Philadelphia dance performances not to miss this spring

Philadelphia is getting a new Coppélia this season. It is the latest full-length ballet Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella is reworking.

Philadelphia is also getting new works from Philadanco, BalletX, the Koresh Dance Company — and even the Paul Taylor Dance Company, which is based in New York but has a long history performing here.

Looking for tried and true? Philadelphia Ballet is also bringing back a Balanchine program.

If you prefer to get in on the act, Caleb Teicher will be visiting Philly in June with Sw!ng Out. At the end of the show, everyone can get up and dance.

Philadelphia Ballet is returning to its Balanchine roots with a program of three classics. It’s called Dancing with Gershwin, but only one piece, Who Cares?, is set to Gershwin music. It also includes Ballet Imperial, highlighting Balanchine’s Russian roots and set to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2; and Agon, a minimalist leotard ballet with music by Stravinsky.

Academy of Music. 240 S. Broad St. Tickets start at $25. 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org

Paul Taylor has a long history in Philadelphia, having performed here nearly every year for decades. The tie is even closer since Michael Novak, who studied in Philadelphia, was appointed artistic director in 2018. This year the company is bringing the world premiere of If You Could Swallow the Sun, by Omar Román De Jesús, and two Taylor works: Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal), and Brandenburgs.

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St. $59-$67. 215-898-3900 or pennlivearts.org

“Knowing what you know now, are you satisfied with your earlier work?” That’s the question Philadanco founder Joan Myers Brown posed to four prominent choreographers who have worked many times with the company. Two opted to revisit their earlier choreography; the others opted to use what they learned over the years to make new pieces. The result is a program called Moving … Beyond Forward and it includes world premieres from Ray Mercer and Tommie Waheed-Evans. Rennie Harris will revisit his one of his pieces, Fear, and Milton Myers will rework his Rite of Passage and The Element in Which it Takes Place.

Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Perelman Theater, 300 S. Broad St. $29-$49. 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org

BalletX is a company that mostly presents new work. But sometimes you want a second viewing. For the company’s third season at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts (its second as resident company), it is bringing back Justin Peck’s Become a Mountain (originally created for the senior class in Juilliard, it got its BalletX premiere in 2022) and Trey McIntyre’s Big Ones, a 2016 work that has the dancers wearing large rabbit ears. But because it is BalletX, there will also be a world premiere, by Amy Hall Garner.

TD Pavilion at the Mann, 5201 Parkside Ave. $29-$50. 215-225-5389 x250. balletx.org

The Koresh Dance Company is one of Philadelphia’s better troupes, but it only has one major appearance in Philadelphia each year. This year, its home season features a new work by artistic director Roni Koresh. Masquerade (as the company describes it) is “an intra-active contemporary operatic dance performance,” blending the line between reality and fiction, featuring original music composed and sung live by Sage DeAgro-Ruopp.

Suzanne Roberts Theater, 480 S. Broad St. $45, $35 for seniors and students. myptc.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org/82568

Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella was a superstar in his dancing days, and he performed multiple versions of full-length ballets all over the world. Since he knows them so well and has distinct preferences, he has been choosing a ballet every year or so to re-choreograph. The latest is Coppélia. The company last danced this story of a love triangle among boy, girl, and doll in 2014, a few months before Corella was hired.

It’s based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, who also wrote the story that is the basis of The Nutcracker.

Academy of Music. 240 S. Broad St. Tickets start at $25. 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org

So you think you can dance? In Sw!ng Out, a touring show, Teicher and other top dancers will show you how it’s done, a joyful show of everything from Lindy Hop to swing dance. In the end, the audience is invited to join in on the fun. But don’t worry: You don’t actually need to know how to dance. The fun is in the music and the movement.

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St. $38-$67. 215-898-3900 or pennlivearts.org