The Power and the Beauty

This work has more steps that say "modern dance" than the other pieces on the company's programs, but any swing or thrust of a straight leg with pointed toe has a passionate impetus, and the women deliver every move as if it were part of a fervent dialogue.

It's great that Urban Bush Women has found a home at the city's newest performing center, Dance New Amsterdam. DNA's lobby, seven studios, and small, well-appointed black-box theater—project architect, Michael Nieminen—are fitted into a huge building behind City Hall. Designed in 1846 as a dry goods emporium, it housed the old New York Sun during the city's newspaper heyday. In these years of escalating rents and lost spaces, it's a welcome addition to the cultural scene.