Trisha Brown Dance Company
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House; 1/30–2/02; 30 Lafayette Ave., nr. Ashland Pl., Ft. Greene; 718-636-4100
Brown, one of the preeminent living American choreographers,recently announced her retirement from dance-making: Her lasttwo works, Les Yeux et l’e and I’m going to toss my arms—if you catchthem they’re yours are premiered here, alongside early works likethe 1983 classic Set and Reset and Homemade.
Armitage Gone! Dance
New York Live Arts; 1/31–2/9 at 7:30 p.m.; 219 W. 19th St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-924-0077
Modern ballet innovator Karole Armitage’s exquisite company dances in the world premiere of her Mechanics of the Dance Machine, set to music by D.J.-composer Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergei).
Peak Performances
Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University; 1/31–2/3.; 1 Normal Ave., nr. College Ave.; 973-655-5112
Make the short trip to Jersey for the world premiere of theatrical wizard Robert Wilson’s opera Zinnias—The Life of Clementine Hunter, featuring music by Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon that blends southern blues, traditional hymns and chants, and Zydeco.
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Carnegie Hall; 2/2 at 8 p.m. and 2/3 at 2 p.m.; 154 W. 57th St., at Seventh Ave.; 212-247-7800
Beethoven’s music has been hitched to an astonishing range of causes. Daniel Barenboim and his ensemble of young Arab and Israeli musicians, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, begin a four-night Beethoven festival devoted to those old idealistic harmonies that might ignite new concord in the Middle East.
Salomé Chamber Orchestra
The Metropolitan Museum of Art; 2/2 at 7 p.m.; 1000 Fifth Ave, at 82nd St.; 212-879-5500
Members of the young local Salomé Chamber Orchestra join with guest artists including violinists Daniel Hope and Philippe Quint for a program during which they’ll perform Piazzola’s and Vivaldi’s dual takes on The Four Seasons, using instruments from the Sau-Wing Lam Collection of Rare Italian Stringed Instruments.
Buglisi Dance Theatre
Joyce Theater; 2/5–2/10; 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St.; 212-242-0800
Former Martha Graham principal Jacqulyn Buglisi’s fierce company returns for its twentieth-anniversary season: Highlights include an appearance by ballet greats Charles Askegard and Martine van Hamel in Caravaggio Meets Hopper, solo excerpts from Nacho Duato’s Arenal, and founding troupe member Terese Capucilli in roles she created in Suspended Women and Requiem.