13 dance performances to attend this spring

This spring heralds the start of something new: a belief that we can overcome limitations and set our sights to the sky. A number of local dance productions bring this to the stage this season. At Boston Ballet, “The Dream” fancifully weaves together a whimsical Shakespearean tale with a meditation on possibility. Boston Dance Theater’s “Strong Women of Today” honors the voices of powerful female choreographers. The Dance Complex’s “Midseason Mood” and “Gay Aesthetic” explore how one artist finds resilience while caught within society’s constant critique of aging women, while also rebelling against constraining views of queer individuals. Read about these performances and more, below.

The Boston Ballet kicks of its spring season with a local premiere of “The Dream,” choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton. This classical stunner, enhanced by music from Mendelssohn (arranged by John Lanchbery), depicts the enchanting Shakespearean comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a fantasy about fairies, mortal lovers and a playful band of actors. Also on the program is “The Leisurely Installation of a New Window,” a world premiere by choreographer My’Kal Stromile, with music by Mischa Santora. Divided into three movements — “Thesis,” “Antithesis” and “Synthesis” — the work follows the progression a society takes from “defined order into new possibility.” Layered and complex, the two works are juxtaposed with each other and form a conversation through their contrasting narratives.

Based in Maine, performance artist Sara Juli has created a one-woman, “work in progress” show that blends dance-theater and comedy, while navigating a midlife crisis. The performance is set to Max Richter’s reenvisioning of Vivaldi’s classical oeuvre “The Four Seasons,” and centers female voice and agency amidst “a culture that renders aging women invisible.” Accompanying Juli’s piece is “Gay Aesthetic,” a 45-minute solo work from Alexander Davis. The performer and choreographer was inspired to create this piece after being asked to lose weight in order to “fit the gay aesthetic” of a project. Instead, Davis embarked on a journey to develop a production that would address discrimination and perceptions of queer community members (March 21-22). Also coming to The Dance Complex this spring is “babybabybaby,” a playful, humorous and energetic commentary on love, directed by multidisciplinary choreographer Laila J. Franklin (May 9-10).

The Museum of Science will host an evening of dance, movement and wellness, as seen through the lens of belonging in the Latinx and Hispanic communities. The night starts with music from DJ La Nena, followed by a panel discussion with Report for America's Cristela Guerra (also a former WBUR reporter) in conversation with Shamell Bell and Eli Pabón about art as a tool for advocacy and preservation. The rest of the program includes a rumba music and dance class with Javier Jeffer Cumbrera of MetaMovements, more music from DJ La Nena and other activities. The event is free and for those 18 and older.

Boston Dance Theater’s “Strong Women of Today” comes to 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for two performances. Called “a playlist of some of the hottest female choreographers in the United States today” by founder and co-director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett, the piece showcases female choreographers of color (April 3-4). These include Rena Butler, Rosie Herrera, Micaela Taylor and Yue Yin. On April 10, Boston Dance Theater teams up with Rena Butler for a studio showing. This “Hitchcock-inspired dance thriller” promises to be mysterious, suspenseful and psychologically riveting, while exploring how we experience our social anxieties.

Based in Boston, KAIROS Dance Theater leverages dance and theater to tell stories that often respond to the “emotional, political and social realities of our time.” In the past, their art has investigated themes such as mental health, identity, gender and other complexities that weave themselves through our worlds. Presented by Global Arts Live at the ICA, the company will share three works with audiences. These include “Tavernous,” which sets music by the vocal ensemble Renaissance Men to a darkly humorous story. Another creation will blend movement with the music of Grammy-nominated cellist Dave Eggar, while the third, “husk/vessel,” has been co-created by choreographer Paula Josa-Jones.

Dancer and choreographer Chavi Bansal, who trained in India and the Netherlands, creates works that bring together Indian classical and martial traditions with contemporary dance. With a home in Boston, Bansal’s Vimoksha Dance Company emphasizes healing as an important part of their art. At the ICA, the company will present “Touched By Water,” which examines gender disparity in India, set to music by Heiko Dijker and Ustad Sabir Khan. They will also perform “Salt Soaked,” a compilation of memories with a score by Inga Chinilina. A third, untitled piece is inspired by the 13th-century board game that would eventually become known as “Snakes and Ladders” under British leadership.

Every year, Boston Conservatory at Berklee holds a spring dance concert celebrating the creativity of leading world choreographers. This year’s production, led by artistic director Tommy Neblett, offers Aszure Barton’s “Les Chambres des Jacques,” a work that the New York Times described as being about “sexual politics,” while evoking “pathos, ineptitude, drama and humor.” The dancers will also perform Bob Fosse’s “Sing, Sing, Sing,” coming to campus under the leadership of a partnership between the school and the Verdon Fosse Legacy. Also gracing the stage is Martha Graham’s “Diversion of Angels,” and other gems.

New York-based Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, who met as dancers at Merce Cunningham Dance Company, have brought their partnership to Boston’s Seaport District, with this performance of “Open Machine,” which they describe as an “experiment.” The dance artists seek to understand the ways that human and machine intelligence relate to each other, occasionally blurring “the boundaries between public and private perceptions.” Vocalist Charmaine Lee and electronic musician Mas Ysa have created the sounds that audiences will hear behind the movement, and media design has been developed by Jesse Stiles.

The celebrated Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company is returning to Boston under the artistic direction of a new leader, Alicia Graf Mack. Among the pieces that they’ll perform are several surprises: “The Holy Blues,” which garners its title from a line in Ailey’s own journal, draws together the sacred and the secular. “Difference Between,” a choreographic debut with the company for Matthew Neenan, is a world premiere that showcases “wild abandon and gestural playfulness,” according to a spokesperson. Meanwhile, “Blink of an Eye,” set to music by Bach, emerges as an Ailey company premiere. Those looking to experience the classic “Revelations” will not be disappointed, and many other standouts will appear at the Wang Theatre.

Boston Ballet’s “Spring Experience" ushers in the new season with flourishes. The first work on their program is “Dancers at a Gathering,” choreographed by Jerome Robbins and accompanied by a single pianist playing Chopin. The beauty of the show is in its simplicity — the artists are meant to look like friends dancing together and nothing more. Another ballet that will regale viewers is “Herman Schmerman,” choreographed by William Forsythe, featuring bright yellow accents through costuming. The name of the work comes from the movie “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” starring Steve Martin, and the phrase is meant to be playfully meaningless. Finally, “After” is the second world premiere for the company from choreographer and Boston Ballet principal dancer Lia Cirio. First performed in 2025, the piece is set to live piano and violin and is meant to be felt as “both personal and haunting,” evoking the precarious, delicate nature of life.

Choreographer and founder of TRIBE arts collective Shamel Pitts brings “Marks of RED” to the ICA. The performance is a creation of magical realism and is narrated by the voices of six women as dancers explore an Afrofuturistic interpretation of the “wombspace.” With scenic designs by Mimi Lien and lighting by Lucca Del Carlo, the show grapples with “the nuanced multiplicity and deep complexity of self-expression and the perceived spaces for regeneration, enfoldment, implosion, rupture, and potential.”

The exquisite fairytale “The Sleeping Beauty” lights up the Citizens Bank Opera House, imagined by the Boston Ballet. Set to music by Tchaikovsky and with choreography by Marius Petipa (additional choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton), the legend follows Princess Aurora as she is cursed by the wicked fairy Carabosse and sentenced to a slumber of 100 years. True love’s kiss can break the spell, and audience members will be swept away by the lush, sweeping magic of Aurora’s story. Ornate costumes were created in London in the 1970s and are still in use in this production, having been repeatedly restored by the Boston Ballet costume shop.