How to watch a modern dance concert


7 Tips on How to Watch Contemporary Dance — Maddox Dance Company

After my parents would watch me perform at my year end recitals growing up, their response would always be along the lines of “beautiful”, “so fun to watch” or, the most common response, “you were the best one” (of course, that was their VERY biased opinion, which I understood).  It wasn’t until I began studying dance in university that their responses to my performances changed, quite drastically.

I was in my first year at the University of Calgary and I made the audition for the first show of the year - You could say I was pretty proud of myself. After weeks and weeks of rehearsals, my parents came down for the concert. After the show, I ask them, enthusiastically, “So… what did you think?”. They both hesitantly respond with puzzled looks on their faces. “... Good job?”. Trying to recover from their not so great response they say, “well like, you did great, but… we just didn’t understand what it was about”.  Naturally, my equally awkward reply: “…thanks?”.  Thinking back now, of course, they didn’t understand what the piece was about. It was an abstract work that was full of movement that they had never seen me perform before.

Surprisingly, even after that first performance, my parents still supported my decision to continue studying dance. They even came back to watch my next performance a couple of months later (They must really love me). After they watched a few more of my performances, they started to realize that they weren’t going to understand the meaning of any of the dances and they started to perfect their response to my ‘what did you think?’ question. After each performance, their puzzled looks were a little less puzzled looking. In all fairness, I think any parent, after watching 10 plus years of competitive dancing, would be a little thrown off after watching their first pre-professional contemporary dance work.  

So for those of you that have yet to experience, or appreciate a contemporary dance work, this for you. I am no expert, but I think that my parents would have been a little more prepared for the experience had I written this for them a few years back.  

1. Sit back, and relax.

The best part of being an audience member is that all you have to do, is buy your ticket, show up on time, watch the show, and then, should you feel so inclined, you can clap at the end of the show. If you really want to go above and beyond as an audience member, you could even mentally prepare yourself before you watch the performance by understanding that what you are about to watch is probably going to be like nothing you’ve seen before.  Get rid of all expectations, sit back and relax.

3. Notice patterns or repetition

If you notice certain patterns in the movement or repetition of one specific movement, notice it. It could be that the choreographer wants to use that particular phrase or movement to say something. On the other hand, there may be no particular reason for the movement repetition but it’s great that you noticed.     

4. And how does that make you feel?

While you are watching the performance, notice how it is making you feel. Are you sad? Happy? Angry? Uncomfortable? Nervous? Confused? You can try to understand why you are feeling this way by noticing the movement, the music, the posture of the dancers, the speed of the dancer’s movement or the fluidity of the motion. Or on the other hand, you can choose to just embrace the feelings and just continue watching.   

5. I must be numb.

If you don’t feel anything, you’re doing it wrong. JUST KIDDING! You might not feel anything, that’s okay too. Sometimes, choreographers' work is just an exploration of movement that does not convey emotion in any way. So if you aren’t feeling anything, you are not numb. Chances are that the choreographer may not have intended the audience to feel anything.    

6. I don’t get it   

You don’t have to ‘get it’. Not all dances have a literal meaning or concise narrative. In fact, even if you think you ‘get it’ the person next to you may have a totally different interpretation of the performance.  There is no right or wrong interpretation of the art that you just watched.

7. It’s like a painting

When you go to an art gallery, do you expect to like everything you see? Do you expect to understand what each painting means? Do you always know what the artist was trying to say through their form of expression?  Not always. But do you think that the artist had a purpose or an intention to what they created? Absolutely. Dance is like a painting; but rather, than using a paint brush, we just use our bodies instead. And while a painting could live forever, our dance is only temporary so embrace it while it lives.

Thanks for reading and I hope this article helps you when viewing your next contemporary dance performance!

The Best Places to Watch Dance Performances Online

The Best Places to Watch Dance Performances Online

SubscribeGive A Gift

Things you buy through our links may earn New York a commission.

