Sarah Kaufman’s best dance of 2011

New takes on old standards characterized many of the year’s best dance performances. Lucinda Childs’s minimalist work from the 1970s gained new life, while Merce Cunningham’s company went out in a blaze. “Giselle” attained new luster from a single ballerina, and an aging ballerina proved she has yet more luster to give. In chronological order, here are the performances that successfully delivered that most wondrous benefit of the arts: discovery. — Sarah Kaufman

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10. Merce Cunningham Dance Company, in its final performance at the Kennedy Center this month.

The pioneering troupe took its final bow here with a raft of works that testified to the wit, passion and power of Cunningham’s art. Indelible memories were made. And, after “Sounddance,” ears might still be ringing.

Stephanie Berger /

9. Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia, at Lisner Auditorium in November.

At 48, the internationally renowned Ananiashvili has lost none of her verve and charm, which she proved in a performance with a group of talented young dancers she has groomed to represent her homeland.

Gene Schiavone / AP

8. Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, at Wolf Trap in August.

Brown’s dancers possess one of the most pleasing aesthetics out there, a movement vocabulary of rolling fluidity and great warmth. But in a piece about resistance called “Incidents,” Brown showed us they are just as magnetic standing still.

Teddy Wolff

7. Karen Reedy Dance, at Dance Place in July.

The local troupe’s program was especially notable for including not only fine works by its director but also those by the late Eric Hampton and Karla Wolfangle.

Lois Greenfield

6. The Royal Danish Ballet’s “Napoli” and “A Folk Tale,” at the Kennedy Center in June.

Artistic Director Nikolaj Huebbe took some real risks with these reworked productions — especially in the hot-tempered 1950s setting of “Napoli” — resulting in provocative new dimensions for the classic Bournonville ballets.

Costin Radu

5. Lucinda Childs’s “Dance,” at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in April.

The modern-dance choreographer’s 1979 collaboration with composer Philip Glass and visual artist Sol LeWitt swept audiences away with its maximum minimalism, a feast of subtle changes and unflagging energy.

Susan Biddle / For The Washington Post

4. New York City Ballet in Balanchine’s black-and-white works, at the Kennedy Center in April.

Call Balanchine a tutu-burner: Grouped together, his stark, intimate leotard ballets such as “Duo Concertant” and “Apollo” prompted comparisons to the unadorned and uncorseted fashion trends of the 1960s and ’70s.

Paul Kolnik

3. Madhavi Mudgal and Alarmel Valli, at the Kennedy Center in March.

In “Samanvaya,” these two engaging women combined odissi and bharatanatyam dance styles into a portrait of feminine charm and iron firmness.

Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post

2. Shantala Shivalingappa, at the Kennedy Center in March.

This engrossing kuchipudi dancer was like a one-woman commedia dell’arte troupe, shifting among characters and time periods in her evening-length work, “Swayambhu.”

Gerald Martineau / For The Washington Post

1. Diana Vishneva in the Mariinsky Ballet’s production of “Giselle,” at the Kennedy Center in February.

Vishneva’s deeply moving performance was all the more magnificent for its subtle brush strokes. In the first act, her portrayal of the title role’s super-sensitive village girl revealed a fragile constitution pushed beyond its limit. In the second act’s spirit realm, Giselle’s ghost gradually warmed from cold numbness to a remembrance of love and, finally, to strength in the face of fate. Best of all, Vishneva added new layers to a familiar tale.

Susan Biddle / For The Washington Post

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