As the fall dance season comes into focus, what’s most striking is the various ways that choreographers and companies are investigating and celebrating dance history. While some institutions delve into their own rich catalogs, other projects and companies illuminate the past by recasting seminal works. Here are some of the most exciting productions arriving on Bay Area stages in the coming months.
Mark Morris Dance Group: The Mark Morris Dance Group’s West Coast premiere of Morris’ “Mozart Dances” was a highlight of the 2007–08 Cal Performances season, and the return of the exuberant work offers a rare opportunity to experience a dancemaker whose formal inventiveness is married to hair-trigger emotional receptivity. The three masterly Mozart piano works are performed live by celebrated Israeli-American pianist Inon Barnatan and the Berkeley Symphony conducted by Colin Fowler. Details: Sept. 20-22; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $21-$148; 510-642-9988, www.calperformances.org.
Smuin Contemporary Ballet: Smuin’s 26th season opens with “Dance Series 1,” a diverse triple header that includes James Kudelka’s celebration of Johnny Cash, “The Man in Black,” and Rex Wheeler’s “Take Five,” a playful work set to Paul Desmond’s hit for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Michael Smuin’s “Carmina Burana,” set to the iconic Carl Orff score, rounds out the program. Details:Sept. 20-21, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, and Sept. 27-Oct. 6, Cowell Theater, San Francisco; $25-$97; 415-912-1899, www.smuinballet.org.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet: LINES Ballet’s fall season finds founder and choreographer Alonzo King basking in renown from sea to shining sea, including a recently bestowed honorary doctorate from Juilliard. He continues to create new works with fellow masters, premiering his second collaboration with tenor saxophone legend Charles Lloyd and pianist Jason Moran, who perform with the company. The new work also features a light installation designed by Jim Campell, the electronic artist who transformed the San Francisco skyline with his Salesforce Tower work. Details: Oct. 1-6; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; $45-$95; 415-978-2787, www.ybca.org.
Sankai Juku: Butoh, the severe Japanese dance form that emerged out of the devastation of World War II, can offer startling new ways to perceive time, nature and the human body. Set by a stark stone wall carved with fossils of sea lilies, Sankai Juku’s meditative “Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land” features eight dancers exploring gravity’s dominion. Directed, choreographed, and designed by Ushio Amagatsu, a creative force in butoh since the early 1970s, the Cal Performances-presented “Meguri” is the company’s first Bay Area visit since 2015. Details: Oct. 12-13; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $15-$78; 510-642-9988, www.calperformances.org.
Maria del Mar Moreno: Hailing from the Andalusian flamenco hotbed of Jerez de la Frontera, Maria del Mar Moreno is one of the city’s most celebrated dancers, an artist who embodies the tradition’s deepest currents. She’s joined by an equally formidable cast, including vocalists Antonio de la Malena and Tomasa Peña, percussionist Luis de la Tota, guitarist Pepe del Morao and special guest vocalist Diego Agujetas (who celebrates the release of a new CD the following night at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley). Details: 8 p.m. Oct. 25; Brava Theater, San Francisco; $35-$75; 415-641-7657, www.brava.org.
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra: Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Ballet plays to its strong suite with “La Bayadère,” a supremely dramatic production featuring luscious sets, opulent costumes and magisterial dancing. The tale of illicit love and devastating betrayal was created for the company more than 140 years ago by Marius Petipa (and revised in 1941 by Vladimir Ponomarev and Vakhtang Chabukiani). With a haunting, Romantic score by Ludwig Minkus performed by the company’s storied orchestra, “La Bayadère” is a signature work by a standard-bearing company that now spans three centuries. Details: Oct. 30-Nov. 1; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $25-$274; 510-642-9988, www.calperformances.org.
Hope Mohr’s Bridge Project: The culmination of several months of activities marking the centennial of perpetually inventive choreographer Merce Cunningham (who died at 90 in 2009), Hope Mohr’s Bridge Project presents 10 Bay Area artists commissioned to create works in response to Cunningham, including Sófia Córdova, Maxe Crandall, Alex Escalante, Jenny Odell, Danishta Rivero and Sophia Wang. In addition to the premieres, the events feature sections restaged from several iconic Cunningham works, such as 1969’s “Canfield” and 2002’s “Fluid Canvas.” Details: Nov. 8-9; ODC Theater, San Francisco; $20-$50; odc.dance/merce.
sjDANCEco “Etched in Time”: The sjDANCEco season opens with a diverse program that centers on José Limón’s 1950 masterwork “The Exiles,” a male-female duet inspired by John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and set to Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2, Opus 38 played live by the piano duo ZOFO (aka Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi). The program also features Hsiang-Hsiu Lin’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” with Randall Thompson’s score performed by the San José Chamber Orchestra with the San José Choral Project and the world premiere of Gabriel Mata’s solo work “This is where/I Begin…” a piece that explores his situation as an undocumented DACA/Dreamer immigrant from Mexico. Details: Oct. 18-19; California Theatre, San Jose; $40-$70; 408-520-9854, www.sjdanceco.org
MOMIX: Blurring the lines separting dance theater, circus arts and acrobatics, MOMIX brings surrealism to the stage, alternating between sunny spectacle and spooky illusion. The retrospective show Viva: MOMIX! sounds like a greatest hits package using mannequins, neon-lit costumes, and life-size spinning tops. Details: Oct. 20-21, Hammer Theatre Center, San Jose, $35-$45, 408-924-8501, www.hammertheatre.com; Oct. 26-27, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, $15-$76, 510-642-9988, www.calperformances.org.
Noche Flamenca “Entre Tú y Yo”: Following up on 2017’s extraordinary “Antigona,” a flamenco adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy, New York’s powerhouse Noche Flamenca returns to San Francisco’s Z Space with the hit program “Entre Tú y Yo” (Between You and I). Like “Antigona,” it was conceived and directed by Martín Santangelo and stars incandescent dancer Soledad Barrio in an evening-length program of duets, solos and ensemble works with some of Spain’s most celebrated flamenco artists. Details: Oct. 31- Nov. 16; Z Space, San Francisco; $25-$75; 415-626-0453, www.zspace.org.
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.