Notable 9 in dance in 2025: Classical, cultural and contemporary

In 2025, Atlanta’s dancers have brought forth great performances in contemporary dance, cultural celebrations and ballet. In addition to staging performances in traditional spaces such as auditoriums and theaters, dancers also transformed galleries, fields and even creek beds with innovative movement-based performances that continue to inspire and amaze. 

Some notable highlights of 2025 include Core Dance’s Sue Schroeder taking home the coveted first prize for Performance Art at the XV Florence Biennale 2025 for home, a collaboration with filmmaker Adam Larsen. Dancer Lenai Wilkerson, named as one of ArtsATL’s 2025 Ones to Watch, revived Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre’s Wabi Sabi Terminus dance series. At Kennesaw State University, a generous $10-million donation from the estate of the late Robert “Bob” S. Geer has set the institute on a path to becoming one of the largest arts training facilities in the Southeast. 

Following a year of fantastic performances, ranging in tone from serious to humorous and covering topics as varied as technology and mental health to classical mythology and cultural traditions, the opportunities to witness powerful dance performances abound. ArtsATL editors selected nine notable performances that stand out among the mix, showcasing the variety of ways that movement-based art can move us.

Dancing with robots: IEEE fuses automation and fine arts
Goat Farm and Rialto Center for the Arts

What do you get when dancers interact with AI-programming onstage? This year, we got a taste of the possibilities with medusai, a larger-than-life sculpture made of steel panels that interacted with, and responded to, the movements of dancers PhaeMonae and Nadya Zeitlin in a live performance at the Goat Farm. Meanwhile, drones and floor-mapping technology plus quips from a pint-sized robot took center stage at the Rialto Center for the Arts during the 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 

Flux Projects, Core Dance collaborate with nature for Braiding Time, Memory and Water
Tanyard Creek Park

In the spring, Core Dance’s Sue Schroeder collaborated with conceptual artist Jonathan Keats to bring together one of Core’s signature site-specific performances, which took place in and around Tanyard Creek in Buckhead. During the two-day performance of Braiding Time, Memory and Water, Keats stood atop a rock in the middle of the creek, measuring the speed of the water using a water clock (also known as a clepsydra) to set the speed for the dance performance taking place on the adjacent banks and footbridge. Internationally-recognized Mexican composer Felipe Pérez Santiago incorporated sounds from the creek into his score, adding yet another element of integration with the natural world into the final product.

KSU’s Double Exposure proves that private philanthropy can produce dynamic new works
Kennesaw State University Department of Dance

Double Exposure was choreographed by the internationally emerging Gianna Burright and Leandro Glory Damasco Jr. for the showcase performance of the Eleo Pomare–Glenn Conner Choreographic Residency. In the annual program, more than 90 applicants from around the globe were considered for the double bill, then narrowed down to four for the interview phase. Writer Robin Wharton described Burright’s Ever as opening to a “bucolic” scene wherein dancers interacted with a bright green turf, which at times served as a hillock atop which dancers perched, and at other moments served to partially obscure the dancers themselves through a series of vignettes. Meanwhile, Wharton described Damasco’s XXIV as “athletic and daring” and “emotionally rich,” with a raw story centered around an oversized pencil and paper, the performance drawing a standing ovation from the crowd. Wharton outlined how the disparate themes and aesthetics displayed in the showcase’s two fully produced pieces might seem in opposition to one another — but that the overall impact was to illustrate “how private philanthropy can support artists who push boundaries and defy easy categorization,” thereby elevating the global visibility of Atlanta’s college and university dance programs.

Review: MADFest celebrates Atlanta’s diversity through dance
Emory Performing Arts Studio

Since 1993, the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, also known as MADFest, has highlighted the diverse array of dance talent in the city. This year’s performance, as described by writer Jhazzmyn Joiner, was “tender,” “raw” and “mesmerizing.” The performances were choreographed by Full Radius Dance Director Douglas Scott; Haley Raye Schmitt of the Georgia Ballet; Kennesaw State University Associate Professor Andrea Knowlton; Jodie Jernigan; Isa Newport; and a joint project by Gregory Catellier and Kristin O’Neal, who we later featured in our Partners in the Arts series. As one of the only professionally juried dance festivals in the Southeast, MADFest serves an important role in funding performances, building community and providing opportunities for dancers across the city. 

