The Month in Philly Dance for October

Orisa CDC’s OSUN! The Dance Drama!
Friday, October 3, 7pm
Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street

OSUN! is part of the Orisa Community Development Corporation’s Sango Gunmi Orisa Community Weekend that celebrates Yoruba culture and the Orisa religion. Using hip hop and afrobeat, the teen dancers tell the story of the teenage Ogun captured by slave traders, who is later reborn in present day Philadelphia and finds his lost love.

Sharp Dance Company 20th Anniversary, Family
Saturday, October 4, 7pm
Sunday, October 5, 5pm
The Mandell Theater, 3220 Chestnut Street

Sharp Dance celebrates its 20th anniversary with a selection of works from the company’s repertoire as well as DNA, described as an evolving project centered around heritage and identity. I particularly like the expansive way the company expresses deeply felt emotions, and I’m looking forward to revisiting some of my favorite pieces.

Kun-Yan Lin Dance, Sangha—Phoenix Ritual
Saturday, October 4, 7:30pm
Lang Performing Arts Center, 500 College Arts Center, Swarthmore

Saturday’s free discussion and performance is the culmination of the company’s Swarthmore residency, from September 29 through October 4, which includes workshops in Chi Awareness, discussions, and demonstrations. The performance will feature a collaborative new work created with students from the Taiko drum program and other pieces from the repertoire.

The Philadelphia Ballet, Carmen and Boléro
October 9-12, Times vary
Academy of Music, 240 South Broad Street

The Philadelphia Ballet opens the season with two works by artistic director Angel Corella. Carmen translates Georges Bizet’s opera into dance, with all the passion and murder one expects. Like Carmen, Boléro draws on Spanish as well as classical ballet tradition, but this time builds to the controlled explosion of the music with a decidedly modern sensibility.

The Philadelphia Ballet Evening of Horror
October 16-18, 7:30pm
October 18-19, 2pm
Academy of Music, 240 South Broad Street

Fellow writers in the horror and fantasy genres have been buzzing about this one since it was announced, and it’s my top pick for the month. Agnes De Mille’s Fall River Legend, created in 1948, tells the story of Lizzy Borden, who probably did murder her controlling parents with an axe, though she was not found guilty at the trial. And resident choreographer Juliano Nunes has created a new ballet for the season, Valley of Death, a tale of love in the dark corners of America.

Roger Lee Dance Company’s Funhouse
Friday, October 17, 8pm
Saturday, October 18, 8pm
Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street

Roger Lee Dance celebrates the spooky season with Funhouse, combining contemporary and hip-hop with video projections in the story of a woman who faces the frights of a funhouse ride at an amusement park.

Aakash Odedra Company’s Songs of the Bulbul
Saturday, October 18, 2pm and 7:30pm
Zellerbach Theater at the Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street

I have been looking forward to Songs of the Bulbul, classical Kathak and contemporary Indian dancer Aakash Odedra’s full-length solo performance. Odedra worked with choreographer Rani Khanam to express his grief at his mother’s suicide using the Sufi myth of the caged nightingale, and the dance is mesmerizing.

BalletX 20th Anniversary
October 29-November 2, times vary
Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 South Broad Street

BalletX celebrates its 20th anniversary season with an opening spread over two weeks and two different programs, each representing a decade of commissioned works. Week one, 2005-2015, presents excerpts from some of my favorite ballets, including Nicolo Fonte’s Beautiful Decay, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Still@Life, a wry look at Dutch Masters and apples. Of course there will be lots of co-founder Mathew Neenan’s choreography, with an excerpt from Sunset, o639 Hours and some of his earliest works. Next month, we’ll look at years 2015-2025.

On a final special note

I learned this week that Kun-Yang Lin will be sunsetting his KYLD in spring of 2026. The company has a number of international dancers, and one of the reasons they cite for the closure is the increasingly difficult visa situation. This came days after I received notice that the Fringe Festival performance of Circus Abyssinia’s Ethiopian Dreams was canceled due to visa delays. In 2023, I talked with local companies, including KYLD, about the problem. The visa system has always been a way to keep people out, not let them in, so it is no surprise it is getting even harder.