No winter is complete without reveling in an evening of magical ballet performance in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, at Lincoln Center throughout the holiday season. Let the magic of Tchaikovsky’s music transport you to a fantastical place overflowing with adorable children, marching toy soldiers, mischievous mice, a breathtaking onstage snowstorm, the Sugar Plum fairy and some of the most magnificent dancing on Earth!
“Cowboys, Clapping, and Confetti” are the order of the night at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s special New Year’s Eve performance on Dec 31 at New York City Center. The evening will feature Frederick Earl Mosley’s humorous western-themed piece, Saddle Up!; Maurice Béjart’s breathtaking Firebird; and—to get the New Year off to a rousing start—Alvin Ailey’s beloved Revelations, where confetti falls as the music swells and everyone sings along to the spiritual “Rock-A-My-Soul.”
Celebrate the darkest nights of the year with ecstatic dances, musical exorcisms and a new techno tarantella trance dance in Tarantella: Spider Dance, at Theater for the New City Dec 21–23. Tarantella: Spider Dance celebrates the mystical power of the tarantella in a Mediterranean/Southern Italian Winter Solstice Celebration. The Spider Dance, or “Tarantella,” is a wild erotic dance ritual from Southern Italy used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. This new production includes folk dance, modern dance, and music that infuses ancient melodies and instrumentation with techno and electronic music.
Back by popular demand at Symphony Space on Dec 14, Tappy Holidays! is the must-see tap performance of the holiday season. This high-energy performance features all live holiday music performed by The Jackie Warren Trio and the percussive talents of some of the best tap dancers in the country, including tap phenom Ayodele Casel. Come hear “Winter Wonderland,” “Sleigh Ride” and more of your favorite Holiday classics sung, danced and jazzed up in a way that is sure to put you in the Holiday spirit.
