The 2026–27 season is gearing up soon, with single tickets on sale August 4. Want to learn more about some of the performers coming to the Center for the Arts stage this year? Read on.
Compagnie HERVÉ KOUBI
There probably aren’t many people in the world who possess in-depth knowledge of both pharmacology and modern dance. But Hervé Koubi—whose latest work, Sol Invictus, will be on display at the Center for the Arts on October 24—is one of them.
Compagnie HERVÉ KOUBI is renowned for its kinetic, acrobatic beauty, and Koubi has received widespread acclaim for his riveting fusion of hip-hop, funk, and martial arts like capoeira. This success wasn’t inevitable though. Koubi once attended pharmacy school and his choice pursue a career in the arts required him to abandon his original plans for a steadier, more traditional job.
Fortunately for audiences and dance enthusiasts everywhere—his love of dance won out. Despite its intense physicality, Koubi’s choreography has an effortless, transcendent quality that often leads critics to compare it to poetry. The Santa Barbara Independent described the company’s work as “timeless” and “otherworldly." It may not be medicine, but Koubi’s artistic vision offers a different kind of healing. Sol Invictus, Marina Harss wrote in the New Yorker, “is animated by the unfashionable and romantic notion that a common humanity unites us all.”
Black Grace
When Neil Ieremia was founding his dance company in the mid nineties, he wasn’t sure what to call it. Eventually, he settled on “Black Grace”—a name everybody hated, he told an interviewer in 2018. “So that’s why I chose it,” he said. “Because I guess that’s us—going against the grain.”
When asked to explain its origins, Ieremia said that black was a complimentary slang term he and his friends used growing up in New Zealand. And grace was a quality a former ballet teacher repeatedly told him he lacked.
There will be no shortage of grace at the company’s performance at the Center for the Arts on January 30, along with rich storytelling and explosive physicality that defines Black Grace’s work. You can check out the video below, and get the inside scoop from two Black Grace dancers on how they learned to embrace the choreography that challenged and exhilarated them:
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Isata Kanneh-Mason
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra calls itself “a radical experiment in musical democracy.” Founded in 1972, the conductorless ensemble began a counterculture experiment that has survived, and thrived, for more than 50 years—and seen countless collaborations with composers (including Jessie Montgomery and Billy Childs), actors (including Christine Baranski and Liev Schreiber), and soloists (including Branford Marsalis, and Richard Goode).
On February 21, Orpheus will perform with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, who knows plenty about musical collaboration—the piano phenom is one of seven musically gifted siblings who provided the inspiration for their mother’s 2020 memoir House of Music.
Single tickets for these and all our other performances, including the special event with ARTS by George! benefit headliner Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra are available to purchase starting August 4. Subscriptions available for 3 or more Great Performances at Mason or Family Series events offer 15% savings, as well as no-fee ticket exchanges and more benefits. View the season calendar of events.