Afrikan Djeli Cultural Institute and Afriky Lolo bring West African dance and culture to Atlanta
Tri-Cities High School in East Point

For the past 16 summers, the Afrikan Djeli Cultural Institute has brought together dancers, musicians and artists to celebrate the cultures of the African diaspora. In 2025, the finale was performed by the acclaimed Afriky Lolo, St. Louis’ premier West African Dance Company. The festival spanned three days and featured workshops in traditional Haitian, Afro-Cuban/Orisha, Sabar dance and more from the countries of Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast. This vibrant festival presented culturally authentic movement, enlisting dancers in stunning costumes that helped to preserve culture while introducing new audiences to traditional performances.

Review: Atlanta Ballet’s Rite of Spring isn’t beautiful. It’s sublime.
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

Claudia Shreier, the Atlanta Ballet’s choreographer in residence, presented a provocative performance in Rite of Spring. Set to Igor Stravinsky’s masterwork that was so powerful it once incited a riot in Paris prior to World War I, Shreier choreographed an uncanny, unnatural and unsettling performance that issued a dire warning of climate change as seen through the visceral struggle of humanity against nature’s awe-inspiring power. Through the choreography, Atlanta Ballet dancers expertly explored themes of crisis, despair, cruelty and desperation. Writer Robin Wharton described the work as “impassioned, gut-wrenching and heartbreaking,” confronting viewers with moves that evoked violence and horror while maintaining artistic integrity and technical excellence of the highest degree.

Connecting culture through dance at the Atlanta Afroindigenous Peoples Festival 
Auburn Avenue Research Library and Moving In The Spirit

For two sisters, Umi IMAN and Khadijah Siferllah, dance has been a lifelong means of connection: to one another, to their culture and to the world at large. Originally from Minneapolis, IMAN now calls Atlanta home, while Khadijah hails from New York City. This summer, the two launched the inaugural Atlanta Afroindigenous Peoples Festival, a two-day event with workshops, film screening, performances and a powwow. For those of Afroindigenous descent, as the sisters are, it can be difficult to find meaningful ways to connect with their indigenous roots. The Afroindigenous Peoples Festival provided a welcoming and inclusive space for Afroindigenous people to embrace their heritage with authenticity and pride. 

Fun and mischief in Balanchine’s Coppélia: an Atlanta Ballet premiere
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

In Balanchine’s Coppélia, former ArtsATL Senior Editor Gillian Anne Renault found none of the tragedies or doomed love affairs that are so often at the heart of narrative ballet. Instead, Renault saw how Balanchine used comedy and whimsy to tell the story of an eccentric toy maker, Dr. Coppélius, who created a lifelike mechanical doll and wished to bring it to life. The performance, brought to Atlanta by Atlanta Ballet Artistic Director Gennadi Nedvigin, was the largest production the company had ever performed. Enlisting the talents of 37 company dancers, 19 Atlanta Ballet 2 dancers and 35 academy students from Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education, the full-length story ballet played out in three acts. Renault reported that while Atlanta Ballet has performed multiple Balanchine works, Coppélia was “the only one that makes audiences laugh out loud.”

Giwayen Mata keeps the spirit of Kwanzaa alive through dance
Drew Charter School Junior Senior Academy

For more than 15 years, the all-women dance, percussion and vocal ensemble Giwayen Mata has put on an annual celebration of Kwanzaa in late December. From humble origins as a community jam session, Giwayen Mata was officially formed in 1993 and has grown into a flourishing organization that keeps tradition and history alive through dance and percussion. The annual Kwanzaa Freshii flagship program, now in its fourth year, is dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of the African diaspora through intergenerational performances and year-round workshops. Writer Joy Liburd sat in on a recent rehearsal and described the dancers as moving “with a divine air of freedom.”