BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | After three quiescent years, the Manhattan dance scene is picking up speed. There’s almost too much to do, too much to see. Here are the first of several offerings not to be missed. (A new column with more must-sees will publish soon.)

A.I.M | If you sent me to a desert island and let me take one dance company, I’d choose A.I.M, the ensemble helmed by Kyle Abraham. I’ve caught his satisfying, passionate vernacular work at New York City Ballet, on the Ailey company, and, at BAM, on his own remarkable troupe of actor/dancers. For the first time, the busy bi-coastal artist includes dances by other choreographers in A.I.M’s repertoire. In addition to his own new Our Indigo: If We Were a Love Song, to songs by Nina Simone; a duet called MotoRover responding to Merce Cunningham’s Landrover; and 5 Minute Dance (You Drivin’?), the program offers the New York company premiere of Bebe Miller’s Rain, to Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras #5, and a new work, Uproot: love and legacy, by company alum Maleek Washington, with live music. Hurry and book; tickets are almost gone.

April 4-9 at the Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Ave. at W. 19th St.). Runtime: Approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes, including one intermission. For info and tickets ($10-$75), call 212-242-0800 or click here to visit the Joyce website. For A.I.M info, click here.

MOVEMENT AT THE STILL POINT | The moment A.I.M leaves the Joyce stage, a unique (and related) event takes it over. During the pandemic, many artists, not just dancers, were left stranded.  Celebrity photographer Mark Mann, a high-profile Scot who’s been shooting in New York for almost 30 years, was depressed and underemployed in 2021 when his sister-in-law, choreographer Loni Landon, hooked him up with dancers at a studio in a West Side warehouse. Most, like him, had been idle for nearly a year. They showed up with music and a variety of garments, and lent their gorgeous bodies, and some of their thoughts, to a coffee-table book project, Movement at the Still Point—which, the producers say, will share the proceeds equally among all 142 subjects.

These range from recent Juilliard grad Ricardo Hartley III, a ballet dancer now working in Holland, through emerging artists in hip-hop and related dance forms, to nonagenarian stars like Carmen de Lavallade and Chita Rivera (who wrote the Foreword!). Kyle Abraham and his troupe are prominently featured. And instead of a standard book launch, the beautiful $60 volume, which weighs in at more than six pounds, is being transformed into a one-night only show at the Joyce, featuring some 50 of the dancers involved.

April 10, 7:30pm at the Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Ave. at W. 19th St.). Runtime: One hour and 30 minutes with no intermission. For info and tickets, call 212-242-0800 or click here to visit the Joyce website. Tickets start at $75. Limited VIP tickets include a signed book by select dancers, a cocktail reception, and a portrait by Mann. Books available for purchase on-site. To pre-order, click here.

FAYE DRISCOLL | Working internationally for nearly 15 years, Driscoll has a sure hand with solitary, personal performance and manipulating large groups. Her psychologically astute, deeply emotional projects call forth language like “ground-breaking” and “genre-eliding,” she’s won every award the dance world offers, and has choreographed works for playwright Young Jean Lee. She describes her new Weathering as a “multi-sensory flesh sculpture made of bodies, sounds, scents, liquids, and objects.” The cast of 10, guided along the way by an “intimacy coordinator,” embodies Driscoll’s exploration, during her two years as Live Arts’ resident commissioned artist, of the forces of battle and desire.

April 6-8 and 13-15, 7:30pm, at New York Live Arts (219 W. 19th St. btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). For info and tickets ($32-50), call 212-691-6500, or click here to visit the New York Live Arts website. For artist info, click here.

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