Ode to Joy

Joy is the goal of Parsons Dance. That is immediately apparent from the opening of the program for its New York season at the Joyce Theater: “Ludwig,” a brand-new David Parsons original, features all nine company dancers, smiling and dressed in varying shades of sunset oranges and yellows, moving vigorously to the second movement of Beethoven’s ninth symphony.

Performance

Parsons Dance: “Ludwig” by David Parsons, “Brothers” by David Parsons and Daniel Ezralow, “Do Not Go Gentle” by Mayte Natalio, “Fearless” by Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington, “Caught” by David Parsons,” and “Nascimento Novo” by David Parsons

Place

Joyce Theater, New York, NY, May 6, 2026

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Parsons Dance in “Ludwig” by David Parsons. Photograph by Paula Lobo

They slice straight arms through the air and cut across the stage in assemblé. With their arms in a V, they weave through one another in an organized frenzy. Parsons’s Paul Taylor roots are apparent here, as are the dancers’ classical training. The first section of the work syncs naturally with the triumphant pacing of Beethoven’s scherzo, and the sequence repeats closer to the end of the dance. It is the strongest part of Parsons’s newest work: crisp, clearly defined, and joyful.

Less strong are the goofier moments that pop up–dancers shimmying their shoulders with their arms stretched straight out in front of them, putting a hand on a sassy hip, wiggling a head here or there. These interludes, which tend to feature one to two dancers at a time, seem intended to be fun, but I find myself missing the more challenging technical passages each time they arrive. When Joseph Cyranski and Emerson Earnshaw occasionally pop in for a few spotlight duets, they pull me back in, particularly when they execute, at the same time, a dramatic 540-degree jump.

“Brothers,” a piece Parsons choreographed in 1982 with Daniel Ezralow, set to Stravinsky’s “Concertina for 12 Instruments,” finds a better balance. Odin Brock and Luke Biddinger capture a paradoxical ethos: swinging their arms to and fro, they are macho men, contorting their bodies like ancient discus players, but when they push and pull one another, jumping on one another’s back, they are, quite simply, children. In its relative simplicity, it’s a sophisticated meditation on masculinity, replete with movements that are at once physically challenging and symbolically resonant, such when the two, on tip-toe, press against each other to balance as they curl their bodies into an upright fetal position.

Emerson Earnshaw and Joseph Cyranski in “Brothers” by David Parsons. Photo by Paula Lobo

Aside from Parsons’s own work, this program includes two pieces by emerging choreographers. The first is “Do Not Go Gentle” by Mayte Natalio, a former Parsons dancer who went on to choreograph Broadway shows including “Suffs.” This piece is a four-part work set on eight dancers to an original score by Daniel Kluger.

It passes through a range of themes and tones. The first part is melancholic, with paired up dancers holding hands and walking in exaggerated slow motion. The second is robotic and a touch more frenetic—the most interesting and fully realized section of the work. The third is dark and a touch dramatic, with dancers suddenly wearing sparkling full-head masks that give them an alien appeal, and the fourth is jazzy and percussive. “Do Not Go Gentle” leans a bit too far into pantomime, without effectively translating its message or storyline, but Natalio proves a clear strength for dynamic, ensemble choreography, which the Parsons Dancers execute with precision.

“Fearless,” by the celebrated ballroom choreographer Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington, is a bold commission and the most stylistically differentiated piece in the program, wherein the dancers trade their balletic vocabulary for voguing, moving in an alternating mix of staccato steps and lyrical stretches of the arms.

While the high-energy work has the kind of joyfulness one might naturally find on a dance floor, it lacks some of the risk-taking and release that makes ballroom such a thrilling style of dance to behold. I wanted a bit more attitude from the dancers here, though we did at least get some excitement from a brief acrobatic solo by Odin Brock, which elicited mid-performance applause.

Joanne Hwang in “Nascimento Novo” by David Parsons. Photograph by Paula Lobo

The standout of the whole evening is “Caught,” a 1982 work by Parsons, performed this night by Joseph Cyranski. We were warned that the second half of the show would contain a strobe effect and here it is. After an artful opening, through which the dancer passes through a sequence of overhead spotlights, we see him only through glimpses of the strobe lights. Cyranski, who already stood out for his controlled pirouettes and buoyant jump, appears to be flying around the stage in pikes, brisé, jumps à la seconde. The piece, I learn through a post-show talkback, features anywhere from 125 to 150 jumps, depending on the dancer performing and the size of the stage (the secret, Parsons reveals, is that the dancer controls the strobe).

It could easily feel like a gimmick were it not quite so breathtaking. It’s something about the simplicity of the movement and the beat-less score by Robert Fripp that makes a more than 40-year-old work feel so alive. This, I find myself thinking, is why we see live performance.

It’s a hard act to follow, but “Nascimento Novo,” another Parsons piece—this one from 2006—closes out the show with much of the same earnestness and candor as “Ludwig,” but with a bit of a looser feel. The dancers practically swim through their pirouettes. They fling themselves across the stage, into jumps or into the arms of a partner. At one point, they spell out “LOVE” with their bodies, backlit on the stage. It’s a bit saccharine, sure, but Parsons’s choreography is unapologetic in its felicity.

I’m won over by the simplicity of the expression. Téa Pérez, running around the stage, is positively ebullient. When the dancers clap together in a syncopated rhythm, grooving to the enlivening score by Milton Nascimento, the joy is the whole point.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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Ode to Joy

Rebecca Deczynski

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