Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Dance roundup: PILOBOLUS kicks off its summer stint at The Joyce, a first look at LINCOLN CENTER CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL

• By drediman
• June 26, 2026
• No Comments

As summer in the city kicks into high gear, I’m happy to report that contemporary dance is alive and well, as evidenced by a number of recent outings. As per usual, read on for my thoughts on these dance performances.

LINCOLN CENTER CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL
Alice Tully Hall
Through July 5

This June saw the unveiling of the Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival — a key component of the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance, a generously funded effort to more meaningfully bring back contemporary to the Lincoln Center campus, which has historically been geared more towards classical ballet (e.g., New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre). This summer, the inaugural festival has been swept under the larger umbrella of Lincoln Center’s expansive Summer for the City programming and is being headlined by five companies, which are presenting works choreographed by the likes of Jeremy Nedd, Yinka Esi Graves, Sung Im Hers, Rachid Ouramdane, and the great Alram Khan (so far in the three-week series, the Nedd and Graves works have already been presented). Last night, it was Her’s 1 Degree Celsius (RECOMMENDED), a dance piece that artfully depicts the gradual yet inevitable long-game impact of global warming. Throughout the 50-minute work — which is set to a thumping electronic score and performed by an ensemble of five (five men, two women) — thematic steps and gestures are repeated and re-arranged, their meaning morphing as the dance builds to a breaking point, even as it suggests the earth’s increasingly uncertain ability to self-sustain itself. Despite her South Korean heritage, Her’s choreography is much indebted to the aesthetic of Europe’s most influential dance-makers, namely Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (the pendulum motions that occasionally crop up seem to be taken straight from De Keersmaeker’s Fase) and Hofesh Shechter. After  1 Degree Celsius finally implodes, it continues on to a dimly-lit denouement of resignation and ultimately nothingness.

PILOBOLUS: TRIPS
The Joyce Theater
Through July 12

This past week, Pilobolus returned for its annual stint at The Joyce Theater in Chelsea, thereby unofficially marking the arrival of summer. For its first of two programs (RECOMMENDED), the fan favorite dance troupe has leaned in on the notion of flight as it takes audiences on a family-friendly tour of its constellation of fiercely bespoke worlds, each with their own striking visual imagery and internal logic (featuring nudity, Program B has been curated to cater to more adult audiences). Suffice to say, the opening night performance was a night full of whimsy and fantasy, albeit one that featured no new surprises nor any indications of the company growing beyond its comfort zone. The most interesting aspect about Program A was the way it was packaged, moving between pieces — all of them tried and true (albeit short) works in the company’s eclectic repertoire — with artful seamlessness. First up was the meditative Bloodlines, a deliberately-paced, strength-based pas de deux for two women set against the arresting landscape of falling rose petals and what seemed like parallel rivers. Then came the slight but animated Walklyndon, which highlighted the company’s propensity for playful Chaplin-esque shenanigans. The first half concluded with Flight, a fanciful piece that ingeniously evoked the sensation of flying from a child’s perspective. After the intermission, it was Pseudopodia, which bled into the program closer Particle Zoo, a showcase for the athleticism, strength, and endurance of the company’s male dancers.