The Joyce Returns, With a Typically Eclectic Dance Menu

This fall, the Joyce Theater will present its first live season of dance since being forced to turn off the lights in March of 2020. The season, announced on Tuesday, runs from September to February and includes 18 companies, some, like the British hip-hop ensemble Far From the Norm, performing at the theater for the first time.

“We had some priorities, to rebook the companies that were supposed to perform here last year, and had shows canceled,” said Linda Shelton, the Joyce’s executive director, “and also to reaffirm our mission to promote diversity.”

Another consideration, given numerous travel bans and the difficulty of obtaining visas for performers amid shifting Covid waves, was “who can actually get to us, with all these borders opening and closing,” Ms. Shelton added. As a result, there are only four companies traveling from abroad, Far From the Norm; Malpaso, from Cuba, whose show was canceled last year; L-E-V from Israel; and the Colombian ensemble Sankofa Danzafro, whose piece “Accommodating Lie” addresses stereotypes surrounding Afro-Latino culture.

The season opens on Sept. 22, with a visit by the well-regarded Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company, performing an evening-length work, “Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim.” The piece employs the Indian classical dance style Bharatanatyam to explore themes of life and death through the lens of Hindu ritual.