Dear BDA Community,
During Black History month celebrations from Cambridge to Boston this past weekend, I witnessed the power of dance to bring us together, lift us up, and move us forward. Dance carries so many messages of hope and resistance that we need more than ever these days.
Against the backdrop of so much change & uncertainty, you can continue to count on Boston Dance Alliance for consistency–not just in our programs & services for the local dance community but also in our belief & investment in your abilities & creativity.
“Keep on Movin’”
Aaron Myers, Executive Director
Jacob’s Pillow announced their artist line up for this year’s festival. Watch Dorrance Dance, BODYTRAFFIC, Trinity Irish Dance Company, The Sarasota Ballet, Stephen Petronio Company, Sekou McMiller & Friends, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Ballet BC, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Ted Shawn Theatre. The inaugural artists performing in the new Doris Duke Theatre are: Andrew Schneider, Elle Sofe Company, Eun-Me Ahn, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, Faye Driscoll and Huang Yi. And of course, don’t miss an incredible bill of performances on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage to be announced.
BDA Member Events This Week
Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre welcomes international guest artist Christina Johnson back to JMBT studios for masterclasses. Thursday, February 27, 4:00-6:00 PM (youth) and 6:15-7:47 PM (adults), at 400 Harvard St, Cambridge. Registration: $25.
Moving Into March is an ongoing collaboration between The Click and développé Dance Studio that builds bridges and connections between pre-professional youth dancers, adult recreational dancers, and professionals. The show presents works created and performed by The Click, the students of développé, and The Click’s Community Contemporary Repertory students. Saturday, March 1, 2:30 PM & 7:00 PM and Sunday, March 2, 2:30 PM at the Foundry, 101 Rogers St., Cambridge. Tickets: $0 – $44.52.
The 16th annual South Asian Showdown Competition will host 9 of the best Bollywood/Fusion teams from North America who will compete to be crowned the South Asian Showdown Champions! The energetic dance styles will get audience members enthused and moving in their seats! Shanti Restaurant will be selling Indian food onsite along with non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages for you to enjoy during the show. Saturday, March 1, 6 PM at the Strand Theatre, 543 Columbia Road, Boston. Tickets: $20-$100.
Spend an evening meeting local artists and creators, learn about their works-in-progress, and share your thoughts about their work. After each presentation you will have the opportunity to discuss the work with the artist while in an intimate art studio setting and enjoy a light dinner and beverages, meet new people from the Finding Space community, and support the development of new work in the Boston area. Explore this salon’s theme of Cosmos, the viewing of the universe as a complex and orderly system that is both vast and minimal and how it leads to questions about the micro and the macro, inclusion and alienation, and the individual and community. How can art in various mediums present this theme? What does this concept look like to others? Discover more and contribute your own thoughts at the Space Salon on Saturday, March 1, 6-9 PM at the SomArt Space @ Armory on the 3rd floor, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets: $15-$25.
It’s the fifth annual Motion State Dance Festival! This dazzling array of performances, dance films and artist/audience interactions presents the latest in contemporary dance and movement-based art. The Festival gathers local and national, emerging and established dance artists to share their boundary-pushing creative explorations with a growing Rhode Island dance audience in four different evening programs. The five-day extravaganza features live performances and the return of Small Moves, Big Picture evening, with short dances on a tiny stage. The fifth-anniversary festival also includes dance films from around the world, post-show talks and parties, and classes with the artists. Wednesday, February 26-Sunday, March 2 at the The Wilbury Theatre Group, 475 Valley Street, Providence, RI. Tickets: $20-$30.
Featuring exquisite dancing, enchanting music, and a timeless tale of love and loss, Boston Ballet presents Swan Lake, an epic story that brings the best of classical ballet to the stage. Thursday, February 27-Sunday, March 16, at the Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston. Tickets: $25-$275.
ANIKAYA is bringing Conference of the Birds back to the Boston area with performances, workshops and post-show conversations about migration, collective action and the moral imagination. This multimedia physical theater work is inspired by the 12th century poem of Farid Ud din Attar, and embodying stories gathered from modern-day refugees and other migrants. February 27-March 9, at Arrow Street Arts, 2Arrow St., Cambridge. Tickets: $1-$65.
The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmmark is a version of Hamlet that communicates the depth of Shakespeare’s characters and the intricacies of his plot without a single spoken word. Paired with an intense and emotional original score, this innovative theatrical dance production blurs the lines between reality and the subconscious. Friday, February 28, and Saturday, March 1, 8 PM at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St, Boston. Tickets: $33-$163.35.
Bates Dance Festival is excited to partner with The Dance Complex for a special one-day intensive. Offering inspired dance training and creative exchange, this intensive is designed for intermediate and advanced dancers. Train and Create offers a taste of BDF’s Professional Training Program and the experience of both rigorous dance training and making. Morning classes are taught by Jenny Oliver and Jenna Riegel and in the afternoon, David Dorfman will lead a creative process session. Saturday, March 1, 9:00 AM-4:30 PM, at The Dance complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Registration: $150 for full day, $25 for drop-ins.
