Dance in New York: Critics' picks

NDT's second company, established as a training company but now an independent troupe of its own, returns to NYC with a four-piece program. The lineup includes two works by NDT artistic director Paul Lightfoot and artistic adviser Sol León—Sad Case and the frisky Sh-Boom!—as well as Edward Clug's quartet mutual comfort and the U.S. premiere of Marco Goecke's Wir sagen uns Dunkles (Darkness Spoken).

The subversive and funny Gutierrez explores his identity as a queer Latino artist in this new piece, his first New York premiere in four years. Performing with five other Latinx dancers, the choreographer turns familiar cultural tropes inside-out. 

The Joyce welcomes three Cuban companies in a two-week celebration of the island's contemporary dance scene. Malpaso Dance Company (January 9–13) performs Ohad Naharin's Tabula Rasa, as well as other pieces from the company's repertoire; George Céspedes and his company, Los Hijos del Director, make their U.S. debut with The Last Resource (January 15, 16); and Compañía Irene Rodríguez (January 18–20) gives a Cuban spin to classical Spanish flamenco.

Triskelion Arts presents its fifth annual festival of improvisation. Over the course of three weeks, a variety of companies from different wings of the arts—notably dance and music—invent works in real time; in addition to the performances, there are workshops and jams. Participating artists include the Lovelies, Site Project, Hannah Wendel & Artists, Sarah Chien, Nicole Wolcott & Guests and azumi O E + Sean Ali + Carlo Costa. 

The Israeli troupe, the brainchild of longtime Batsheva Dance Company member Sharon Eyal and rave producer Gai Behar, returns to New York—the only North American destination on its 2019 world tour—with a full-length piece about love and disconnection, set to techno beats by DJ Ori Lichtik.

In this joyful annual pageant, members of Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, founded in 1963, perform traditional songs and dances and tell stories inspired by Native American cultures across the continent. There will be dancing, singing and American Indian craft and food stands every day; director and emcee Louis Mofsie guides audiences through the history and traditions being celebrated.

Kids dance the darnedest things! The children and teenage students of Ellen Robbins's creative workshop, ages 8 to 18, showcase their choreography.

One of the New Yorkiest things about New York is how we all feel like we just missed the best part of it. “When did you get here?” “Oh, bummer! There was this incredible lightning-strike of culture—punk, the Soho loft scene, etc.—right before you arrived.” For performance lovers, one of the holiest of such flashes was the Judson Dance Theater, a flourish of choreography that lasted from 1962 to 1964. In workshops and performances at Greenwich Village’s Judson Memorial Church, visual artists and dance makers, inspired by the chance-based work of avant-garde composer John Cage, created a torrent of art that became the foundation documents of postmodern dance. This avalanche built itself into a mountain—and though you may have heard the echoes of it everywhere, from Broadway to the Whitney, the theater itself has started to sound more like a legend than reality. So thank your lucky stars for the Museum of Modern Art’s performance-heavy exhibition “Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done,” which throws every modern documentary technique at the problem of bringing a 56-year-old movement back to life. The program includes archival materials, poetry, talks, films (including wonderful footage of one of the founders, Trisha Brown) as well as many live dances, all focused on the enduring influence of the Judson choreographers. Here are some of the performance highlights you won’t want to miss. Yvonne Rainer (Sept 16–Sept 22)MoMA has presented Rainer before—and brilliantly so. In

Having put The Nutcracker to bed for another year, NYCB returns to Lincoln Center for six more weeks. Among the offerings: three collections of dances by George Balanchine and one of Jerome Robbins; a program of new work by 21st-century choreographers Justin Peck, Kyle Abraham and William Forsythe; and, just in time for Valentine's Day, Peter Martins's full-length The Sleeping Beauty (Feb 13–24).