Photo: Erin Baiano and Paul Kolnik/New York City Ballet

You won’t be able to attend a dance performance for a while: For the next few months, it’s video or nothing. And there are certainly things you lose watching dance virtually, like the way a dancer’s gestures communicate directly to the watcher’s muscles (as she leaps, you feel yourself leaping too). But the screen doesn’t cut that link entirely. Watching a TikTok dance, you can choose to stay on the couch, but you are experiencing a little kinesthetic shudder in your lumbar region—it’s deep down, where the dance comes from. And what you can gain from on-camera dance is the screen’s pristine landscape view. Those 19th-century choreographers exploiting the wide architecture of the classical proscenium stage were designing for the wide shot long before there was one.

In fact, I first fell in love with dance watching it on film. I was already taking my little ballet classes, deeply invested in leg warmers at eight years old, but I didn’t connect the barre combinations to some larger form. Nothing awe-inspiring about pliés. But one night, I saw a PBS broadcast of La Bayadère, a lush old classical ballet, famous for its choreography by Marius Petipa. In one unforgettable sequence—the Entrance of the Shades—the corps de ballet slowly enters, single file, down a ramp. Each dancer does a classroom combination any child could do: step, arabesque, step, cambré back (an arch of the arms and upper body), step. More and more identical women process down the ramp—step, arabesque, step, cambré, step. It goes on for long minutes, repetitive and hypnotic. When I saw it, it reminded me of the marching brooms in Fantasia; now it looks like the sway of a gigantic Foucault’s pendulum. Tick tock: eternity’s clock.

There are other opportunities in developing a Watching Discipline in a time without live performance. The key ones: abundance and access. It’s actually a good chance to give yourself a quickie dance education. What YouTube hole will you fall down? Ballet? Modern? Contemporary? In the past two months, I’ve found works I knew were seminal but had never gotten to see, pausing and rewinding to learn about a dancer I’d only ever watched from 30 rows back. Here, a little starter set for the enthusiast who wants to feel like leaping again.

Where to watch: Marquee, which some style the “Netflix of the Arts,” an online subscription platform rich in dance and opera that has a growing catalogue of theater.

➽ The service has some ultratheatrical pieces like Kidd Pivot’s Betroffenheit, and its classical section boasts a full house of Giselles and Nutcrackers. I prefer to drink deep from its international contemporary dance offerings, so I watched Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra, the 2008 dance that turbocharged his global reputation. Filmed at Sadler’s Wells, Cherkaoui’s collaboration with the Shaolin Temple’s monks and designer-sculptor Antony Gormley admittedly grows a little cool onscreen. What translates beautifully, though, is the arrangement of bodies and objects, as the kung fu dancers manipulate, disappear into, and jump off a series of wooden crates, like ancient Chinese terra-cotta soldiers cartwheeling out of their long sleep.

Where to watch: Many websites for long-lived dance companies — like the one at rosas. be — have deep archives as well as current programing.

➽ Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas is digging into its catalogue to show some of the Belgian maestra’s work — though you can also find one of her early-period masterpieces, Rain, on YouTube. Even if you’ve seen many of these works when they were in New York, they bear rewatching and re-rewatching: De Keersmaeker’s musicality is so keen, her work comes as close to being music notation as you can get without dressing dancers up like eighth notes. Through www.rosas.be, I watched the documentary on her titanic 1983 hit Rosas Danst Rosas to remind myself of her sensual ’80s minimalism (the eyes are distant, but sweatshirts are constantly falling off shoulders, hair is constantly falling in eyes), and then toggled over to the 2013 Partita 2, a collaborative trio with dancer Boris Charmatz and the violinist Amandine Beyer, filmed at the Festival D’Avignon. Aside from choreographing West Side Story on Broadway, much of De Keersmaeker’s recent work has explored Bach, and seeing her perform her own familiar gestures—the obsession with circles, the descent to the floor—alongside the complexity of Bach’s violin partita teaches you a great deal about how his music makes mathematical relationships into structure, and structure into grace. (Use your best headphones for this one—you need the music right in your skull, where sonic “nearness” can substitute for liveness. Also, the first long section is in total darkness; do not adjust your set.)

