Pina Bausch’s dance-theater has left an indelible mark on Brooklyn (and the world), captivating and confronting audiences, dancers, and choreographers since Tanztheater Wuppertal’s BAM premiere in 1984. The return to BAM of the iconic double-bill Café Müller and The Rite of Spring this past month reminded us of Bausch’s enduring power—to haunt, to dazzle—across time. In recognition of her abiding impact and influence, the Rail ’s coverage is situated in three generational vantage points on Bausch’s career and legacy. The Rail is honored to have dance critic doyenne Deborah Jowitt bringing to bear the long view of the Tanztheater Wuppertal’s lasting sway over the dance world; she is one of the very few who can. Deborah is joined by the dance scholar Clare Croft, and by Rail contributing writer Sariel Frankfurter. If you have a reflection on Bausch’s legacy, tweet it to @gillianjakab or @TheBrooklynRail.
—Gillian Jakab

The “Line” in FIAF’s (French Institute : Alliance Française) Crossing the Line Festival may, at first glance, be seen as the one between New York and French culture.

The function of an archive is curiously enigmatic when it comes to dance. As an embodied practice, existing within time and space, dance is naturally passed on through lineages of dancers.

Dance and visual art have a rich history of mutual influence and symbiotic exhibition. Dancers as visual art subjects have spanned the globe and the millennia—from Dehli to Dakar to Degas. “Dance-in-the-Museum,” as a concept and sub-genre, is probably not as old, but it’s older than you may think.

Tykulsker and her performers explore physical extremes and “community cohesion” at the heart of these tensions at levels ranging from the interpersonal to the national. The piece is a mash-up of postmodern disorder that mirrors the senselessness of violent incidents and the randomness of whether they get attention. The piece is coupled with Jennifer Harge’s movement installation Mourn and Never Tire, which serves as inspiration for her black community and a eulogy for black lives lost to police brutality.

The New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) has been widely recognized for its LIFT program, which provides rigorous classical dance instruction and performance opportunities on full scholarship to the city’s underserved and homeless children. The LIFT program builds confidence, discipline, and coordination, and, once in a while, turns out a virtuosic art-maker like Steven Melendez, who has exceeded even the program’s most optimistic expectations.

What the Day Owes to the Night (Ce Que le Jour Doit à la Nuit). The title of choreographer Hervé Koubi’s spectacle de la danse is drawn from Yasmina Khadra’s 2010 novel: a coming-of-age love story set in the period before, and the aftermath of, the French-Algerian war. It’s not that the piece draws from the novel’s plot or characters, but rather the novel’s setting, Oran, Algeria, was the home of Koubi’s ancestors, and the poetry of the title captured his imagination as apropos of the work.

From the art majeur to the avant-garde, modern and postmodern dance shines in La Ville Lumière. Although it presents its share of established companies and choreographers, Théâtre National de Chaillot tends to be more experimental and supportive of the up-and-coming than Théâtre de la Ville, where Preljocaj, Bausch, and De Keersmaeker were among this season’s principaux artistes.

In his brutal poem bewailing the beginnings of the genocide, renowned Armenian poet Siamanto used the imagery of dance as a weapon of humiliation’s prelude to slaughter.