*Reservations/tickets can be reserved HERE
Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s Many Happy Returns
at Playwrights Horizons
416 W 42nd St (btwn 9&10 Aves) New York, NY 10036
Th & Fri, Jan 9 & 10, 2025: 7pm
Sat & Sun, Jan 11 & 12, 2025: 5pm & 7pm
Wed – Sat, Jan 15 – 18, 2025: 7pm
Duration: 60 minutes
From Monica Bill Barnes & Robbie Saenz de Viteri:
Many Happy Returns is a dance version of a memory play. It combines movement and storytelling as two sides of a shared character. The show is framed like an event, like a reunion of some kind, maybe for us, maybe for the audience. The pandemic loneliness hangs in the air, but it’s not about the pandemic in an ALL-CAPS way. It’s about time passing and the inherent disappointment in returning to things. It’s about aging, particularly about what it means to be in the “middle” years – and even more particularly what that experience is from a female perspective.
That all sounds potentially loaded and hard, but we promise, we are unabashedly artists of joy. Yes, joy! There’s a beach ball, there’s a sing-a-long, people balance things on their heads, and someone in the audience gives a toast. It’s a celebration that asks us all to laugh at the question of whether we keep changing, while worrying that we might always remain the same.
Many Happy Returns tours with 4 dancers, 1 narrator, and 2 staff/crew, for a total of 7 on the road.
Many Happy Returns trailer here: https://vimeo.com/862096206
Murielle Borst-Tarrant’s Tipi Tales from the Stoop *new* to Elsie’s roster!
at Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC)
251 Fulton St (at Greenwich) New York, NY 10007
Wed & Th, Jan 8 & 9, 2025, 7pm
Fri & Sat, Jan 10 & 11, 2025, 2pm & 8pm
Duration: 60 minutes
With unflinching humor and heart-warming empathy, award-winning playwright and performer Murielle Borst-Tarrant (Kuna/Rappahannock) confronts family history and generational trauma as she dives into an epic quest to keep cultural traditions alive. Tipi Tales from the Stoop is the joyous journey of one Native New Yorker discovering her voice and proving that resilience is not just about surviving, it’s about thriving—with or without the occasional family drama. “Borst-Tarrant’s humor sends up cliché after cliché with a human and political urgency that is authentic and contagious.”—Exeunt Magazine
Ragamala Dance Company, Children of Dharma
at The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave (at 19th St) New York, NY 10011
Wed – Sat*, Jan 8 – 11, 2025 at 7:30pm
Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 2pm
*Sat, Jan 11, post-performance presenter reception
Duration: 72 minutes
“Children of Dharma” explores life, forever transforming, and renewing, through three characters from the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata. These characters and their myths reveal the power of ancient cultures to reaffirm humanity’s relationship with nature and the sacred today. Co-created by Aparna Ramaswamy, Ranee Ramaswamy, and Ashwini Ramaswamy, “Children of Dharma” centers South Indian embodied rituals in the immigrant experience—upholding dance as a spiritual practice that can inspire, heal, and transform. “The Ramaswamys’ devotion to the Bharatanatyam style and to treating that lineage as a living language is always radiantly clear.” — The New York Times
Touring company of 11 in total: 7 dancers & 4 staff/crew
Children of Dharma trailer here: https://vimeo.com/1043458590
Minty Fresh Circus by Monique Martin
at SLAM in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
51 N 1st St, (btwn Kent & Wythe Aves) Brooklyn, NY 11249
shared showcase with STREB EXTREME ACTION
(STREB performs first, Minty Fresh Circus second)
Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 7:30 – 8:30pm, (7pm refreshments!)
Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 10 – 11am (9:30am coffee & bagels!)
Conceived by Monique Martin, Minty Fresh Circus is a US-based circus show performed by an all-Black cast, with a majority-Black creative team celebrating the healing power of Black music & movement, infused with the joy & resilience of those who traversed the transatlantic slave trade.
With an Afro-futuristic vibe, Minty Fresh Circus features movement, music, and circus arts in a time-bending journey of redemption. With choreography and movement by Adesola Osakalumi and Traci Bartlow, the acrobat/dancers will perform a range of movement sourced from the African Diaspora, including percussive dance, ritual movement, Lindy, hip-hop, poppin’ & lockin’, jukin’, rope jumping, hand games and physical theater. The driving score is recorded and features a combination of mixes by DJ Roderick “Doc” Judkins with compositions from Soul Science Lab.
Inspired by abolitionist Harriet Tubman and the survival of generations of African Americans, the central question in Minty Fresh Circus is: what does freedom feel & sound like if your only access to it is through your imagination? The journey explores liberation spaces, oasis spaces, and joy spaces where black & brown bodies have found sovereignty. The show celebrates the power of Black music as a healing, alchemical, transformative force; a ritual, a portal to joy, and an invitation to tap into your imagination. The energy of call-and-response within Black culture will serve as a circular structure within the arc of the show: the audience will be engaged with, versus presented to.
Structured in nine rituals via spectacular circus and dance skills, this all-ages show will be 70 minutes in length (with 50-minute performances for all-student shows), touring with 7 circus and dance artists plus 2 staff/crew. Minty Fresh Circus will premiere at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia with 3 performances presented by Penn Live Arts on Jan 31 & Feb 1, 2025. It will be presented by The Kennedy Center for 2 performances on May 8, 2025.
work-in-progress trailer: https://vimeo.com/1040422804
Soles of Duende, new material
at Chelsea Factory
547 W 26th St (btwn 10&11 Aves) New York, NY 10001
shared showcase with Michela Marino Lerman/Love Movement
(Soles of Duende performs first, Love Movement second)
Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 7:30-8:30pm (7pm networking with colleagues)
Sat, Jan 11, 2025, 9:30-10:30am (9am coffee & bagels!)
The three female percussive dancers of Soles of Duende (Amanda Castro, Tap; Arielle Rosales, Flamenco & Brinda Guha, Kathak) share new material (with live music) from their (currently in development) upcoming show. Basking in the light of their collective percussive conversation, Soles of Duende celebrates their survival amidst the barriers that diminish collective liberation. They bottle this energy into an enticing evening of rhythmic exchange. “It is clear that this team is ready for an even bigger spotlight – a treasure and a triumph.” – The New York Times
Touring company of 7 in total: 3 dancers, 3 musicians & 1 TD
Watch Can We Dance Here? trailer here