2022′s five best dance performances

In 2022, two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, going to the theater to see dance started to seem almost normal again.

Companies had many firsts, lasts, revivals, and makeups for what should have been, making it an interesting year.

Much admired Philadelphia Ballet principal dancer Jermel Johnson retired, and there was a belated retirement celebration for Randy Swartz, who introduced companies from all over the world to Philadelphia audiences for 50 years.

Shut Up & Dance, the annual benefit performance for MANNA put on by the dancers from Philadelphia Ballet, also took its final bow.

Here are some of the best performances of this notable year:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed at the Academy of Music in January. The company chose Philadelphia to open its first tour in two years. Artistic director Robert Battle — who studied at Juilliard under Jeanne Ruddy, who owns Philly’s Performance Garage — choreographed all of the pieces on the program aside from Ailey’s Revelations, which is required viewing when Ailey comes to town.

COVID restrictions were still in force in the theater, and while the dancers didn’t wear masks, Battle was happy to have the dancers separate in his newest work, For Four, set to music by Wynton Marsalis.

“I’m not huge on partnering anyway,” Battle said. “Just the thing is that lifts make me crazy. I’m a nervous nelly. I’m like, ‘Oh my god put her down.’ It’s very funny. I’ve always been this way.”

The program also included In/Side, a solo to Nina Simone, and Ella, a solo to music by Ella Fitzgerald.

Excerpt from Love Stories, set to music by Stevie Wonder, was a fun celebration of Black dance and one of three parts of a work that also has sections choreographed by artistic director emerita Judith Jamison and Rennie Harris, both from Philadelphia.

In March, Philadelphia Ballet revisited its Balanchine roots in a program that positively glittered.

The program featured a tutu ballet, Symphony in C, set to music by Georges Bizet.

Divertimento No. 15, with music by Mozart, highlighted Nayara Lopes, who was recently promoted to principal, and Johnson, in one of his final performances with the company — both especially fast and dynamic.

It also included Stars and Stripes, pure Americana, set to John Philip Sousa, with all dancers performing sharp and clean.

In April, Philadanco celebrated its 50th anniversary two years late.

The program, called “RE (Re-Flect/Re-Evaluate/Re-Generate),” included favorites by Harris, Ray Mercer, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Ulysses Dove.

Mercer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was centered around a large table that dancers performed in, on, and around to music by Craig Armstrong, Clint Mansell, Jack Hallam, and Bonji Duma. The table often served as sort of a large balance beam, with dancers performing pirouettes and other steps several feet off the ground, even if their space was a few square feet rather than inches wide.

Harris’ Wake Up opened and ended with a tragedy. In between, it showed the moments just before the incident, when young people were enjoying a night of hip-hop dancing. Set to music by Darrin Ross, it kept the dancers moving constantly.

BalletX had a good year, establishing a three-year residency at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and presenting several good programs. It hired big-name choreographers, including New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck and one of that company’s most prominent principal dancers, Tiler Peck (not related).

But especially notable was former BalletX dancer-turned-choreographer-in-demand Caili Quan’s homage to her native Guam, which she left as a teenager to study dance in the United States.

Quan choreographed Love Letter as one of the first films in the company’s digital season early in the pandemic. In November, she restaged it and the dancers were able to touch, lean on each other, partner.

Michael Korsch’s lighting turned the stage into an ocean, complemented by blue and green resort wear costumes by Christine Darch. The music features Harry Belafonte and Micah Manaitai.

The dance was delightful as Quan showed the changing relationships, groups, and parties in her homeland.

Harris, one of the top street-dance choreographers in the world, is seen regularly in Philadelphia — but more often via companies other than his own. He makes works frequently for Ailey, Philadanco, and other companies.

“If I was supported the way I was supposed to be supported as an artist, I wouldn’t be teaching,” Harris said. “I’d be home making work. I wouldn’t be setting work on other companies, because I would do my own company.”

This year, though, he was supported with a residency at Penn Live Arts, the performance series at the Annenberg. For that and to mark the 30th anniversary of his company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, he brought back hip-hop masterpiece Rome & Jewels in December.

It hadn’t been performed in Harris’ native Philadelphia since 2007 nor anywhere else for at least a decade — and it was spectacular.

Several members of the original 1998 cast returned, including the original Rome, Rodney Mason. Some of the monologues were updated to address 2022 concerns, but the themes were as relevant as Shakespeare’s 1597 play Romeo & Juliet and the 1961 movie West Side Story, which first sparked Harris’ interest in the work.