Season highlights: Dance
Caitlin Corbett Dance Company -- 20th Anniversary Concert. For two decades now, Boston choreographer Corbett has been creating dances that balance intellect and physicality and celebrate what she calls "the sublime beauty of pedestrian movement," which she elevates to a celestial realm. Among the premieres on this program celebrating the anniversary is "White," in which 30 non-dancers of various ages, races, shapes, and sizes traverse the stage in a canon set to music of the Beach Boys. At the Tower Auditorium, Massachusetts College of Art, Dec. 3 and 4. 617-864-3191.
Bale Folclorico da Bahia. This company, formed in 1988 and based in Salvador, in the northern Brazilian state of Bahia, was a hit in past Boston performances. World Music brings it back with a new program, "Brazilian Rhapsody," that blends past favorites with new work influenced by the country's blend of the cultures of Africa, Europe, and Brazil's indigenous people. At the Orpheum Theatre on Oct. 23. 617-876-4275, www.worldmusic.org.
Whirling Dervish Dance Party. Straight from Istanbul, whirling dervishes and Turkish musicians take over Mass MoCa's largest gallery, site of Ann Hamilton's installation of millions of pieces of white paper falling from the rafters. The spinning of the dervishes shares something of Hamilton's extravagant minimalism. Turkish DJ/producer/musician Mercan Dede mans the turntables and conducts a live band. Near the evening's end, everyone in attendance will be invited to whirl, too. At the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Oct. 23. 413-662-2111, www.massmoca.org.
"In Flight." Boston area choreographers Luis Fuente and the duo of Amy Spencer & Richard Colton offer premieres in this Boston Conservatory concert, along with Jose Limon's classic "The Winged." At the Boston Conservatory Theater, Nov. 11-14. 617-912-9240, www.bostonconservatory.edu.
"Balanchine/Martins/Balanchine." Boston Ballet's first program of its 41st season returns to the neoclassicism of Balanchine, which shaped the Boston company in its beginning. The two Balanchine pieces flanking the Peter Martins premiere are "Rubies," set to a jazzy, edgy Stravinsky score, and "Divertimento No. 15," to the celestial music of Mozart. Martins has directed Balanchine's New York City Ballet since the master's death in 1983. His new work for Boston, choreographed for one woman and three men and set to music by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks, is a rare example of a piece he's made for companies outside NYCB or the troupe where he grew up, the Royal Danish Ballet. At the Wang Theatre, Oct. 21-24. 617-695-6955, www.bostonballet.org.
