Ballets Jazz Montréal: Dance Me - The Music of Leonard Cohen

Ballets Jazz Montréal brings Dance Me to the Zellerbach Theatre at the Annenberg Center on Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24. It's a dance production built around the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen, the Montreal-born songwriter who gave the company his blessing for the show during his lifetime. The performance runs 75 minutes without intermission, and the Philadelphia stop is part of the center's 26/27 season dance series.

Dance Me follows the five stages of existence Cohen traced through his songs and poems. The choreography comes from three international choreographers—Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Ihsan Rustem—and the whole thing is staged by Eric Jean with 14 dancers on stage. It's a multidisciplinary blend of dance, music, video, and lighting, and the company held the exclusive dance rights to Cohen's work for five years. The show first found its audience in 2019, and this is its final tour, so it's one of the last chances to see it.

Among the songs you'll recognize are some of Cohen's most well-known, like "Hallelujah" and "Suzanne," reimagined here as part of a larger narrative rather than as standalone hits. The production is co-sponsored by Arthur Kaplan, C'67, Duane Perry, Lynn Jerath, W'95, and Kunal Jerath.

There are three performances: Friday, October 23, at 7:30 PM; Saturday, October 24, at 2:00 PM; and Saturday, October 24, at 7:30 PM. Tickets run from $67 to $110. If you go on Friday, there's a post-show conversation with the artists after the performance.