551 Trap Rd., Vienna, Va. www.wolftrap.org.