Where to watch: Mercecunningham.org functions as (among other things) a living online museum.

➽ The website collects available films of Merce Cunningham’s pieces, some of them set on other companies and licensed after Cunningham’s death by the Trust. These serious recreations can lose some of the originals’ playful air (you can still sense his characteristic insouciance with veteran Cunningham dancers like Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener on their Instagram), but it can still be thrilling to see a new generation of dancers working with Cunningham’s abstraction, subtraction, neutrality, and complexity. I watched the Opéra de Lyon ballet company doing Exchange, set against a David Tudor noise-assemblage. The inherent scatteredness of watching dance online—your attention wanders, your other screens call you away—aren’t fundamentally disruptive with Cunningham, since he was deeply interested in the way chance and accidental juxtaposition enriched his choreography. Who’s to say that chopping onions while you watch BIPED violates its spirit? Exchange makes for a particularly interesting digital broadcast during quarantine—the Jasper Johns design used deliberately smog-like colors, so you can contrast the grey-green leotards with our increasingly clear sky outdoors. It’s also a good introductory Cunningham video, since Exchange contains moments of gripping unison, the dancers shuddering in difficult, one-legged, deep-bending postures, refusing to break formation.

Where to watch: The biggest New York companies (ABT, NYCB) are putting content online for very short runs.

➽ NYCB’s spring season was converted in the pandemic to online video released twice a week, each for 72 hours. On Friday, May 29 (and for the rest of the weekend), you can watch a smorgasbord of excerpts, introduced by the company’s homegrown choreographic hope, Justin Peck. They’re consciously Jerome Robbins–esque, as when the ebullient Peck and Robert Fairchild in sneakers break into ecstatic tap dances, college kids on an eternal holiday break, Lindy-hopping around the stage like a pair of spring lambs. That’s fine if you’re in the market for some joyous energy. Personally, I’m in it for the moodier pieces, like the swift snippet of Alexei Ratmansky’s Voices, in which Lauren Lovette (sharp hipped, folding like a flick knife) is whisked around the stage by the susurrus of Setsuko Hara’s murmuring voice, or Kyle Abraham’s The Runaway, with its exquisitely muscular solo for Greek-god-in-human-form Taylor Stanley.

Where to watch: Ailey’s website lets you do a thorough, interactive exploration of the company’s work, and includes ways to take classes, follow specific dancers, and see how the signature Ailey gestures feel in your own body.

➽ Even for people with only a passing interest in dance, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations may be familiar. It was the choreographer’s undisputed masterpiece, made in 1960 and revived a million times since — you basically can’t have a Kennedy Center Honors ceremony or an outdoor concert at Damrosch Park without at least an excerpt. But even if you’ve gone before, returning will feel like church: You can always worship again. Some of its gestures — the Ailey seagull arms, the way a woman’s breastbone seems drawn right up into the rafters — act like a tonic when you see them. Before this, I watched the grainy version on YouTube in glum moments; now, on June 4, you can see the polished version for free, along with a whole suite of Ailey offerings, like classes and even a step-by-step breakdown of a few of the dance’s key moments (see below). In the times before, you weren’t a very good New Yorker if you hadn’t seen Revelations. Now, in watching it, you might feel like you’re back in the city, a citizen of its culture again, the one the Revelations promises will rise again.

*This article appears in the May 25, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

Where to Stream Great Dance Performances

Things you buy through our links may earn New York a commission.

  • sbf: the virtue was the con

    What Does Sam Bankman-Fried Have to Say for Himself? What Does Sam Bankman-Fried Have to Say for Himself?

  • comedy review

    Matt Rogers Makes the Yuletide Gay Matt Rogers Makes the Yuletide Gay

  • all the live long day

    Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave Why Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

  1. The White Lotus Recap: Whoopsie
  2. The Music Industry Mourns Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie
  3. Stevie Nicks Memorializes Christine McVie, Her ‘Best Friend in the Whole World’
  4. There’s Just Too Much Spotify Wrapped
  5. Christine McVie, Pillar of Fleetwood Mac, Dead at 79
  1. The White Lotus Recap: Whoopsie
  2. ’Tis the Season for Sufjan
  3. House of Spears
  4. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Recap: Champagne Problems
  5. For the Chrisleys, What’s Next?

