Night two of Fall for Dance at New York City Center – and another dance lesson. A short dance lesson since the dancers had to get ready because they were the first company on the program. Again, it was a small group and the two dancers and co-artistic director Tommie-Waheed Evans and rehearsal director Tracy Vogt from PHILDANCO! did answer questions from the audience. Unfortunately, I could not hear the questions, so my mind wandered a bit.

All photos are taken from the NY City Center site or the internet. 

PHILDANCO! The Philadelphia Dance Company performed the New York premiere of  Heirborne (my mama ain’t never touched the sky, but she gave me wings). It starts with a solo woman in shiny shorts and bomber jacket with what I thought was painted on suspenders. The company enters and the women are dressed the same and the men are wearing shiny pants with the same type of bomber jackets. All are barefoot. When they unzip their jackets, I realize that they are all wearing suspenders and the jackets were transparent. The women are wearing sports bras. The dance is about the Black experience and what does it mean for Black people to take flight. Almost all are in sync the entire dance. There are rhythmic herky-jerky movements. At the applause at the end, they each did a little dance of their own as they moved forward.

Founder/Artistic Director: Joan Myers Brown

Co-Artistic Director: Kim Y Bear-Bailey

Co-Artistic Director: Tommie-Waheed Evans

Choreography: Juel D Lane

Staging/Rehearsal Director: Tracy Vogt

Costume Design & Execution: Anna-Alisa Belous

Lighting Design: Nick Kolin

Stage Manager: Nick Kolin

Dancers: Kaylah Arielle, Erin Banks, William E Burden, Aliyah Clay, Addison Hill, Floyd McLean Jr, Nathan E McNatt Jr, L James O’Gilvie

Music: “2bMe” – written, arranged, and performed by RAHBI; composed by Bryce Raburn; mix engineer “AP” Adrian Porter; mastered by Irv Johnson. “Black Flight” – composed and mixed by Leo Ra Soul.

The second dance was a mix of ballet and theater and, until the last night, was my favorite dance of the 2026 program. Robbie Fairchild’s Players performed the world premiere of Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The dances were very sexy, especially those between William Shakespeare and his lovers. The musicians were upstage stage right and from the program, In the Playbill, I read that Leah Coloff, who I know from The Secret City orchestra, would be playing cello. The backdrop was a scrim with lights hanging from different heights. Later in the dance, Shakespeare lets a leaf from his book go up on a hook and other pages come down from the ceiling downstage at about the same heights as the lights, which were gone. After the pages go back up, the lights come back down. Downstage stage left was Shakespeare’s desk with his writing materials. Before the curtain goes up, there is a drumbeat like a heartbeat. The costumes are ballet renditions of Elizabethan dress. Even the ballet moves seemed Elizabethan, which I cannot explain why they looked that way but they just did. It opens with the narrator and Shakespeare’s best friend (and Lord Chamberlain during one short sequence) George. George stars in The Taming of the Shrew as Kate and Shakespeare is Petruchio. If you are familiar with The Taming of the Shrew, their duets are a perfect depiction of their relationship both before and after. Arrested for homosexuality, George dies in prison of bubonic plague. The plague is represented by two dancers in black hooded cloaks. Before the theater closes because of the plague, the replacement for Kate is Alfonso. Their relationship dance is the most sensual of the dances – very erotic with lots of PDA. Lord Chamberlain catches Shakespeare and Alfonso and the arrangement is that Alfonso will marry the Lord’s pregnant mistress Emilia. And when the theater closes, Shakespeare goes home to Anne with whom he also dances a sensual dance. Shakespeare’s love sonnets are for both George and Alfonso and eventually there is more sensual dancing with everyone, including George’s ghost. The final narration talks about forbidden love, which leads to Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet among other plays with forbidden loves. Shakespeare honors George, who is represented by best friend Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.

Choreography (after Sonya Tayeh’s Unveiling): Robbie Fairchild

Direction: Robbie Fairchild

Writing: Rick Elice & Robbie Fairchild

Music Director, Arranger, Orchestrator: Sean Peter Forte

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Electronic Sound Composer: Ben Waters

Creative Consultant: Christopher Wheeldon for Toy Theater Productions

Costume Design: Márion Talán de la Rosa

Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor

Sound Design: Daniel Erdberg

Rehearsal Director: Lily Sheppard

Associate Costume Designer: Victoria Bek

Stage Manager: Jessie Ksanznak

Dancers: Robbie Fairchild (William Shakespeare), Nico Greetham (George/Lord Chamberlain), Lauren Lovette (Anne Hathaway), Vincenzo Di Primo (Alfonso), Rachel Lockhart (Emilia)

Musicians: Sean Peter Forte (Pianist, Conductor), Lavinia Pavlish (Violin), Leah Coloff (Cello), Blair Hamrick (French Horn), Emma Reinhart (Clarinet & Flute), Jess Tsang (Percussion)

Closing out the second night was the Boston Ballet with the New York premiere of Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023, which was very intense. It opens with another dark stage. The costumes were beige sleeveless tops and pants with overskirts that had some draping and they evoked ancient times. Everyone was barefoot. All the women had tight buns on top. Company was in a V formation center stage. The music was percussive with strings. Downstage stage left was a man taking dust off a woman – was she a statue or a mummy? He keeps brushing off the dust and tries to move her but she is stiff. When she finally moves her arm on her own, the company comes alive, all moving in sync. They are all also covered in dust which blows all over the stage as the dancers move. Eventually the dancers are behind a scrim and the original lone male dancer interacts with them while he is in front of the scrim. Fade to black. I was not sure what the ballet was about but it was very nice to look at. The moves were modern and not classic ballet. The internet tells me that Akram Khan’s choreography draws inspiration from Sufi traditions and the poetry of Rumi. The themes explore humanity’s earthly nature, rituals, and the transition from gravity to grace.

Artistic Director: Mikko Nissinen

Direction & Choreography: Akram Khan

Music: Aditya Prakash (Foretelling/Prologue), Nitin Sawhney (group piece)

Set Conception: Akram Khan, Kimie Nakano, Jesper Kongshaug

Costume Design: Kimie Nakano

Original Lighting Design: Jesper Konshaug

Lighting Recreation: Richard Fagan

Dramaturg: Ruth Little

Staging: Anjuli Cirio, John Lam

Production Stage Manager: Craig Margolis

Dancers: Jeffrey Cirio, Lia Cirio, Tyson Ali Clark, Paul Craig, Kylie Dyson, Graham Johns, Abigail Merlis, Kyra Muttilainen, Lawrence Rines Munro, Haley Schwan, Gearóid Solan, Emma Topalova, Sydney Williams