Dance

9 Dance Performances to Add to Your October Slate

October 19, 2025

Is it simply us, or has the autumn season gotten even busier? Among the many multitude of attention-grabbing performances, listed here are those our contributors are most wanting ahead to this month.

Visceral Haunting

Five individuals, aligned from left to right. #1 is bald, shirtless and has Mickey Mouse tattooed on their right arm. They are wearing blue elasticized bottoms with white stripes at the hip and are bent forward. #2 face is obscured, body is shirtless and posed upright but leaning backwards slightly. Arms -- tattoo visible between the underarm and elbow -- are upward and bent at the elbows, The figure is wearing black elasticized bottoms with a stripe at the hip. #3 -- shirtless, wearing blue elasticized bottoms, is standing upright. Arms are lifted above shoulder height, bent at the elbows and wrists are bent. Figure has chest and facial hair. #4 Figure has shoulder length dark hair, is wearing a white bra top and black elasticized bottoms with a white stripe at the hip. They are looking towards figure #1. Arms are down at sides, but elbows are bent. #5 Figure has long hair which is blown across face, arms are raised, elbows bent. They are wearing a blue bra top and gray elasticized bottoms. — Kimberly Bartosik’s *bLUr*. Picture by Maria Baranova, courtesy Bartosik.

NEW YORK CITY Kimberly Bartosik/daela plumbs the aftermath of witnessing trauma—its indelible influence on the physique and psyche—in bLUr, a robust 50-minute providing of rigorous physicality, poignant vulnerability, and expressive tenderness. Rawness and urgency are enhanced by a pulsing sound rating and fluid lighting design for a chunk the choreographer admits may make audiences uncomfortable: “It’s probably the most intense work I’ve made.” Co-presented by L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Pageant and New York Stay Arts, the Nationwide Dance Undertaking funded bLUr premieres Oct. 2–4. newyorklivearts.org. —Karen Dacko

Delight and Protest

A dancer is caught midair in the corner of white walls, one hand pressing against a blue object suspended on wires. They wear a lime green hoodie and patterned black and white pants. — Saharla Vetsch of Flyaway Productions’ *Down on the Nook*. Picture by RJ Muna, courtesy John Hill PR.

SAN FRANCISCO The 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot was one of many first documented protests of police violence in opposition to queer individuals within the U.S., however since 2004, the constructing the place it came about has been operated as a for-profit midway home by a non-public jail company. Jo Kreiter’s Flyaway Productions attracts consideration to this disparity with Down on the Nook, a brand new public-art challenge that includes a forged of queer, transgender, and feminine performers; a commissioned rating by Melanie DeMore impressed by interviews with people previously incarcerated on the website; and a movie by Leila Weefur. Oct. 3–11. flyawayproductions.com. —Courtney Escoyne

Collect as We Go

On a grey marley floor scattered with oranges, five dancers in motion navigate the space with arms raised. — Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre’s *Gathering*. Picture by Jeenah Moon, courtesy Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre.

ON TOUR Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre takes its evening-length Gathering on the street for its European premiere this fall. Creative director Samar Haddad King’s multidisciplinary and audience-interactive work of fiction follows a lady’s makes an attempt to reconcile her fragmented reminiscences whereas residing in a village that’s beneath siege. The multinational forged is joined by French-speaking European artists on this work that asks them to talk, sing, use puppets, and transfer fluently between dance genres. Gathering visits eight cities in France Oct. 3–14 and Nov. 14–27 earlier than returning stateside for performances in Berkeley Feb. 27–March 1. ysdt.org. —CE

Good Bother

A dancer in a bright yellow top looks over their shoulder in the foreground as audience members gather and watch a space where the floor appears to be scattered with sand. — nora chipaumire’s *Dambudzo*. Picture by Guto Muniz, courtesy BAM.

NEW YORK CITY In Dambudzo, named for a multifaceted Shona phrase that means “hassle,” nora chipaumire transforms the efficiency house right into a Zimbabwean shabini, the place gathering awakens the probabilities of resistance and riot, invoking the ‘80s earlier than communism or apartheid fell. Confronting the legacy of colonialism, the “anti-genre” immersive work will probably be offered at Roulette as a part of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Subsequent Wave competition. Oct. 8–9. bam.org. —CE

Like a Fowl

Two dancers, Pioneer Winter kneeling and Lisa Nalven standing behind, reach their arms upward in unison, bathed in warm light from stained glass. Pioneer wears a sheer gray top and loose pants, eyes closed in an expression of surrender. Lisa, draped in flowing mauve fabric, lifts her gaze and hands skyward. They are in the middle of rehearsing Isadora Duncan's Nocturne (ca. 1915). — Pioneer Winter and Lisa Nalven rehearsing Isadora Duncan’s *Nocturne*. Picture by Ardour Ward, courtesy Pioneer Winter Collective/O, Miami Poetry Pageant.

