These are the best dance performances of 2022

As part of Danspace Project’s Spring 2022 platform, “The Dream of the Audience (Part II), the choreographer presented a dreamy, mystical take on grief – inspired in part by the death of a friend and dance partner – that was also related to Brooks’ research. to whales.In “Sensoria: An Opera Strange” there was vocalization, dancing and even a ghostly duet. (Read our article about Brooks’ ‘Whalefall’.)

The company offered two wonderful performances in different spaces, one at the Joyce Theater – the program featured two dances created with the artist Robert Rauschenberg – the other at Rockaway Beach as part of Beach Sessions. At Rockaway, dancers traveled along the shoreline in “Trisha Brown: In Plain Site,” showing some of Brown’s early works. Was it the end of an era? The company has just announced its first choreographic assignment, meaning the focus will no longer be solely on Brown’s dances. Judith Sánchez Ruíz, a former member of the company, does the honors. (Read our feature on the company at Rockaway.)

Even in a crowded theater, some performances are intimate experiences between you and the dancers on stage. The stage version of Casel’s “Chasing Magic” – first presented as a digital offering earlier in the pandemic – was about creating a community, an energetic exchange for everyone in the space. “We want to hear you, we want to feel you,” Casel, an extraordinary tap dancer, told the audience at the Joyce Theater. What did the two productions, online and live, both directed by Torya Beard, have in common other than great music and dancing? Casel’s loose, funny banter, her remarkable feet up close, her compelling presence. She is air – as fresh as it comes. (Read our review of the digital ‘Chasing Magic’.)

This American choreographer, mainly based in Europe, returned to New York with ‘Maggie the Cat’, a heady mix of catwalk, voguing and an energetic premise: ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’. With his “Maggie” – a play, a character, a force? — Harrell created a bold, fun show that elevated the idea of ​​catwalk movement as dance and all old household objects, such as pillows and towels, as couture. It was a sonic and visual delight.