Dance in NYC This Week

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Our guide to dance performances.

BEACH SESSIONS DANCE SERIES at Rockaway Beach (Aug. 26, 6 p.m.). The sand is the stage for this second installment of Beach Sessions, on the waterfront at Beach 110th Street, in which the choreographer Madeline Hollander creates a series of duets for beach rake trucks and six dancers. For “Arena,” Ms. Hollander explores ideas about ephemerality; as the rakes clear pathways — creating, in a sense, a stage — the dancers move along the freshly combed sand. In the first half, dancers follow the trucks, leaving behind traces of their movements in the sand. In the second half, the trucks follow the dancers, essentially erasing their performance. How does it all end? With a sunset.
beachsessionsdanceseries.com

DRIVE EAST at Dixon Place (through Aug. 27). This intimate festival of Indian music and classical dance, presented by the performing arts organization Navatman, winds down this weekend. Friday night includes two Prince of Dance programs, one featuring Christopher Gurusamy, who specializes in Bharatanatyam and hails from Australia, and the other with Avijit Das, who offers an energetic modern interpretation of the Kuchipudi form. After an afternoon of performances by young musicians on Saturday, another highlight is Devdutta Sengupta Ghosh, who brings Manipuri dance to the stage, while Sunday offers an enticing pairing: Rachna Nivas and Rina Mehta of the Leela Dance Collective — which specializes in Kathak dance — along with the guest artist Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, one of the finest tap-dancers working today.
driveeastnyc.org

FINI ITALIAN INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL at the Ailey Citigroup Theater (Aug. 31, 8 p.m.). For this gala performance, the dancer and producer Antonio Fini presents an evening of performances featuring companies from Rome and Bologna, as well as an award ceremony honoring artists from Italy or of Italian descent. The award recipients include Terese Capucilli, the former Martha Graham Dance Company principal (lifetime achievement); Marie-Lorène Fichaux, formerly with the La Scala Ballet and the Royal Ballet (extraordinary dancer); and Alessio Crognale and Antonio Cangiano (rising stars). As for the performance component, Ms. Fichaux and Cristian L. Koenig perform a duet from Nacho Duato’s “Sin Palabras,” and Mr. Cangiano and Mr. Crognale appear in Michael Mao’s “Verdi Requiem.” Mr. Fini, whose company Fini Dance New York also appears, dances in his own “Gym-Me,” set to Vivaldi. Other performances will feature members of the Rome International Dance Academy, Antonella Perazzo’s Movin’ Beat Company and the tap soloist Davide Accossato from Turin.
646-387-8979, eventbrite.com

IT’S SHOWTIME NYC! at Castle Clinton Plaza, Battery Park (Aug. 25, noon to 4 p.m.). This program, part of Dancing in the Streets, presents some of New York’s most talented dancers — you’ve seen them fly through the air during your commute — in the safety of a park. Part of the idea behind It’s Showtime is to give street and subway dancers a legal alternative to performing in subway cars, and this afternoon’s show will feature more than 20 of them in a dazzling showcase of individual freestyle moves and new group works.
dancinginthestreets.org

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