Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center Reveals 2024-25 Season

 The Music Center has announced that, for the first time in its momentous 60-year history, the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center season will include performances all across its north campus including the famed Mark Taper Forum, the iconic Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Ahmanson Theatre. Adding to the excitement, the 2024–2025 dance season includes The Music Center debuts of three dance companies, making the 22nd season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center the most fearless season yet and cementing The Music Center as L.A.’s premier performing arts destination.

The dance season will launch in November 2024 at the Mark Taper Forum with The Music Center debut of Urban Bush Women. The season continues in February 2025, with the critically acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company—also making its Music Center debut—followed by the beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in April 2025; both companies will perform at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In May 2025, performing at The Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre, Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo returns to The Music Center after 14 years, with a repertoire that blends Afro-Brazilian rhythms and classical technique. Closing the unrivaled dance season will be The Music Center debut of Boston Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with an enchanting presentation of the classical ballet masterpiece Swan Lake.

Season subscriptions are available for purchase now by visiting musiccenter.org or by calling (213) 972-0711; single tickets will be available for purchase starting on June 25, 2024. As part of these residencies, The Music Center will offer arts and cultural experiences, such as panel discussions, master classes, student matinees, special events and more, all of which are free to the public.

“Unparalleled vibrancy is the best way to describe the 2024–2025 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. The new season will be filled with boundless creativity, breathtaking artistry and fearless dancers whose emotional and expressive performances reflect our shared humanity,” said Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center. “Angelenos are in for a rare treat when three of the world’s most eminent dance companies make their Music Center debuts, and we hold a dance engagement at the Mark Taper Forum for the first time in The Music Center’s 60-year history. With all three theatres at The Music Center’s north campus included in our dance season, Angelenos now have the perfect opportunity to experience so much of what The Music Center has to offer!”

The Music Center’s 2024–2025 dance season launches on November 22–24, 2024, with Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women (UBW), presented in association with Center Theatre Group. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, UBW will build upon its repertoire of bold, life-affirming works with the West Coast premiere of SCAT!... The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, a love story set in a fictional jazz club where two people make their journey to Kansas City as part of the Great Migration. Conceived, directed and choreographed by UBW founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who grew up in the mid-20th century performing in Black neighborhoods in a segregated Kansas City, SCAT! tells a powerful tale of the aftermath when aspirations are impacted by the harsh realities of American life during the 1940s and 1950s. The 90-minute dance work, set to an original jazz score by Craig Harris, will be performed with a live band at The Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum.

Following the UBW presentation, Dance at The Music Center will present Batsheva Dance Company at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion from February 14–16, 2025, with the company’s newest work, MOMO (2022). The 70-minute piece, conceived by master choreographer Ohad Naharin, presents a shared passion of deep sorrow and beauty unfolding on stage; it will be performed to a soundtrack from the album Landfall by the iconic Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet, with additional music by Philip Glass, Arca, and Maxim Waratt. “MOMO has two souls,” according to the company. “One sends long roots to the depths of the earth—a soul that embodies archetypes and myths of hardened, raw masculinity, and the other is in a constant search for an individual and distinct DNA; one moves within its own autonomous and independent force field, and the other is a constellation of elements that spin around the same nucleus—alternately drifting away and towards it, making room for necessary tenderness and catharsis.”

Also performing at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will be Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on April 2–6, 2025. The esteemed modern dance company, which celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2024 and recently performed a tremendous seven performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, returns for the second season of its exclusive Southern California multi-year residency with The Music Center. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a beacon of artistic excellence, showcasing the vibrancy and richness of the African American cultural experience, transcending boundaries and reshaping the art form itself. The company will present another dynamic repertoire that highlights the breadth and depth of founder Alvin Ailey's artistic vision, including his signature work Revelations—leaving L.A. audiences in awe once again.

On May 2–4, 2025, Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo takes center stage at The Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre. Renowned for its unparalleled blend of popular Brazilian culture, African rhythms, and classical technique, the company will perform for the first time at The Music Center after 14 years. Grupo Corpo will perform Rodrigo Pederneiras’s 1992 work 21, a ballet divided into three movements that weaves rhythmic and timbral combinations around the number 21. Audiences will be captivated by the musical score’s unique sounds, emanating from composer Marco Antônio Guimarães’ unusual instrumental creations. The company’s second work, Gira, is inspired by Afro-Brazilian religious rituals with the dancers’ trance-like turning and movements embodying the vibrancy of these ceremonies. “It is the sheer physical virtuosity of the company that is so impressive—the sinuous, athletic bodies seemingly inexhaustible,” writes London’s The Guardian.

The 22nd season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center comes to a magnificent close on June 26–29, 2025, with The Music Center debut of Boston Ballet performing Swan Lake, a masterpiece of classical ballet that has mesmerized audiences for generations. Boston Ballet’s Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen’s exquisite production follows the Swan Queen Odette and Prince Siegfried in a tale of romance, sorcery and deceit. Since 1963, Boston Ballet’s internationally acclaimed performances of classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballets—combined with a dedication to world-class dance education and community initiatives—have made the institution a leader in its field, with a 61-year history of promoting excellence and access to dance.

For tickets and information about the 2024–2025 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, visit musiccenter.org or call (213) 972-0711. 

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