MIAMI A path of reminiscence led choreographer Pioneer Winter from the lack of his mom to Isadora Duncan for Within the Stomach of the Fowl/Godmother. As a 9-year-old, Winter imagined that his mom’s pet parrot had carried away her voice after she died. However the artist has come to appreciate he’s discovered an equally comforting sound within the voices of the ladies who’ve nurtured his dance all alongside. On this new work, three feminine elders and Winter weave collectively his personal choreography with Duncan-drawn strikes (taught to him by specialist Andrea Mantell). Sound collaborators reference Scriabin and Chopin to assist Winter’s embrace of each the mourned mom and the mourning youngster, of his private wound and the reward of artwork. Miami Seaside Regional Library Auditorium, Oct. 9. pioneerwinter.com. —Guillermo Perez

A Little Previous, A Little New

Six male dancers dressed in jewel tones pose together as though in a painting. The one who is seated looks out at the camera, while the other five reach to touch each other, eyes downturned. — Limón Dance Firm. Picture by Kelly Puleio, courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR.

NEW YORK CITY Limón Dance Firm kicks off its Eightieth-anniversary season with a mixture of the previous and the brand new. Creative director Dante Puleio dusts off José Limón’s 1956 The Emperor Jones, an adaptation of the Eugene O’Neill play, using a mixed-gender corps for the primary time. The Limón solo Chaconne is restaged as nicely, for a multigenerational ensemble of present and former firm members. And Mexican choreographer Diego Vega Solorza meditates on Limón’s oeuvre and the legacies of his dwelling tradition’s interpretation of gender roles for the newly commissioned Jamelgos, premiering as a part of the corporate’s Joyce Theater engagement. Oct. 14–19. joyce.org. —CE

Who Will get to Be Beautiful?

Two dancers lie on their sides with their backs to each other, one head resting atop the other. Their legs are bent behind them. — Ninoshka De Leon Gill and Gina Bonati rehearsing *Drop Useless…Beautiful*. Picture by Harvey Wang, courtesy Tamar Rogoff.

NEW YORK CITY What would you do to have a “excellent” physique? Tamar Rogoff’s Drop Useless…Beautiful invitations audiences to turn into the stay studio viewers of a fictional TV sport present that provides contestants—an aspiring ballet dancer, an aged girl, a plus-sized dance artist—the prospect to win their dream physique. Pointing to the vary of types physique dysmorphia can take, the multimedia efficiency piece takes to process how narrowly magnificence has been outlined in our tradition and challenges viewers to embrace all our bodies as worthy. Oct. 17–Nov. 2. lamama.org. —CE

Reconstructing, Reimagining

Wally Cardona faces the side and Molly Lieber faces forward, both looking down. Behind them is projected a black and white image of David Gordon and Valda Setterfield each balancing on one leg, raised foot flexed and arms lengthened down their sides. — Wally Cardona and Molly Lieber with an archival picture of David Gordon and Valda Setterfield. Picture by Babette Mangolte (archival picture) and Daqi Fang, courtesy New York Stay Arts.

NEW YORK CITY Shortly earlier than David Gordon’s loss of life, the choreographer spoke with Wally Cardona about excavating Instances 4, a duet for Gordon and his spouse, Valda Setterfield, they’d premiered in 1975 however that had not been seen in its entirety because the ‘70s. Now, Cardona and Molly Lieber will current TIMES FOUR / David Gordon: 1975/2025, reconstructed and constructed upon the fragments of the work documented in a rehearsal video and Setterfield’s handwritten notes, in the identical SoHo loft house the place it initially debuted. Oct. 22–Nov. 1. newyorklivearts.org. —CE

Celebrating South Africa

Two dancers in sparkly costumes wrap around each other as they move through penche arabesque facing opposite directions. Upstage, a tight cluster of ten dancers face upstage, leaning slightly to the right with their back feet beveled. — Joburg Ballet in Hannah Ma’s *The Void*. Picture by Lauge Sorensen, courtesy RBO.

LONDON Joburg Ballet brings Communion of Gentle, a program celebrating South Africa’s thirtieth yr of democracy, to the UK for its debut at The Royal Opera Home’s Linbury Theatre. The Johannesburg-based firm presents Jorge Pérez Martínez’s Azul, Veronica Paeper’s Concierto, creative director Dane Hurst’s current Resonance, and the late Dada Masilo’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. Oct. 30–Nov. 2. rbo.org.uk. —CE