WHEN:
April 14 – 19, 2026
WHERE:
The Joyce Theater
175 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10011
Cast & Creative List:
Johnny Gandelsman (Violinist/Producer/2024 MacArthur Fellow), John Heginbotham (Choreographer/Performer), Caili Quan (Choreographer/Performer), Jamar Roberts (Choreographer/Performer), Melissa Toogood (Choreographer/Performer)
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Read below a recent review of JOHNNY LOVES JOHANN by Picture This Post Editor, Amy Munice.
Carolina Performing Arts Presents JOHNNY LOVES JOHANN Review – Dancing to Bach’s Tease
How curious…
Why did Alvin Ailey dancer/choreographer Jamar Roberts need an extra pair of bright white sneakers?
There had been a few props coming and going as the performance progressed. An oversized chair, paper crumples liberated from a lei to be strewn into an entropy heap and then swept away to make the stage tidy 2.0. But the bright white sneakers?? - seemingly identical to the ones on the dancer’s feet— they were truly a nagging mystery.
Of course! you too might have been thinking when all four of the dancer/choreographers had sat towards the back of the stage with each hand in a bright white sneaker swimming through the air in sync. It was as if they were playing patty cake with Johann Sebastian Bach’s ghost.
How can we keep ourselves from smiling?—at that moment and throughout. Four choreographers—John Heginbotham, Caili Quan, Jamar Roberts and Melissa Toogood— are channeling the playfulness of Bach’s Cello Suites, as if to show us what to hear. They are motored by violinist virtuoso Johnny Gandelsman’s marathon performance. Throughout we feel a constant tug on our focus between the violin’s tour de force and the dancers play acting to the music’s tease. If you’ve ever cranked up the music to dance with abandon in your living room— jumping on chairs and couches as the spirit moves you—you can imagine how this non-stop interplay of violin and dance came to be.
While Gandelsman intently cycles through the seven dances in each of the Suites 1 - 6, the choreographers each take a turn and then collaborate together. It starts with Melissa Toogood injecting humor and a feeling of flirt as she circles Gandelsman. Some of us who know of Toogood’s pedigree feel that her performance is also a séance to bring Merce Cunningham in to also mingle with Bach and Gandelsman. On the night of this performance, Maile Okamura, a small framed sprite of a dancer, had substituted for Heginbotham, contributing to an appreciation of how tall, sturdy and muscular Jamar Roberts’ physical person is. He moves with the lightness of bubbles in a champagne flute, much like the indefatigable progressions in Bach’s music brought alive by Gandelsman’s bow. It’s choreographer/dancer Caili Quan though who makes the connection the dancers obviously feel with Gandelsman visible. When she moves inside Gandelsman arm at work on his bow and touches his shoulder we feel like voyeurs of intensely intimate moments.
Playfull… We never knew Bach was so full of whimsy!
Carolina Performing Arts Co-Commissions JOHNNY LOVES JOHANN
From the program notes, we learn that the perfection of Johnny Loves Johann was long in the making. Gandelsman is Carolina Performing Arts’ most frequent collaborator. After his 2020 performance of Bach’s Cello Suites he wondered — What if this music actually danced? After seeing this performance you might think— Will I ever hear Bach’s music again without wondering what these choreographic talents would make of it?
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
While Johnny Loves Johan performances have concluded, Carolina Performing Arts’ new season continues and details can be found on the Carolina Performing Arts website.
Hear Gandelsman’s recording of Bach Cello Suite Number One.
To learn more about the choreographers, visit: Melissa Toogood website; Dance Heginbotham John Heginbotham webpage; Alvin Ailey Dance’s Jamar Roberts webpage; and Ballet X’s Caili Quan webpage.
Photos by Kent Corley
Find more Picture This Post dance reviews in the latest roundup — CHOREOGRAPHERS WE LOVE. Also, watch a short preview video here —
NB: Errata -- Proper spelling is BalletX (not Ballet X).
