American Dance Festival (ADF)

To My Arms/Restore is a new two-part work embodying Doug Varone’s decades-long choreographic fascination with the profoundly emotional and the immensely physical. Set to a suite of arias by G. F. Handel, To My Arms builds a landscape of love and loss, evoking a strange otherworld of intimacy. In stark contrast, Restore feels as if it has been ripped out of today’s front pages, bringing a message of community, defiance, and resilience in a world recoiling and rebounding. Driven by the 21st-century sound of Nico Bentley’s Handel Remixed, the score fuses Handel’s 18th-century choral score Dixit Dominus with beats more commonly heard in clubs around the globe.

MOVEMENT, by Netta Yerushalmy, synthesizes over one hundred citations from an expansive range of dances across genres and cultures. It is a radical quilt of borrowed material that stretches the idea of pluralism until it almost snaps. It features a score by award-winning composer Paula Matthusen and is performed by dancers from Korea, Senegal, Israel, Taiwan, and the US. This piece follows Yerushalmy’s PARAMODERNITIES, a six-part series generated through reverently and violently dissecting iconic modern choreographies, provoking dynamic conversations with the troubled legacies of the past. MOVEMENT continues Yerushalmy’s practice of repurposing, reorienting, and recontextualizing dance, spinning fragments of seemingly unrelated works into an enthralling new whole. This maximalist performance highlights dance as an inevitable and unifying force in a brittle and confused world.

This summer, Pilobolus is bringing its Re:CREATION tour to ADF, presenting a dynamic collection of dance pieces—daring experiments and groundbreaking new collaborations alongside the classics that have altered the landscape of dance and theater. Walklyndon, a seminal piece in Pilobolus’s repertoire, is an all-time favorite that captures the playful essence of the company’s early days. The themes of youth, playfulness, and bawdy humor give way to a sophisticated narrative in Untitled, leaving the audience in awe of a theatrical work where contrasts coalesce into an unnamable and meaningful art form. Behind the Shadows tells a poignant and mysterious story using Pilobolus’ famous shadow dance technique, with moving illusions and surreal narrative. Thresh|Hold, a collaboration with the Venezuelan-born and acclaimed Latinx director, choreographer, and designer Javier De Frutos, is a physically daring quintet with psychedelic shifts in time and emotionally charged choreography. Tales from the Underworld, a new creation, harnesses the creative energy and collaborative spirit that defines Pilobolus, as the performance weaves together stories that reveal profound connections through elements of horror, humor, and revelation.