http://www.nypress.com/articles.sec-26-1-24_7-dance.html Garth Fagan’s musical choices are ever eclectic and surprising. The acclaimed choreographer has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on several occasions, and has been known to turn to other jazz composers as well. But he is just as likely to turn to Brahms or Dvorak, or composers of various nationalities, past and present. When his Rochester-based troupe returns to the Joyce next week, he will unveil his newest work, set to selections by various Chinese-American composers.]]> Over six years, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has quickly established itself as a feisty, independent addition to the city’s dance scene. From the unheard-of luxury of its own comfortable studio and theater space on West 26th Street, to the European choreographers whose work has formed the basis of its idiosyncratic repertory, this company definitely marches to its own drummer.]]> “I’m the newbie on this program,” Aszure Barton happily admits, referring to her ballet One of Three, which is part of American Ballet Theatre’s program of premieres this week. Both of her fellow choreographers, Alexei Ratmansky and Benjamin Millepied, have made works for ABT (as well as for New York City Ballet) before. But for Barton, a New York-based Canadian whose fresh, inventive works have been increasingly in demand hither and yon, this ballet represents her introduction to ABT.]]> The performance equivalent of channel surfing, the 92nd Street Y presents over 50 choreographers over two days. Each onehour block includes five choreographers, which means you won’t be stuck with one for more than 10 minutes. Among the standouts are John Jasperse (3 o’clock on Saturday) and Douglass Dunn (3 o’clock on Sunday).]]> Because their latest work for Big Dance Theater was co-commissioned by the French Institute/Alliance Français and Les Subsistances in Lyon, co-directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar began exploring possible French source material. They gravitated to the influential films of the Nouvelle Vague, but instead of renting DVDs, they read the screenplays. They made that their focus, Parson explained recently, “because I felt that stylistically, the films are so powerful visually that there would be no place for me in it. So I wanted some vestige or artifact from that period.”]]> ]]> Lucy Guerin spent much of the 1990s performing and choreographing in New York, before returning to her native Australia. Now we only get to see her work sporadically, and it has been six years she her company last appeared here. The impression left by that 2003 program, at Dance Theater Workshop, was of a choreographer in rigorous control of her material, creating beautifully focused, powerfully evocative works.]]> Sometimes the word “festival” is tossed around too loosely, but Fall for Dance, City Center’s invigorating celebration of all forms of dance now in its sixth year, more than merits the term. Opening with Savion Glover and Paul Taylor, winding up with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre performing Revelations—with Mark Morris, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, New York City Ballet and Morphoses among those included along the way—this two-week event is as festive as they come.]]> It’s a bold and promising idea: take a Pulitzer prize-winning Steve Reich score, and offer two interesting and highly contrasting young choreographers the opportunity to create new dances to it. It’s the kind of adventurous, artist-nurturing programming that the Guggenheim’s Works and Process series includes amid its more traditional behind-the-scenes-with-the-artists events. This week, it has really come up with a lively group of collaborators. Both Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz have been commissioned to choreograph a premiere to Reich’s “Double Sextet.”]]> Meticulously analytical movement posited as metaphysical questions is a hallmark of Pierre Rigal’s solos. When the dancer/choreographer made his local debut two years ago at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, he painstakingly charted the transition from horizontal to vertical movement. It was like a condensed history of evolution, with a coda that looked toward the future, as video effects turned his body into a living hologram.]]> One hundred years ago, a groundbreaking and profoundly influential ballet troupe was launched. When Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes gave its first performance in Paris in May 1909, audiences were thrilled by the new, boldly dramatic choreography and by the high level of artistic collaboration that included leading, innovative composers and visual artists. Diaghilev brought ballet to a new level if intellectual seriousness and made it a forward-looking art form, with original works that defied expectations and at times even shocked.]]> August is generally a quiet time for the city’s dance scene. The performance calendar slims down, and even the Joyce Theater takes a few well-deserved weeks off. But this week and next, there are notable events taking place Uptown, Downtown and in Central Park as two of the most highly regarded and consistently revelatory choreographers working today will offer premieres, and a longstanding annual week-long festival will present a smorgasbord of dance for free.]]> There are accomplished, intrepid ballet companies in many U.S. cities that rarely, if ever, are seen by New York audiences. Tulsa, Oklahoma has had a ballet company since 1956. During the 1980s, when it was known as Tulsa Ballet Theater, it performed twice at Brooklyn College. Its repertory calling cards on both occasions were Balanchine rarities from an early, pre-New York City Ballet phase of his career. ]]> Pilobolus’ fascination with shadow play—incorporating silhouetted bodies behind a white screen, often creating playful or fantastical imagery—in their works has its place, but the venerable, feisty troupe has overextended its welcome. Their imaginative transformation of bodies into letters, numbers, logos and such made for entertaining short takes at the Oscar ceremony and in some advertisements. They used it for a memorable turn on David Letterman’s show, tumbling and cartwheeling from the sides of the stage to create a host of New York City images to the tune of “Summer in the City.”]]> Part costume party, part cabaret, part jazz club, Gemini & Scorpio’s Gilded Age–themed party at the normally members-only Players Club (where Mark Twain once did time) will feature a swing dancing class, cigarette girls with hand-rolled cigars and a custom cocktail menu.]]> The wide-ranging Lincoln Center Festival, now in its 14th year, has certainly been loyal to Shen Wei Arts. When the company performs at Alice Tully Hall this week it will mark the fifth time Shen Wei’s work has been part of the Festival’s roster of events—which has been notably short on dance offerings in recent years.]]> Since there's no real good way of preserving dance, new pieces must constantly be made.This festival at Dance Theater Workshop corrals together a bunch of the makers of these new pieces including three bright young choreographers: Gregory Dolbashian, Sara Joel and Sydney Skybetter.]]>