Northrop Announces 2018-19 Dance Season

Northrop announces its 2018-19 Dance Season featuring 10 remarkable dance companies, including the return of audience favorites American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. The season's three ballet presentations will all feature live music, including a special partnership with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. A special copresentation with Walker Art Center presents an ice-dancing group for the season finale.

Kicking off the Dance Season, Ballet Hispánico makes its Northrop debut Oct 4 in an exhilarating program of works by Latina choreographers, including Michelle Manzaneles' heartfelt and humorous Con Brazos Abiertos and Belgian-Columbian choreographer Annabelle Lopez's showcase for the company's male dancers, the sexy and animated Sombrerisimo.

On Nov 3, Compagnie Käfig returns with Pixel, a dazzling blend of circus-influenced hip hop dance from French Algerian choreographer Mourad Merzouki. Set in a mesmerizing 3-D digital landscape, Pixel's suspended reality offers a fascinating glimpse of dance at the border of the virtual world.

The first ballet of the season on Nov 8 is a Mozart-themed special partnership between Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mozart in Motion, with works by George Balanchine and Ji?í Kylián, is a tantalizing mix of classical, contemporary, and comic ballets danced by one of America's most exciting regional ballet companies paired with Mozart's delectable music. It is the SPCO's first return to Northrop since its grand reopening in 2014.

Choreographer Danielle Agami and her Los Angeles based company Ate9 collaborates with well-known Wilco percussionist Glenn Kotche in calling glenn on Feb 7. Agami's movement vocabulary combines visceral honesty and offbeat humor, reflecting the years she spent with Israel's Batsheva Dance Company. Kotche joins the 10 dancers onstage for a live performance of his original score. This performance is copresented with Walker Art Center.

Immediately following their world-premiere in Chicago, The Joffrey Ballet will bring Anna Karenina to Northrop on Mar 2-3. Set against a backdrop of 19th-century Imperial Russia, Tolstoy's tragic story of passion and revenge is often cited as the greatest novel of all time. This new production will be choreographed by Yuri Possokhov, a former dancer with The Bolshoi and San Francisco Ballets who has received critical acclaim for his visionary interpretations of iconic literature. An original score by Ilya Demutsky will be performed by a live orchestra.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns on Mar 12 for its 12th appearance at Northrop. A perennial favorite, this beloved company celebrates the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience, pushing dance into compelling new territory, yet honoring tradition with their signature classic, Alvin Ailey's inspiring Revelations, a masterpiece of hope and redemption.

Angelin Preljocaj, one of the leading stars of contemporary dance in France and abroad, returns to the Twin Cities with his Ballet Preljocaj on Mar 30 for a captivating exploration of the supernatural power of art. La Fresque (The Painting on the Wall) based on a traditional Chinese tale, tells the tale of a traveler so mesmerized by a magnificent fresco that he enters the world of the painting.

Nearly five years to the day after celebrating Northrop's grand reopening, American Ballet Theatre returns on Apr 2 in a richly varied repertory program that showcases the passion, innovation and athleticism that the company is renowned for. Alexei Ratmansky's Songs of Bukovina is full of folk-inspired choreography with a jubilant feel. Other Dances by Jerome Robbins pays homage to Chopin and the purity of classical ballet technique, while Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, set to one of Philip Glass' propulsive scores, is 40 continuous minutes of sheer, exuberant motion.

Written, choreographed and directed by David Roussève and performed by his diverse nine-member company REALITY, Halfway to Dawn is a vibrant multimedia dance/theater work based on the tragically short life of Billy Strayhorn, collaborator and arranger for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. While composing some of the most gorgeous American music of this century, Strayhorn was one of the few jazz artists to be openly homosexual in postwar Harlem. The production is the last of the Northrop stage performances of the season on Apr 13, 2019.

Walker Art Center joins Northrop in a special copresentation of Montreal-based ice-dance group Le Patin Libre on Apr 25, 2019 at Breck School/Anderson Ice Arena in Golden Valley and Apr 27, 2019, at Charles M. Schulz Highland Arena in St. Paul. Challenging the conventions of traditional figure skating through an innovative approach drawing influences from theatre, street dance, and tap, Le Patin Libre's Vertical Influences will give audiences a thrilling "up-close" view with seating right on the ice. Limited tickets are available.

Northrop Dance Season events are enriched with related programming such as film screenings, master classes, and lectures that will be announced throughout the year. Free performance previews offering an in-depth discussion of the evening's programming with members of the artistic staff are held in Northrop's 4th floor Best Buy Theater before each event.

Series packages and group tickets are on sale now. Many package options are available, offering discounts, preferred seating, payment plans, parking reservations and more. Information and online ordering is available on our website or 612-624-2345.

Single tickets go on sale beginning June 4, with 50% off discounts available for children. The $30 Under 30 program continues with special offers for guests aged 18-30 when tickets are purchased within 30 days of the performance date.