The Latest

overnights

The Sex Lives of College Girls Recap: Toddler Tops The fifth episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls may not have solved societal racism, but at least the Essex ladies had some wins.

rebecca is a food critic now

Lindsay Lohan’s Christmas Pilk Will Fill Your Stocking (With Vomit) This dirty soda really is naughty.

mom's home

Oh Boy! Rosemarie DeWitt Joins The Boys Season Four. Simon Pegg is also coming back as Hughie’s dad.

snow jams

Here It Is: The Much-Discussed Video of Meghann Fahy Singing ‘O Holy Night’

  It’s the performance that made the “Matt Rogers and Friends Holiday Spectacular Sing-A-Long Extravaganza” extra spectacular.

 

cast away

The Rings of Power Season Two Mysteriously Recasts Its Villain Mordor is getting a new Adar (and a bunch of new cast members).

christmas music

The 10 Best Versions of ‘White Christmas’ Iggy Pop versus Otis Redding.

vulture 10x10

The XOXO Puzzle 18-Across, Four Letters: Thing Admiral Ackbar wants you to know about.

vulture lists

35 Musicians Confess Their Favorite Christmas Songs Annie Lennox loves the Pogues. Santigold loves Otis Redding. Kacey Musgraves loves Kacey Musgraves.

tributes

The Music Industry Mourns Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie Even Bill Clinton said goodbye to the Songbird.

harp rights!

Amber Riley, Queen of Winning Things, Collects the Masked Singer Infinity Stone As the Harp, she beat out Wilson Phillips as the Lambs.

keeping up with the ex-royals

Harry & Meghan No Longer Silenced in Upcoming Docuseries “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear the story from us?”

vulture asks

What’s Your Favorite Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac Song? Whatever baggage you brought, Christine sang you through it.

overnights

Gossip Girl Season-Premiere Recap: School’s Back in Session Is Gossip Girl getting bonkers and bitchy again?

good one podcast

All Hail Matt Rogers, the Prince of Christmas The comedian talks his new special, longtime partnership with Bowen Yang, and the power of drag.

By Jesse David Fox

close read

Luthen Rael Embodies Andor’s Gray Side In his similarities to Star Wars’ biggest villain, Stellan Skarsgård’s character challenges what we expect and accept from the franchise’s good guys.

comedy review

Matt Rogers Makes the Yuletide Gay The comedian’s special, Have You Heard of Christmas?, is the gift that keeps on giving.

By Kathryn VanArendonk

overnights

Fleishman Is in Trouble Recap: The Odyssey of Toby Toby’s attempts to impose his will on others are not going well.

respect the classics

Dolly Parton Wants to Rock With Everyone on a New Album Parton told The Tonight Show that the album Rock Star would come out next fall.

performance art?

The 1975’s Matty Healy Is Doing a Lot on Tour From kissing fans to eating raw meat onstage, here’s a roundup of what he’s been up to.

the law

Judge Declared Mistrial in Danny Masterson Rape Case Jurors said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.

Email You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

Already a subscriber?

Email You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

Already a subscriber?

Email You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Enter your email: Please enter a valid email address.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create Your Free Account

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

This password will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

You’re in!

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime.

Already a subscriber?

Already a subscriber?

Tickets for dance concerts and shows, choreographic shows and concerts

Found 47 events

Sort:

What are you looking for?

