And then, some of the best works of the year were unclassifiable. Summer Stages Dance brought Eiko and Koma, with pianist Margaret Leng Tan, for a performance of Mourning at Concord Academy. The Japanese-American duo drew us into an intense visual and visceral universe where the boundaries separating beasts and vegetation, life and death, intelligence, windstorm, and terror, can no longer be detected.
And in June the Mark Morris Dance Group and Emmanuel Music staged a revival of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Cutler Majestic. In his modern but strangely congenial interpretation of the great Baroque opera, Morris set the characters in formal motion, with the tragic heroine Dido and the malevolent Sorceress who brings about her downfall played by the same dancer. Amber Darragh was superb in both roles.
Related:
Drama manqué, Steps . . . and more steps, Dynamos, More 
- Drama manqué
Sporen , by the Dutch company Leine & Roebana, had two false beginnings before settling down to an hour of movement exploration.
- Steps . . . and more steps
Martha Graham’s Steps in the Street doesn’t look anything like a dance of the 21st century, but at the end of Boston Conservatory’s fall program last weekend it fit right in.
- Dynamos
The four pieces on the program that Philadanco brought for its Boston debut last weekend at the Institute for Contemporary Art were all-dance numbers showcasing a troupe of highly polished, supercharged dancers.
- Daniel Nagrin
Daniel Nagrin was one of the last surviving stars of modern dance's second generation.
- Definitions
Boston Ballet’s artistic director, Mikko Nissinen, wants us to think of his company as utterly contemporary, but it’s a tricky balance to pull off.
- From the inside
Martha Graham created a revolution in the modern dance world on many fronts, most significantly by the emotional content and the sculptural form of her work.
- Golden years
The last thing I had in mind when I went to the Opera House Tuesday was raining on Alvin Ailey's parade — particularly since the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which he founded in 1959, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year while making its 41st annual Celebrity Series appearance in Boston.
- Diaghilev days
The Ballets Russes come to town
- Giant's steps
Merce Cunningham's death on July 26 wasn't unexpected. He'd been in frail health since this past winter. He was in a wheelchair for his 90th-birthday celebration in April at Brooklyn Academy of Music. In June, the Cunningham Foundation announced plans for the future of the company and the repertory after his death.
- Sunday school
Ronald K. Brown’s flamboyant choreography comes with a big serving of spirituality.
- Southern Exposure
Since Fusionworks Dance Company has maintained a studio in East Greenwich for almost five years, artistic director Deb Meunier decided it was time to bring dance to South County.
- Less
Topics:
Dance
, Entertainment, Boston Conservatory, John Hancock, More
, Entertainment, Boston Conservatory, John Hancock, Gustav Mahler, Mark Morris Dance Group, Sara Hook, Henry Purcell, Henry Purcell, Karl Cronin, Nai-Ni Chen, Less
