Here are the dance performances you can’t miss in Miami this arts season

Astonishing for its resilience, Miami’s dance scene persevered through the pandemic and more recently, state funding cuts. Below is just a snapshot of the world-class programming Miami’s dance calendar offers to South Florida audiences during its 2024-2025 season.

DANCE NOW! MIAMI

Now in its 14th year, the Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler continues the Fall tradition of uniting area dance enthusiasts with a showcase of the best of Miami dance. Named in honor of Daniel Lewis – founding Dean of Dance at Miami’s New World School of the Arts – Dance NOW! Miami co-artistic directors Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini curate this informal kickoff to Miami’s dance season where audiences catch a preview of their favorite companies.

Extending its commitment to presenting politically provocative new works don’t miss DNM’s spring premiere of “Blue Pencil” in collaboration with Portuguese-based Dance em Diálogos to present this politically charged ballet based on the Blue Pencil Censorship in Portugal during the Estado Novo regime, from 1933 to 1974.

Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler, Oct. 5, New World School of the Arts Theater, Miami; 305-237-3135 or https://www.dancenowmiami.org

Program II Blue Pencil, March 1, Miami Theater Center, Miami Shores; 305-751-9550 or https://www.mtcmiami.org/

MIAMI CITY BALLET

Miami City Ballet opens its 2024 season with George Balanchine’s 1962 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” re-imagined in 2016 with a South Florida seascape complete with sea horses, jellyfish and manatees. World-class dancing, fantastic costumes designed by Michele Oka Doner and Wendall Harrington’s gorgeous projections of floating plankton and seaweed are sure to make this a season-opening highlight.

And MCB closes out the 2024-2025 season with the world premiere of an evening-length interpretation of the fiery classic opéra comique, “Carmen” by Colombian-Belgian choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Ochoa imbues the enduring piece with sensuality and spirit, delivering the heat of southern Spain to today’s South Florida audiences.

Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oct. 18-20, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami; 305-929-7010 or https://www.miamicityballet.org

Carmen, April 25-27, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami; 305-929-7010 or https://www.miamicityballet.org/

PETER LONDON GLOBAL DANCE COMPANY

Peter London Global Dance Company continues to astonish Miami audiences with the talent of its performers and the versatility of its choreography often created by current and former company dancers who number among the marquee names in contemporary dance.

In its 13th season of partnership with the Arsht Center the company presents, “After Landing” featuring world premiere collaborations with Justin Rapaport; Jamar Roberts’ “As an Offering,” with a lush, commissioned score by award-winning composer and trumpeter, Etienne Charles; and PLDGC artistic director, Peter London’s “Carmen,” “Caribbean Suite” and “Inner Ritual.”

Dec. 27-29, Carnival Studio Theater, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami; 305-949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

TWYLA THARP DANCE

One of America’s great choreographers, Twyla Tharp, celebrates her 60th anniversary with a stop on her Diamond Jubilee tour at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center. The program features her Olivier-nominated “Diabelli Variations,” set to Beethoven’s demonically difficult masterpiece of the same name, and a world premiere reimagining of composer Philip Glass’s, “Aguas da Amazonia.” Showcasing Tharp’s witty use of music, this groundbreaking program is sure to dazzle audiences with its stellar dancing and phenomenal musicianship.

March 1-2, 2025, Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, Cutler Bay, 786-573-5300 or https://www.mosscenter.org

BISTOURY PHYSICAL THEATRE AND FILM

Combining dance, theater and film, Bistoury Physical Theater of Miami has established itself as an exciting, cutting edge group of performers whose artistic directors, Alexey Taran and Carla Forte, consistently tackle the monumental task of discovering alternative ways of being in the world through art.

Not to be missed is one of the company’s newest works, “Watermuse,” a multimedia performance directed by Forte that explores the vulnerability of women in the context of climate change.

March 8, INKUB8 Studio, Miami; 305-905-1275 or www.bistoury.org

This story was originally published September 22, 2024 at 4:30 AM.