The Month in Philly Dance, November 2025

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company: Día de Muertos
Sunday, November 2, 3pm
Pfleeger Concert Hall, North Campus Drive, Glassboro, NJ

Día de Muertos is a family friendly show with vivid costumes, lively music, and folk and classical dance. The performance tells a story of love and treachery steeped in Mexican lore of the Day of the Dead, when the veil between the spirit and living worlds is the thinnest and the living honor their dead. In the story, the heroine, Lupita, is murdered by a spurned suitor but returns from the spirit world to assure her true love that they will be together again in the afterlife.

BalletX 20th Anniversary
November 5-9, times vary
Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 South Broad Street

BalletX continues its 20th anniversary celebration with a second week of performances, this time from the company’s second decade of commissioned works. There’ll be excerpts from Trey McIntyre’s Big Ones, Caili Quan’s first choreographic work, Fancy Me, Jamar Roberts’s Honey, and (a personal favorite) Jennifer Archibald’s Exalt, among others.

Performance Garage presents DanceFilm with Charles Askegard
Thursday November 6, 6:30pm
Performance Garage 1515 Brandywine Street

In 2023, Charles Askegrad, former dancer (American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet) and current Pennsylvania Ballet rehearsal director, created the duet, Air on a G String (for Ukraine) for Ukrainian dancer Oksana Maslova. This event presents a film giving a backstage look at creation of the piece, and a live performance of the duet recreated by the original performers, Maslova and Sterling Baca.

Contemporary West Dance Theatre's Grit & Grace
Friday, November 7, 8pm
Saturday, November 8, 2pm and 8pm
Fringe Arts Theatre, 140 North Columbus Boulevard

Contemporary West got its start in Las Vegas, but co-founder and artistic director Bernard Gaddis has his roots in Philly. Now he has brought the company home, starting this month with choreographer Donald Byrd’s Shards, Gaddis’ own Steveland, and a world premier by Elizabeth Roxas.

Igniting the Flame: A Benefit Concert Celebrating KYL/D's Final Season Saturday
November 8, 6pm
Performance Garage 1515 Brandywine Street

It’s important to maintain neutrality when you are reviewing a company, so I don’t generally report on fundraisers. But I am making an exception for Kun-Yang Lin Dance. As reported last month, the company will sunset in March 2026, so the benefit concert is one of the last chances audiences will have to see the company’s unique blend of contemporary and Chinese dance.

Courtyard Dancers’ FACING EAST: Celebrating 25 Years
Friday November 14, 7pm
Saturday November 15, 7pm
Performance Garage 1515 Brandywine Street

The Courtyard Dancers’ biennial Facing East festival brings together dancers and musicians in diverse South Asian traditions to explore contemporary expressions of traditional dance. I reviewed a past festival here.

Ephrat Asherie Dance with Arturo O'farrill, Shadow Cities Friday, November 14, 7:30pm
Saturday, November 15, 2pm and 7:30pm
Zellerbach Theater at the Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street

Ephrat Asherie Dance, with jazz pianist Arturo O’farrill, brings street and club dance choreography to Penn Live Arts’s America Unfinished series. Shadow Cities blends cultures and identities in American dance traditions that bring joy to the struggle to envision a better America.

And Also

Passing the Baton
Sunday, November 2, 4pm
LOFT 17, 1000 South Easton Road, Wyncote, PA

A conversation between founders of Philadanco, Odunde Festival, and Black Music Month, and the next generation carrying on the legacy of the founders. Philly icon Patty Jackson will host the event.

Philadelphia: An Early American Dance City
Tuesday, November 18, 6:30pm
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street

According to Franklin and Marshall College emeritus professor Lynn Matluck Brooks, Philadelphia was a leading center of dance in the early 19th century. She will be discussing her book on the subject, Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia.