Limón Dance Company- A Beautiful and Dynamic Evening

By Alix Cohen

On the 80th anniversary of this esteemed company, Artistic director Dante Puleio offers two “love letters to dancers.” Limón created Mazurkas as a gift to his company, celebrating their artistry, musicality, and individuality. More than sixty years later, Aszure Barton created Join as a gift to the dancers of today’s Limón Company.

Each in its own way the two selections showcase grace, strength, skill and choreography that bears signatures, yet emerges with freshness and appeal.

Mazurkas
Created in honor of these cities and their people in Poland. Performed to a selection of Chopin’s mazurkas, these dances are a tribute to the people’s heroic spirit in their revival after World War II.
Choreography: José Limón (1958)
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Piano: Michael Scales
Reconstruction (2026): Logan Frances Kruger
Evocative Lighting by Thomas Skelton/Reconstruction – Corey Whittemore
Photos Hisae Aihara

Melding balletic choreography with folk steps, Mazurkas presents dancers in twos and threes, together and apart. Limón’s torso driven movement is immediately apparent. Shoulders back, figures are propelled forward as if blown.

A leap includes clicking heels, perhaps slapping a hip. One arm across the breast, another raised, fisted hands on hips, and frequent prominence of elbows create formality, yet not stiffness. Stomping is tempered.

Pinwheeled or crossed overhead during turns, arms nonetheless evince restraint. Feet circle fluidly on the floor creating a sense of breath and muscular release between wider articulation. There’s an ebb and flow, especially to supple partnering. Whirling is lyrical, collaborative.

Women lay across men’s bent knees. Rising, one senses a whoosh. Some partners seem familiar with one another, others as if they’re curious, cautious. Differences add interest. Partners change without apparent jealousy.Facial expressions are the cherry on top of a dance piece. Without expression, opportunity to enhance is lost. The Limón company is aware of mood and/or story making it more accessible.

Group hands are held, circles formed and broken, dancers lightly run. Leaps are expansive. Suspending and yielding to gravity are central.

One feels as if having been privy to glimpsing a country ball, ne of pleasure, but also dignity.

Join
Choreography- Aszure Barton 2015
Composer- Ambrose Akinmusire
Inspired by a passage of José Limón’s vivid and poetic description of Doris Humphrey’s lost work of Orestes.
Subtle Lighting – Burke Brown

Arm over intertwined arm, dancers walk forward and back in unison. One on an end shifts in an outlaw way provoking a wave effect. Single piano notes echo. A circle is formed, then breaks apart. Collectively raised, a dancer falls straight forward, straight back epitomizing interdependence.

In a pas de deux, women create a seesaw of floor work. Cello and bass quiver. One stands on the others bent knees. When in the group, they seem oblivious, but catching sight, the pair are magnetically drawn as if two parts of one being.

Other couples face one another repeatedly jumping up and down until each locks his legs around the waist of a partner. Single syllables are heard. Men branch off and seem to play ignoring gravity, though not their peers.

Shoulder to shoulder, half hold arms up, half down forming a lattice of diamonds. Synchronized legs raise, feet flex. Peeling off into two lines, they approach just short of bowing, back up, and shift diagonally.

Elbows create architectural effect as they bend with hands clasped in a row. Extended feet form body Xs.Half bend the arms of their neighbors. Half descend to their knees.

The two women find one another, entwine, balance, support ,caress. Piano grows fainter and fainter. ‘Spellbinding.

Music/sounds accompanying this piece were a revelation. Many companies are utilizing dissonant, abrasive compositions that detract from what we’re seeing on stage. Akinmusire’s iconoclastic piece lends itself to interconnected movement as if bodies were displacing space with substance.

Even when abstract, these dances tend to feel psychologically or emotionally charged. Performers surge through space, turning weight and momentum into state of mind.

Limón Dance Company
Founders José Limón and Doris Humphrey
Artistic Director- Dante Puleio
Michael Scales –Piano

The Joyce Theater 175 Eighth Avenue at 18th Street
Through October 11, 2026
https://www.joyce.org/performances/limon-dance-company-ns9f?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24266018591&gclid=CjwKCAjw_pzWBhAkEiwAwDCi1S6luvuORSpZoRBIK7s9TmSUpC3ciW1zMyopRGGR8MZ4yCGLNsxKEBoCUykQAvD_BwE