Filters:

State Kremlin Palace

Concerts

Popular date

12 Dec•Mon•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

500 – 12 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Children, Concerts

Popular date

2 Dec•Fri•20:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 700 – 4 200 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Shows, Performances, Concerts

Popular date

17 Dec•Sat•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 700 – 4 200 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Shows, Concerts

Popular date

14 Dec•Wed•20:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 700 – 4 200 ₽

Buy a ticket

Concert hall "Crocus City Hall"

Performances, Concerts

Popular date

4 Dec•Sun•20:00 • over 100 tickets left

2 500 – 5 500 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Shows, Concerts, Children

Popular date

10 Dec•Sat•15:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 300 – 2 500 ₽

Buy a ticket

Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Classics, Concerts

Popular date

8 Dec • Thu • 19:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 500 – 6 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Jazz Club "Union of Composers"

Concerts

Popular date

5 Dec•Mon•20:30 • 88 tickets left

800 – 3 700 ₽

Buy ticket

State Kremlin Palace

Concerts

Popular date

7 Dec•Wed•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

from 1 000 ₽

Buy ticket

Zaryadye Moscow Concert Hall

Concerts

Popular date

5 Dec•Mon•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

6 000 – 20 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Classics, Concerts

Popular date

7 Dec•Wed•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

800 – 5 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Center for Opera Singing Galina Vishnevskaya

Classics, Performances, Concerts

Popular date

27 Dec•Tue•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

700 – 4 500 ₽

Buy ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Shows, Children, Concerts

Popular date

3 Dec•Sat•15:00 • left 9tickets

1 300 – 1 500 ₽

Buy a ticket

House of Music

Concerts

Popular date

3 Dec•Sat•13:00 • over 100 tickets left

300 – 900 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Spirit "TODES"

Children, Concerts

Popular date

9 Dec•Fri•20:00 • over 100 tickets left

2 000 – 4 200 ₽

Buy a ticket

GBUK Moscow "Moscow State Academic Theater "Russian Song"

Concerts, Classics

Popular date

22 Dec • Thu • 19:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 500 – 4 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Zaryadye Moscow Concert Hall

Performances, Concerts

Popular date

24 Feb•Fri•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

3 000 – 20 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

House of Music

Concerts, Classics

Popular date

11 Dec•Sun•19:00 • over 100 tickets left

1 200 – 2 800 ₽

Buy a ticket

Moscow Palace of Youth

Concerts, Classics

Popular date

29 Dec • Thu • 19:30 • over 100 tickets left

2 000 – 15 000 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater of Alla Dukhovaya "TODES"

Shows, Concerts

Popular date

23 Dec•Fri•20:00 • over 100 tickets left

2 500 – 5 500 ₽

Buy a ticket

Theater tickets in Moscow: modern dance - Afisha-Theaters

Theater tickets in Moscow: modern dance - Afisha-Theaters

December

January

February

April

August

003

Children's

Family performance from "Ballet Moscow"

From 1000 ₽

All paths lead to the North

December 2 at 20:00, School of Dramatic Art. Stage on Novoslobodskaya

Modern dance

Seven men dancing whatever they want

From 1000 ₽

Idiot Cafe

December 16 at 20:00, School of Dramatic Art. Stage on Novoslobodskaya

Contemporary dance

Plastic Dostoevsky in the world of interactive video technologies

From 1000 ₽

Summer, Winter and Sacred Spring

December 21 at 20:00, School of Dramatic Art. Stage on Novoslobodskaya

Contemporary dance

From 2500 ₽

December 7 at 20:00, Crocus City Hall

From 2500 ₽

Carmen P.S.

December 4 at 20:00, Crocus City Hall

Performance

of 700 ₽

The country's country of Oz

December 9 at 19:00, the Izmailovo concert hall

Children

of 500 ₽

Yomi

February 2 at 19:00, ZIL Cultural Center

Modern dance

From 1000 ₽

The story of one room

December 24 at 20:00, School of Dramatic Art. Scene on Novoslobodskaya

Premiere

of 1200 ₽

Alice in Wonder Wonders

4 December 4 at 18:00, Flamenkeria

Selection of Afisha

Guide for Tolstoy festival

What watch in theater on June

Discounted theater tickets sale at Afisha

Moscow operas worth seeing

Events

Create a unique page for your event on Afisha

This is an opportunity to tell a multi-million audience about it and increase attendance

.