As the temperatures cool down, stages across Atlanta heat up with innovative new performances and contemporary takes on traditional stories, all told through the art of dance.

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Dancers in Monica Hogan’s Temporary Elsewhere. (Photo by Shannel Resto)

In Atlanta, established contemporary dance companies often provide crucial support for independent artists through juried showcases for emerging choreographers. For more than 30 years, Full Radius Dance has staged the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, usually in the spring. Since 2022, responding to the post-pandemic arts economy, Beacon Dance’s Moving Bodies/Moving Hearts/Moving Minds series, also in the spring, has offered another opportunity for Atlanta dance patrons to see new work by home-grown talent.

Four years after relocating her company from New York in 2019, Monica Hogan Thysell, executive artistic director of Monica Hogan Danceworks, launched a fall series in 2023. On September 27 and September 28, Spectra: Volume 3 will debut three new dances from featured choreographers Omari Collier, Ryann Leak and Gwynn Root Wolford, set on independent professional dancers from in and around the city, alongside the premiere of Hogan Thysell’s Temporary Elsewhere, performed by her company. The performance will be one of the first chances to assess what’s in store for Atlanta concert dance this season, from established as well as up-and-coming artists. Volumes 1 and 2 of Spectra included innovative choreography and compelling performances from some of Atlanta’s strongest dance talent, including Julianna Feracota, last season’s ArtsATL one to watch in dance. Monica Hogan Danceworks, Spectra: Volume 3, September 27-28, Emory Performing Arts Studio. — Robin S. Wharton

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Still from a staibdance performance. (Photo by Christina Massad)

If it lives up to the promise of its in-progress showing during staibdance unplugged this May, George Staib’s newest work, between dog and wolf, is on track to be one of the highlights of the 2024-25 dance season. The evening-length work will premiere at Georgia Tech’s DramaTech Theater October 2 through October 4, and audiences will have several additional opportunities to see the show throughout the month — including a young audience performance at Brookhaven Dance on October 10 (free, registration required) and a free performance of three excerpts at Wild Heaven West End Brewery on October 26. Staib has assembled a deep bench of artistic talent in the dancers and creative team. Described by the choreographer as “[a] meditation on the elusive nature of reality, [that] asks audiences to consider personal, nuanced proclivities and the ways our eyes and hearts can deceive us,” between dog and wolf was — during the May showing — shaping up to be an atmospheric work of gorgeous, athletic dancing and resonant dramatic elements set in an immersive imaginary landscape comprising the original score, lighting and stage design, costumes and film projection. — Robin S. Wharton

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Crux Collective performance. (photo by Andrea Wedig)

Having established themselves over the past two years with sold-out shows of their first two premieres, Catalyst and Parallel, Crux Collective, a performing arts company that combines contemporary concert dance and circus arts to deliver acrobatic spectacle alongside artistic storytelling, returns this fall with Mutara. The creative team describes their new evening-length work, running at the Windmill Arts Center October 3 through October 12, as “a vignette-style performance exploring the mechanics and philosophy behind the concept of change in its many forms,” in which “time is not just a backdrop but a character who shapes and moves us, distorting us, [forcing] us to confront the paradox of predeterminism versus possibility.” The core collaborators of Crux Collective are all highly skilled aerialists, and the company’s performances involve interdisciplinary collaboration among local dancers, musicians and visual artists as well. For those patrons planning to see MOMIX’s Alice at the Fox Theater on October 25, Mutara promises another opportunity to experience athletically daring and aesthetically innovative movement-based art in the Windmill’s more intimate black-box setting (and at a more affordable price point). Crux Collective, Mutara, October 3-12, Windmill Arts Center. — Robin S. Wharton

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More Dance Highlights . . .

• Atlanta Ballet offers a robust lineup of performances this fall, starting with three-part Balanchine & Peck. The first, Emeralds, offers a performance evocative of the romanticism of France and dancers donning gemstone-inspired costumes, the dance choreographed by George Balanchine with music by Gabriel Fauré. In Creases, choreographed by Justin Peck, features an abstract ballet performance of Philip Glass’ Four Movements for Two Pianos. Balanchine is also the choreographer behind Prodigal Son, which tells a classic story of sin and redemption through dramatic movement and emotive storytelling, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev. September 12 through September 14.
• Braiding Time, Memory and Water, a site-specific performance created by Core Dance’s Sue Schroeder along with conceptual artist Jonathan Keats and composer Felipe Pérez Santiago, will be featured in film installation format for inside:out with nightly screenings on Core Dance’s Decatur Studio windows from September 1 through October 21. 
• KSU Dance Company will celebrate 20 years with Labyrinth, a dynamic program of four works by faculty and guest choreographers Ivan Pulinkala, Shannon Alvis, Autumn Eckman and Yankalle Filtser. The performances have been designed to honor the program’s history and embrace the creativity of the future. Multiple dates, November 13 through November 15.
• Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre to present Out of the Box: Series III, which features two compelling world premieres by Cammi Nevarez and Terminus co-founder Tara Lee, along with a return of Balanced by Jimmy Orrante. Tula Arts Center, September 20 through September 28. 
• Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Alma Mexicana Danza Folklórica. This performance is presented by Fulton County Library System at the Sandy Springs Branch Library on September 27. Free to attend, suitable for all ages.
• SIDEWAYS Contemporary Dance Theatre presents the return of its 17-year tradition of the quirky performance series Once Upon a Holiday at The Computer Museum of America. November 21 through November 23. 

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