Dirigo Conservatory of Movement – directed by Morgan Brown Sanborn – is preparing for their annual gala. This year, freelance artists from Boston join the Conservatory’s students for a princess themed performance. Saturday, March 1, 2 PM at the J. Richard Martin Community Auditorium, 189 Alfred St. Biddeford, ME. Tickets: $12-$15.
FREE! – The Sankofa Step Team hosts the 14th Annual Steady Steppin’ Forward Competition. Step teams from all around the Northeast battle it out for a chance at Steady Steppin’ glory and a $750 cash prize. The competition is a celebration of step in all of forms, and includes special guest performances. Saturday, March 1, 7 PM, at Williams College Main Stage, 1000 Main Street, Williamstown.
A breathtaking journey of artistry and athleticism that showcases the magic of skating through mesmerizing ensemble performances by world-class skaters and renowned choreographers. SOAR! Is an uplifting and joyful ice show. Prepare to be immersed in a theatrical skating experience featuring Olympic Champion Gabriella Papadakis. Saturday, March 1, 7:00-8:30 PM, at The Skating Club of Boston, 750 University Avenue, Norwood. Tickets: $27.08-$78.57.
Varvara is both a response to Alexander Rodchenko’s photograph “Performing Furniture” (1922), which features his artistic collaborator and life partner Varvara Stepanova, and to Stepanova’s body of creative work. Varvara draws on Stepanova’s artwork as inspiration for movement making and comments on this Constructivist view of theatre’s function by exploring the body’s reaction to moving it and considering it as a mechanization versus perceiving and allowing it to be on its own unruly, chaotic mess of expression. Saturday, March 1, 8:00-9:30 PM and Sunday, March 2, 7:00-8:30 PM, at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Tickets: $15-$50.
The next Arlington Community Barn Dance is on Sunday, March 2, 3-5 PM at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 74 Pleasant Street, Arlington (enter on Lombard Road. Plenty of parking is available on Lombard Terrace, at the end of Lombard Road). A community barn dance includes dances in circles, squares, and lines – the dancing is both easy and fun! Dances are led by a caller, who teaches every dance. Dancers of every age are welcome; singles, couples, and families. Suggested contribution $10, $25 family maximum. Email jacob@jacobbloom.net or call 781-526-4721 if you have any questions.
Audition for Urbanity’s Contemporary Summer Intensive. The program is designed for intermediate to advanced dancers ages 11-24 and includes 3 weeks focused on dance for film, training and creation. In studio auditions take place March 1 (Natick) & April 12 (Braintree), 1:00-2:00 PM at Accelerate Dance Experience Competition. Video submissions accepted until April 15.
National Dance Project Production Grants are made to projects led by professional choreographers or companies to support the creation and U.S. touring and/or sharing of a new dance project. Apply by February 28, 11:59 PM.
Apply for Boston WiP 2025 – a low stakes platform for dance and performing artists to present movement driven work. This installment will be presented at SomArt @ the Hive. All forms of movement driven performance from artists at any stage of their professional career are encouraged to apply. Show: April 11, 6 PM & 8 PM. Tech: April 10, evening. Applications are due Friday, February 28.
Mobius welcomes proposals of work in all formats from local, queer performance artists for a March 16, 2025 program called SLAY. The theme of SLAY is the Ides of March–a time of omens, superstition, curses, hexes, prophecy, plotting and crowd-sourced assassination. Taking inspiration from a date famous for being the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, Mobius calls in queer community and invites artists who work in performance art to pull out all of the psychomagical stops and cast anti-authoritarian spells with us. Show us how you use your queer power to conspire towards the fall of all of the Roman Empires of the present. Show us how you slay! Submit by Friday, February 28.
The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project grants of up to $50,000 to individual artists to create new work. For the 2026 Creative Capital Open Call, Creative Capital invites professional artists to propose experimental, original, bold new works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature from March 3–April 3, 2025. Multidisciplinary, technology, and/or socially engaged projects are welcome in all disciplinary categories. Join the free Creative Capital Grant Info Session on Friday, February 28, 1 PM via Zoom!
Chica Project, an organization focused on serving young women and girls of color in Boston, is seeking dance teachers for their Celebration of Cultures Festival in Mattapan. The event will take place on Thursday, June 26, 12-6 PM. Apply today!
Celebrity Series brings Alvin Ailey back to Boston for a series of unforgettable performances. We are excited to offer our members and Pro/Motion subscribers $49 tickets in all seating sections! Enter our promo code: CR4JOY at the TicketMaster seat map to unlock your deal! If you are a card to culture holder you can purchase up to four $20 tickets! Students of any age can also unlock $20 tickets with the code ADVSTU. With the $35 Under 35 program, get up to two $35 tickets for people ages 35 and under. Email crizzo@bostondancealliance.org if you have any questions on how to redeem your discount!