The Best of the NYC Dance World

BAAND Together Dance Festival

Five of NYC’s most celebrated dance companies together on stage — and we were there to witness it all!

Women of Culture spent a stormy summer evening at the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center on August 2nd. Five iconic NYC dance companies—New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispánico, American Ballet Theatre, and Dance Theatre of Harlem—shared the David H. Koch stage as a part of Lincoln Center’s third annual Summer for the City and fourth annual BAAND Together Festival.

We escaped the rain into the magnificent gold-tinged theater, where the evening began with Balanchine’s Duo Concertant. Igor Stravinksy’s duet for a violin and piano paralleled the duet between the two neoclassical dancers. This work premiered over fifty years ago but was performed with an eager freshness. Set against a royal blue backdrop, the dancers periodically paused to stand by the grand piano and admiringly listened to the musicians play.

Hans van Manen choreographed Alvin Ailey’s Solo (1997), which featured three male dancers in a remarkable feat of strength and musicality. Humorous and light, the dancers’ buoyancy and athleticism complimented Bach’s beautiful partita for a lone violin.

Ballet Hispánico was up next with a colorful and high energy piece titled Sombrerísimo (2013), a work for six dancers donning bowler hats. Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was inspired by the surrealist paintings of René Magritte, and used the bowler hats as sources of identity, attitude, and playfulness for the dancers.

American Ballet Theater then presented a new (May 2024) pas de deux, Night Falls, by Brady Farrar. Inspired by the reposeful light at dusk, the piece was gentle and tender, scored by Chopin’s Nocturne No. 19 in E Minor No. 1.

The finale of the evening was Dance Theatre of Harlem’s performance of William Forsythe’s Blake Works IV. This piece was the latest installment of Forsythe’s evolving work The Barre Project, all of which is set to James Blake’s experimental electronic music. Forsythe’s style is inspired by Balanchine, which is evident from the fast footwork and shaped hands.

I can’t wait for our next dance outing at Lincoln Center when we see Step Afrika! perform at the Alice Tully Hall in September.

—Amelia Mason