The Joyce Theater on Tuesday announced its 16-week spring season, a slate of appearances by 13 dance companies from February through June.
Among those engagements is a debut by Atamira Dance Company, a Māori contemporary dance theater in New Zealand. That company will present “Te Wheke” (March 29-April 2) an esoteric solo and ensemble work, the name of which translates to “the octopus,” known as a symbol for power and mythology for Oceanic peoples.
Other international highlights on the lineup include the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Chitrasena Dance Company’s New York premiere of “Ahuti” (May 9-14), blending dance styles from India and Sri Lanka, and Vuyani Dance Theater (April 12-16), a company visiting from South Africa, with works featuring a cappella singing, classical music and traditional Botswanan dance.
Linda Shelton, the theater’s executive director, hopes that audience members and dance lovers take away “a lot of joy” from the coming season.
“That’s what it’s about,” she said. “Every company brings that.”
The season opens with a two-week run of Batsheva Dance Company’s “Hora” (Feb. 28-March 12), an evening-length work set to electronic music that places dancers in a futuristic folklore, led by Ohad Naharin, the Israeli choreographer and inventor of the Gaga style of dance.
Longtime fans of the Joyce will recognize familiar returns to the Chelsea stage, including A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, with Abraham’s “Our Indigo: If We Were a Love Song” (April 4-9), an exploration of the complexities of love set to a soulful Nina Simone soundtrack; Martha Graham Dance Company (April 18-30), with Graham classics and a host of new works from new choreographers; and Gallim (May 31-June 4), led by the choreographer Andrea Miller, who this season will celebrate her 15-year leadership of the troupe with a dynamic bill set to music by Nicolas Jaar and Sade. This season will also feature the world premiere of a collaboration of Miller and the krumper Brian Henry, a.k.a. HallowDreamz.
Also honoring a milestone is Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana with “El Cuadragésimo” (June 13-18), a celebration of its 40th anniversary, featuring guest appearances by the flamenco luminaries Andrés Peña and Maria Bermudez and excerpts from last season’s “Fronteras,” which The New York Times critic Brian Seibert called “an uncommonly deft balancing of the individual and the group” and “solid entertainment to boot.”
The theater is no longer requiring proof of vaccination but still requires audiences to wear a mask.
“I’m excited that we’ve been getting through performances without cancellation,” Shelton said. “I’m still hopeful that audiences will continue to grow.”
