Northrop auditorium has announced a globe-hopping 2017-18 dance season that kicks off with the Minnesota debut of Cuba's Malpaso Dance Company.
The Havana-based troupe will enlist Twin Cities company Zenon Dance in its Oct. 10 show. The two groups share a number of ties — Malpaso founder Osnel Delgado was an artist in residence with Zenon, which toured to Cuba in January 2016 and has performed his baseball-inspired piece "Coming Home."
New York City Ballet Moves — 25 performers from fabled City Ballet — follows with a mix of classic and contemporary works, including Jerome Robbins' "In the Night" (Oct. 28).
ODC/Dance, an innovative contemporary company based in San Francisco, will make its Northrop debut with "Boulders and Bones," an acclaimed nature-themed show in sculptural environments inspired by British artist Andy Goldsworthy and accompanied by cellist Zoë Keating (Nov. 2). The troupe also will stage a family-friendly performance of "The Velveteen Rabbit" with live music (Nov. 4).
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will telescope its 40-year history by doing highlights of repertoire by the likes of Twyla Tharp, William Forsythe and founder Lou Conte (Jan. 27).
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo will make its Minnesota debut, performing French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Romeo and Juliet" with a company of 50 dancers (Feb. 27-28).
Wang Ramirez, a French troupe founded by ballerina Honji Wang and b-boy Sébastien Ramirez, fuses such influences as hip-hop and acrobatics, and incorporates aerial work into its dreamlike piece "Borderline" (March 3).
Houston Ballet will re-create artistic director Stanton Welch's "Swan Lake" with a live orchestra (April 7-8).
Northrop marks the centennial of composer Leonard Bernstein's birth with a show that combines the dancers of New York's Keigwin + Company with the University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Russell Smith. The score includes music from "On the Town" and "On the Waterfront" combined with Larry Keigwin's feverish choreography (April 14, 2018).
The season concludes with Alonzo King's San Francisco-based Lines Ballet performing "Biophony," a collaboration with soundscape artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford that "draws its score from natural animal habitats in peril" (May 1, 2018).
Season ticket packages are available now. Call 612-624-2345 or go to northrop.umn.edu for information. Single tickets go on sale June 5. Northrop has added half-price tickets for young people (under 18) when purchased with an adult ticket.
612-673-4390 • @rohanpreston
