Full reviews of recent dance performances: nytimes.com/dance.
★ American Ballet Theater (Friday and Saturday, and Monday through Thursday, through July 7) Alexei Ratmansky’s “Bright Stream” is one of the more lighthearted entries in the company’s spring repertory of lavish, full-length ballets. It runs through Sunday evening, then makes way for John Cranko’s more tumultuous “Onegin,” opening on Monday with the exquisite Diana Vishneva in the role of Tatiana. Whether or not you relish tales of unrequited love rendered on point, any evening with American Ballet Theater is a chance to see some magnificent dancing. Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, abt.org; $20 to $190. (Siobhan Burke)
Cirkus Cirkor (Friday through Sunday) In “Wear it like a crown,” this Swedish nouveau cirque troupe, directed by Tilde Bjorfors, interweaves six stories of lonely outsiders seeking human connection — or connection with their rather superhuman fellow performers, who excel at juggling, knife throwing, acrobatics, dance and mime. The narrative unfolds amid opulent scenery with the help of chamber pop music by the Norwegian singer Rebekka Karijord. Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 p.m., Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100, bam.org; $20 to $75. (Burke)
Dance Under the Influence (Friday and Saturday) This eclectic series, now in its second year, continues with a shared evening of works by Claire Porter, Souleymane Badolo, Chris Elam and Bridgman/Packer Dance. Their interests are many: Ms. Porter ruminates on chance encounters; Mr. Badolo, who recently immigrated from Burkina Faso, considers his shifting identity; Mr. Elam revisits his popular “Throw People,” from 2008; and Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, known for their playful uses of video technology, create worlds in which live bodies and digital ones dance together. At 7:30 p.m., Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, Manhattan, (800) 838-3006, madmuseum.org; $20, or $12 for students. (Burke)
Alex Escalante (Friday and Saturday) A commentary on apocalyptic theories past and present, “Charlie” is named after one of the four characters that Mr. Escalante conjures in this evening-length solo (the others being Linda, Todd and Alex). Aided by sound-manipulating technology, the artist throws his cohorts into debate about whether the world as we know it is, in fact, ending, occasionally visiting their disorienting universe as himself. At 8 p.m., Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street, at Pitt Street, Lower East Side, (212) 352-3101, abronsartscenter.org; $15. (Burke)
Marie-Christine Giordano Dance (Thursday, through June 9) In the 1980s Ms. Giordano moved to New York from her native Switzerland to further her dance career. Now she celebrates her company’s 10th anniversary with the premiere of “In and Out,” which explores forgoing security in favor of change. At 8 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Mark’s Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (866) 811-4111, danspaceproject.org; $18, or $12 for students, dancers and 65+. (Burke)
★ David Gordon (Friday through Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday, through June 30) A monthlong run at Joyce SoHo — or anywhere, really — is practically unheard of for dance-theater artists in New York. But this is a special occasion: David Gordon’s 50th year as an influential maker of category-defying performance. Known for his mischievous, perceptive wit, Mr. Gordon continues conversing with deceased writers (Ionesco, Brecht and Shakespeare have been recent inspirations) in “Beginning of the End of the …,” generated from three works by the Italian author Luigi Pirandello. The stellar cast — with the veteran performers Gus Solomons Jr., Valda Setterfield and Mr. Gordon himself — is reason enough to go. At 7:30 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $22, or $15 for preview performances (through Tuesday). (Burke)
Gotham Dance Festival (Friday through Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday, until June 10) This 12-day festival, which opened this week with Brian Brooks Moving Company, offers a smorgasbord of contemporary dance and ballet, much of it from out of town. On Saturday and Sunday, the Canadian choreographer Peter Quanz shares a program with Jodie Gates, who shows new dances performed by Colorado Ballet and, from Philadelphia, BalletX. On Wednesday and Thursday, BODYTRAFFIC, from Los Angeles, presents pieces by Barak Marshall of Israel, Stijn Celis of Belgium, and Richard Siegal, an American based in Paris and Berlin. On Tuesday only, “Working Women” showcases the work of eight female choreographers, whose gender may be all they have in common. Friday, Saturday and Thursday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.; and Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $10 to $39. (Burke)
