Catherine Tharin

Innovation continues at PS21: Performance for the 21st Century tonight and tomorrow with Life in This House is Over, a darkly comedic American premiere by director and performer Samantha Shay. Previously staged in Iceland and Poland, this piece blends movement, music, and text to explore grief with humor and poignancy, inspired by the plays of Anton Chekhov and the dances of Pina Bausch. The title comes from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

Last month I attended two plays: Where the Mountain Meets the Sea at Ancram Center for the Arts in Ancram, New York, and The Book of the Twelve in a barn in Millbrook, New York.

Jacob’s Pillow, founded by Ted Shawn in 1931, presents another month of world-class dance under the direction of Pam Tatge and her team, featuring 21 companies. Jacob’s Pillow accomplishes in one month what other festivals take an entire season to achieve.

This week enjoy attending several dance performances and a dance-film discussion and note a singular performance seen last week.

Summer dance is about to take center stage at Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, kicking off a vibrant season along our local dance corridor. Featuring renowned international companies and bold emerging voices, the 2025 program is as rich and far-reaching as ever. Jacob’s Pillow, a cornerstone of American dance, leads the way.

The award-winning Crescendo, a choral and Baroque music group based in Sharon, CT, draws singers and musicians from across the tri-state area. Founded by conductor Christine Gevert in 2006, Crescendo will present Body & Soul: Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo on May 10 and 11 in Lakeville, CT, and Great Barrington, MA, respectively.

Ballet Hispánico, the premier Latine dance company, founded by tour-de-force Tina Ramirez in 1970, and now led by the incomparable Eduardo Vilaro, presented their Palante Junior Ensemble, ages 17-24, at the Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville, NY, on Saturday, March 22.

The Circa Ensemble from Australia presented What Will Have Been, in the Black Box Theater at PS21 on a bright Saturday afternoon this month. Acrobats Kimberley Rossi, Malte Gerhardt and Zachary Stephens with violinist Miranda Cuckson, a PS21 board member, were featured.

Japanese choreographer Ruri Mito made her North American debut at PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, NY, in early January. As part of Japan Society’s annual Japan + East Asia programming for the APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) industry conference in NYC that recently concluded, PS21 is an astute partner.

Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful. Just the title of choreographer Kyle Abraham’s most recent dance seen at NYC’s Armory on Park Avenue on December 9 is gripping. A glorious sweep of a dance that moves through the seasons (a metaphor for time passing) as depicted in the spectacular, ever morphing set is expressed with delicacy, power and nuance by a man facing mortality. Abraham writes in the program, “My words and thoughts stammer where they used to sing. I dance in remembrance of the innocence in of my younger self.”