Catherine Tharin

Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective, the esteemed street dance company founded by Michele Byrd-McPhee in 2004, presented The Black Dancing Bodies Project: SpeakMyMind at the Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville on March 30 direct from its premiere at Works & Process, the performing arts series affiliated with the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Works & Process supported the Ladies of Hip Hop with five LaunchPAD residencies. The Catskill Mountain Foundation partners with Works & Process.

Our region’s dance season, paused until the many, robust festivals resume in warmer months, offers several upcoming performance opportunities.

The raucous and saucy funk-revue holiday show, Holidelic, created by percussionist and singer/songwriter, Grammy-nominated Everett Bradley, plays this weekend at Kaatsbaan Cultural Center. Last weekend’s sold-out shows featured funk-influenced holiday songs written or adapted by Bradley, performed by a band of 12 notable band members, including a horn section, guitar and bass players, percussionist, keyboardist, charismatic singers and dancers, plus Bradley as lead singer and primary strutter.

The Museum of Broadway, the first museum dedicated to this home-grown American performance form, celebrated its inaugural year on November 15.

PS 21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, in Chatham, N.Y., presents L’Etang (The Pond), the final movement-influenced work of the season on Friday and Saturday. The Open-Air Pavilion Theater, tucked into the 100-acre landscape, is covered but open on three sides. Meadows and trees are glimpsed through the building; cadences of birds, animals and insects are heard while watching a production. Curated by the performing arts explorer and PS21 Artistic Director, Elena Siyanko, performances run until the end of December in the main theater and in the Black Box Theater.

The Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, in its 24th season, presents an in-process performance of Dance on the Pond, on September 30, from 3-4pm, on the grounds of the private home of Janice Pickering in New Paltz, NY. This performance is in preparation for the company’s upcoming full-length dance, Habit Formed, featuring 10 dancers for the 2024 March premiere in New York City. The work examines the habits of humans; habits that engender both freedom and harm.

Kaatsbaan continues with its Fall Festival 2023 through October 1. Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York, was founded on 153 acres adjacent to the Hudson River in 1990, by American Ballet Theater stars Martine van Hamal and Kenneth McKenzie, with Gregory Cary and Bentley Rotton. Curated by Adam Weinert, Artistic Director, Kaatsbaan’s outdoor Mountain Stage offers a glorious backdrop for dance.

The Pioneers Go East Collective, based in New York City, presents performance, film, drawings, and sculpture at Collar Works, a gallery that supports emerging and underrepresented artists, in Troy, NY, through October 7. Titled Art Like Love (ALL!), the free exhibit examines the influence of queer artists of the 1970s and 1980s who went unrecognized by established galleries and performance spaces. The exhibit also draws on DIY, camp, and genderpunk and genderflux aesthetics that seek to subvert the restrictiveness of gender conformity.

The Hudson Eye, the 10-day citywide arts festival through September 4, in Hudson, New York, includes dance, theater and music performances, poetry readings, film, gallery visits, artist and community talks, family friendly events, and a BBQ Across Cultures, to top off the festivities. In its fifth year produced by the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation, the festival highlights the city’s strength as an arts magnet attracting visitors from the East Coast and farther afield.

In its final month, the esteemed 9-week Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, located in Lee, MA, wraps with typically generous and well-considered curation. Performances, pre-show talks, workshops, studio observations, special events, exhibits, and parties are scheduled daily; many free, many family-friendly, many community-oriented.