Burr Johnson (Friday and Saturday) Contemporary dancegoers may recognize Mr. Johnson as the remarkably tall, fluid dancer who has performed with Shen Wei, Christopher Williams and John Jasperse. While turning heads most recently in Mr. Jasperse’s “Fort Blossom revisited,” he’s also been preparing to present, for the first time, a full evening of his own choreography, comprising two new works. “Shimmering Islands” toys with the conventions of the classical pas de deux, while “Special Collections,” a quartet for Mr. Johnson and three other dancers, establishes order only to mess it up. At 8 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Mark’s Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (866) 811-4111, danspaceproject.org; $18. (Burke)
Movement Research Spring Festival (Friday through Sunday) With the title of this spring performance festival, the curators Eleanor Hullihan, Neal Medlyn, Marissa Perel and Enrico Wey have issued a rallying cry: As Salt-n-Pepa once said, “Push it. Real. Good.” The jam-packed schedule of serious, sweaty fun includes boundary-blurring performances, a ’90s dance party, a communal bike ride, the panel discussion “Let’s Talk About Sex” and a forum that pushes for real good answers to some big questions: “What Is Contemporary Dance and Where Does It Come From and Where Is It Going?” For a full schedule and locations, see movementresearch.org; free to $10. (Burke)
★ New York City Ballet (Friday through Sunday, Tuesday through Thursday, until June 10) On Tuesday the curtain goes up on the final production of City Ballet’s spring season: Balanchine’s ravishing “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Until then, it’s more medleys of work by Alexei Ratmansky, Peter Martins and, of course, the company’s founding choreographers. Friday brings this season’s final performance of Balanchine’s masterful “Concerto Barocco,” on a program with his “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” and “Symphony in C” and Robbins’s rollicking portrait of sailors on shore leave, “Fancy Free.” Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.; and Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 496-0600, nycballet.com; $29 to $149. (Burke)
Parsons Dance (Wednesday and Thursday) If you missed this crowd-pleasing company’s Joyce season this year, here’s another opportunity to see David Parsons’s “Round My World,” in which circular imagery abounds, and his signature solo “Caught,” which enhances his jazz-inflected movement through the illusory effects of strobe lights. At 7 p.m., Manhattan Movement Arts Center, 248 West 60th Street, (212) 787-1178, manhattanmovement.com; $35. (Burke)
Rebecca Patek (Friday and Saturday) In “Real Eyes,” the audacious Ms. Patek teases out moments of performance generally dismissed as awkward or embarrassing. Part dancer, part stand-up comedian, she invites us to dwell in her discomfort and, by extension, our own. At 8 p.m., Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (212) 352-3101, chocolatefactorytheater.org; $15. (Burke)
Liz Phillips (Saturday and Sunday) “Biyuu,” a Japanese word that echoes the sound of bamboo bending in the wind, is also the title of a new video, sound and movement installation by Ms. Phillips. A collaboration with the Butoh dancer Mariko Endo Reynolds, the multimedia project, developed partly at a wildlife sanctuary, explores the body’s potential as a conductor of sound and light, creating what will no doubt be a complex conversation between nature and technology. At 8 p.m., Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, near Third Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, (917) 267-0363, roulette.org; $15, or $10 for students and 65+. (Burke)
Studio Series: Joanna Kotze (Friday and Saturday) Ms. Kotze has a degree in architecture, and it shows. Her “Between You and Me,” at Dance New Amsterdam last year, revealed a mind capable of transforming a familiar space into something eerily unrecognizable. A wiry, fiercely strong dancer, she performs alongside Stuart Singer and Netta Yerushalmy in this informal showing of a work in progress, “it happened it had happened it is happening it will happen,” a study in the tensions between creating structure and embracing the unclassifiable. At 6 p.m., New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, newyorklivearts.org; $5. (Burke)
Zvi Dance (Friday through Sunday) Zvi Gotheiner offers two new dances. “Dabke” concerns the power of dance both to highlight and to dissolve tribal and national identities. “Coupling,” a suite of 11 duets, ponders what makes two people gravitate toward each other. Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m., New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, newyorklivearts.org; $25, or $18 for students and 65+. (Jack Anderson)
