Dance Calendar February 2023

By CHARMAINE PATRICIA WARREN Special to AmNews

Fill your calendars with the many dance performances happening this month!

Choreographer, educator and producer Johnnie Cruise Mercer tops this month’s listing with an in-person performance on Feb. 2 at 92Y. Mercer brings together two generations in the latest work, “to those who have seed in the ground,” a movement sermon on the parable of the mustard seed, inspired by William McDowell’s 2016 album, “Sounds of Revival.” Mercer said, “‘to those who have seed in the ground’ is structured as a movement sermon on the parable of the mustard seed. Rooted in the practices and choreographies of my Black, African, American bloodline, and led by an ensemble of movement artists (both professional and in-process), tonight will happen as a series of meta-physical bouts (works) all rooted and calling onto the spiritual pasts of our ancestors.”

Mercer added, according to the release, “my work, my art, is my contribution to my community. It is my way of guiding my people towards understanding and surrendering to history, to our shared epic memory.

I am interested in where we are, and through feeling, together, finding out where we will be going next.”

ALSO THIS MONTH:

Feb. 2–3: Lil Buck’s Memphis Jookin, a blend of hip hop and modern dance, will offer up homegrown beats that evoke the Southern clubs. For more information, visit https://www.lincolncenter.org/ series/lincoln-center-presents/memphis-jookin?utm_ source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=010923LilBuckE-blast&utm_content=versi on_A&uid=217057&sourceNumber=49012.

Feb. 3: ZCO/Dance Project will present Visible/Invisible…and beyond as part of the City College Center for the Arts’ series of performances at Aaron Davis Hall. For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zco-danceproject-tickets-504880650617?aff=ebdsoporgprofile.

Feb. 3–4: Miro Magloire and his New Chamber Ballet will present his eveninglength Sanctum, made in collaboration with the Ekmeles vocal ensemble, at the Mark Morris Dance Center. For more information, visit https://www.newchamberballet. com/performances.

Feb. 5: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will be at the Kupferberg Center with Year of the Rabbit, continuing their celebration and welcoming of the New Year of the Water Rabbit. For more information, visit https://kupferbergcenter.org/event/lunar-newyear-of-the-water-rabbit/.

Feb. 7-12: Celebrating a 30th anniversary, Rennie Harris will take audiences back in time to the ’90s—the 1990s and the 1590s simultaneously—with Rome & Jewels , the first breakout work of the Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater. For more information, visit https://www.joyce.org/performances/rennie-harris-presents-rome-jewels.

The work includes a collaborative sound score composed by music artists dj Om-Amari (DJ artist), Young Denzel (composer), Monstah Black (lyrics), Jay Deamour (vocal artist) and performances by TheTRPNYC: Movement Ensemble, and features appearances by youth artists from the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School and Brooklyn Prospect High School. The production brings together two generations of artists with the intention of calling upon (and embodying) collective inner will. A virtual presentation is scheduled for Feb. 3–6. For more information, visit https://www.92ny.org/ event/johnnie-cruise-mercer.

Feb. 9: The seventh annual SoloDuo Dance Festival, presented by WHITE WAVE Dance at Dixon Place, will feature 33 dancemakers from the New York Metro area and across the country. For more information, visit https://whitewavedance. networkforgood.com/events/49563-2023-soloduodance-festival.

Feb. 10: The Moving Memory Project, a multidisciplinary festival focused on memory and forgetting, created and produced by choreographer Stefanie Nelson and writer David Schenk, will return with works by NYC-based dance artists. Featured will be works by Rebecca Margolick, Kayla Farrish/Decent Structures Arts and Mignolo Dance. Admission is free, with a suggested pay-what-you-can donation; RSVP is required. For more information, visit https://www. eventbrite.com/e/tmmp-the-moving-memory-project-2nd-edition-tickets-516211280837.

Feb. 11–12 (in-person & virtual): At BAAD! Join Dancing While Black for their day of shared embodied practices. This day of workshops asks “…how our practices as Black embodied/movement artists shift with the mo(ve) ments that we find ourselves in,” according to the release. For more information, visit http://angelaspulse.org/dwb10/.

Feb. 23–25: Choreographer and video artist Dean Moss’s Your marks and surface will premiere at Danspace Project. Made in collaboration with dancer Sawami Fukuoka, composer Stephen Vitiello and painter Angela Dufresne, the work invites the audience to “join in something worn, physical and reflective. Something incomplete and unabled, perhaps unsafe, but still sweet: a warm lonesome concoction mulled by more than the pandemic’s long embrace,” according to Moss. For more information, visit https://danspaceproject.org/calendar/winter2023-moss/.

Feb. 23–25: EMERGE125 will present works by artistic director Tiffany ReaFisher at the Chelsea Factory. For more information, visit http://emerge125.org/2023-events/ chelseafactory.

Feb. 24–25: Tap dancer/bandleader Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement will share Reimagining Max Roach’s Groundbreaking 1960 Album, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, as part of the Harlem Stages’ Black Arts Movement’s music spawned from a collaboration with singer and poet Oscar Brown, Jr. For more information, visit https://tickets.harlemstage.org/events/ d200af20-6e6f-f407-b779-db24ea3d53dd.

Feb. 27: The Martha Hill Dance Fund] will honor Dianne McIntyre, Diana Byer and Deborah Damast at the 22nd annual Awards Gala, with host Danni Gee, director of programming for the Joyce Theater. For more information, visit https:// www.marthahilldance.org/the-2023-martha-hillawards-gala.\

Feb. 28–Mar.12: The Batsheva Dance Company returns to the Joyce Theater with Hora, created by Ohad Naharin and inspired by the electronic music of Isao Tomita. For more information, visit https://www.joyce.org/performances/batsheva-dance-company.