Top 10 dance performances of fall 2024 in the Twin Cities

There’s a lot of looking back this fall, with dance artists re-examining and re-envisioning past work, as well as looking forward to, with brand-new pieces.

Back in 2023, Jennifer Glaws’ Jagged Moves Company presented a moving installation performance at Red Eye Theater, where dancers moved through dynamic sculptural pieces by Jess Kiel-Wornson filled with gold fabric, white balloons and textured surfaces. The company revisits the work’s play of dimensionality, mirroring and communication in its new iteration. (Sept. 19-22, Southern Theater, Mpls., $25. southerntheater.org)

McKnight Dancer Fellows from the past two years danced solos by a choreographer of their choice. At this 20th anniversary of the “Solo” program, see a new baladi dance by Lebanese choreographer Alexandre Paulikevitch performed by Leila Awadallah, plus ballet performed by Yuki Tokuda. Sam Aros-Mitchell dances a restaged Jose Limón work, while Demetrius McClendon/ImagineJoy and Sharon Picasso perform solos as well. (Sept. 20 & 21, O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, St. Paul. $15-$25. mcknightdancechoreo.org)

The first piece in a new duology, Ananya Dance Theatre’s work imagines a world where human beings have lost their sense of connection to one another. The multi-ethnic women and femme travelers depicted in the piece search for ways to initiate intimacy and community. (Sept. 27 & 28, O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, St. Paul. $5-$50. oshag.stkate.edu)

When Dance Theatre of Harlem last performed at Northrop, the audience erupted numerous times with cheers, and the performance concluded with three enthusiastic standing ovations. This year, the New York City-based company brings neoclassical stylings of George Balanchine, a work by DTH founder and artistic director Arthur Mitchell, and William Forsythe’s “Blake Works IV (The Barre Project),” set to music by popular British singer-songwriter James Blake, created specifically for the company. (Sept. 27 & 28, Northrop auditorium, Mpls. $26.50-$81. northrop.umn.edu)

Performance artist Emily Michaels King begins her latest solo performance in a plastic tub as she mines memory, nostalgia and loss. (Sept. 27-Oct. 5, Red Eye Theater, Mpls. redeyetheater.org)

Ruby Josephine Dance Theater invites Brazil-born, Barcelona-based choreographer Natalia Fernandes to work with the company on Fernandes’ piece “Melomania,” along with a new piece by artistic director Ruby Josephine Smith called “Ophelia,” based on the Shakespearean character, and a 2022 piece called “Rabi’a,” (translates to spring in Arabic) first performed by Threads Dance Project. (Sept. 27-29, Southern Theater, Mpls. $30. southerntheater.org)

Ahead of a major exhibition in November at MoMA PS1 in New York City, MacArthur Fellow Ralph Lemon returns to the Walker Art Center for this commissioned performance installation. It revisits themes the Minneapolis native explored in “Scaffold Room,” which premiered at the Walker 10 years ago. (Oct. 4 & 5, Walker Art Center, Mpls. $15-$35. walkerart.org)

Harken back to the Great Depression when celebrity bandits Bonnie and Clyde embarked on one of the most famous American crime sprees. Collide Theatrical Dance Company brings the young couple’s mythological story to life through dance and music. (Oct. 11-Nov. 3, Luminary Arts Center, Mpls. $35-$48. collidetheatrical.org)

Ivory Coast native and choreographer Nadia Beugré dons a costume made from plastic water bottles in this reimagined piece from 2012 that channels harrowing strength in the direst of circumstances. (Nov. 1 & 2, Walker Art Center, Mpls. $35. walkerart.org)

After performing during India Week at the Lincoln Center and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, Ragamala Dance Company comes home to Minneapolis for the world premiere of its new work that re-envisions the Hindu epic “The Mahabharata.” (Nov. 2, Northrop auditorium, Mpls. $24-$51. northrop.umn.edu)