For kids, September means back to school; for Jews, it’s the High Holidays. For dance lovers, an impossible surplus — even a Sophie’s Choice — of hot hot hot dance performances one September weekend. All augur certain fun, and because we’re in southern California each option combines nicely with an outdoor picnic. Nettlesome choices for dance fans!
Fri Sept 12: Chitresh Das & Jason Samuels Smith @ Grand Performances
We love it all — yes we do — but this is our top pick for an absolutely fantastic dance performance on a difficult-choice September weekend. The featured artist, Chitresh Das, is a showman, a maestro, an adventurer, even a scaliwag. Yes, a scaliwag of dance, and dance needs one. Here Das rekindles his epic encounter with foil Jason Samuels Smith for a blend of Indian kathak with American tap dance. The rhythmic mayhem this duo poured into the REDCAT floorboards in a surprise appearance at this year’s Dance Camera West festival caused paroxysms of joy (loudest bravos from yours truly).
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Fri Sept 12: Diavolo Dance Company @ the Greek Theatre
Love seeing Jacques Heim in this promotion of Diavolo, the Architecture-in-Motion people, at the Greek Theatre; how fantastic, a local dance company (albeit one with national and international legs) at the Greek! Jacques is promising his audience, “a little bit of every day movement, ballet, modern dance, gymnastics, acrobatics, martial arts, and hip hop.” That’s a lot of bang for your buck!
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Fri Sept 12: BODYTRAFFIC @ Laguna Dance Festival
The popular “home team” repertory dance company, BODYTRAFFIC, has been performing hither and yon, in Boston, with upcoming dates in New Mexico, at the Joyce Theater in New York, after that at The Broad Stage. But Victor Quijada’s ungainly choreography for the troupe’s last public L.A. outing (Dance Camera West’s opening event) was a letdown … despite primo placement of Gustavo Godoy’s yellow clatter of a structure on the Music Center plaza. The Laguna Playhouse program is very strong: And at midnight, the green bride floated through the village square… (Barak Marshall); Kollide (Kyle Abraham); o2Joy (Richard Siegal).
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Sat Sept 13: Danny Ezralow Dance @ Ford Amphitheatre
We’re super curious to see what dance maker Danny Ezralow will bring to the Ford Amphitheatre’s rough-and-tumble yet uncannily intimate outdoor arena. We’re guessing Ezralow (lately of film and Broadway, long of Momix, he too is a showman) will prove unfazed by the Ford’s formidable history as the home of annual Easter Pilgrimage pageants. He’ll surely scale it down from his last impressive gig, as overlord of opening-ceremony dance-doings at the Sochi Olympics. Love the live music provided by contemporary classical musicians, WILD UP.