Unbind Your Imagination: TITAS/Dance Unbound invites global dance into Dallas for 2025-26 season

Lindsey Wilson·
Dallas/Ft WorthDance
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For TITAS/Dance Unbound’s 2025-26 season, the math is undeniably impressive: 10 companies from five different countries, among them two debuts (one U.S. and one Texas) and two world premieres.

“The season checks a lot of boxes, that’s for sure,” says executive and artistic director Charles Santos. “TITAS is really focused on global cultural diversity, but what remains at the base of everything is artistic excellence. That is always our number-one deciding factor when bringing in a company to Dallas.”

Of equal importance is the idea of “be in the room.” TITAS developed this mantra following the pandemic to entice audiences back into the theater for shared experiences, and still asserts that nothing replaces the magic and connection of in-person performance. Santos’s tagline also generated ACTX’s March/April cover feature, which chronicled tales of “being in the room.” “It’s something that can’t be duplicated, streamed, replayed, or replicated,” explains Santos. “You just have to be there.”

Patrons of TITAS have come to expect and appreciate bold, breathtaking performances that ignite the imagination and stir the soul. Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE has spent the last 40 years doing exactly that, and now the Brooklyn-based dance company is returning to the Winspear Opera House on September 12, 2025, six years after its last visit.

“Ronald is such an important American choreographer. Period,” says Santos. “The work explores the importance of community in African American culture, offering a deeply soulful evening of dance that everyone should experience.”

Ballet Preljocaj, founded and run by Angelin Preljocaj in Aix-en-Provence, France, last visited Dallas in 1998, three years before Santos joined TITAS. He says he has communicated often with the company over the years, but the stars didn’t align for their return visit until now. The bold and boundary-pushing company of 30 dancers will present GRAVITÉ on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2025 at Moody Performance Hall.

Next is Anne Plamondon Danse, a Canadian troupe making its U.S. debut Nov. 7-8, 2025, also at the Moody. “Every year we look for a ‘discovery company’ that’s breaking into the touring scene,” Santos explains. “Last year it was Whim W’Him, and this year it’s Anne.”

After spending 20 years performing on international stages with such companies as Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and RUBBERBAND (for which she was co-artistic director for nearly a decade), Plamondon took the leap into choreography in 2012. Now, Dallas audiences will get to experience “her great vocabulary of movement and genuine emotional depth,” says Santos. “She’ll be a surprise hit.”

On Dec. 13, 2025, a seamless blend of contemporary dance with Chinese opera, mythology, and Tai Chi will mesmerize the Winspear Opera House when Taiwan’s HUNG DANCE presents Birdy. The company’s name in Chinese literally means “to fly,” and this world premiere—originally meant for last season, before visas and logistics halted the plan—probes the profound connections between humans and nature. Support from the Crow Museum of Asian Art of the University of Texas has also made this performance possible.

TITAS’ previous season took audiences to Spain for two nights with Noche Flamenca’s Searching for Goya, and Santos is eager to continue exploring Spanish works through Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. Spotlighting acclaimed dancer Sergio Bernal and backed by musicians and flamenco dancers flown in from Spain, this U.S.-based company is making its Dallas debut Feb. 6-7, 2026, at Moody Performance Hall.

Crowd favorites BODYTRAFFIC (March 20-21, 2026) and Complexions Contemporary Ballet (April 4, 2026) return, along with season add-on MOMIX (June 6, 2026).

After dazzling with its wildly inventive and grotesquely beautiful interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights two seasons ago, Canada’s Compagnie Marie Chouinard is back. This time, the visually stunning troupe, which Santos calls “one of the most important choreographers out of Canada, ever,” presents Magnificat, Chouinard’s latest creation, along with her legendary Rite of Spring on May 1-2, 2026, at Moody Performance Hall. This also marks the reintroduction of the TITAS/Unfiltered series, which bears the tagline, “If you’re easily offended, don’t come.”

The season is bookended by another Brooklyn company, this one making its Texas debut May 29-30, 2026, at the Moody. Founded by Andrea Miller in 2007, GALLIM is known for its interdisciplinary dance theater and site-specific works at such venues as the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“GALLIM’s SAMA is a powerhouse of a performance: bold, physical, and absolutely astonishing,” says Santos. “It’s got this tribal energy, with dancers on stilts, others grounded barefoot, all moving through a world where the body becomes something more, something beyond. It’s new, it’s cool, it’s daring, it’s electric—and it is exactly why live performance is so thrilling.”

As is tradition, Command Performance will fill the Winspear on April 18, 2026, for “the pyrotechnics of dance.” The fundraising performance and gala attracts dance lovers from around Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond, all thrilled to see artists from leading companies perform works by some of the world’s most iconic choreographers (think Twyla Tharp, Mia Michaels, and William Forsythe). In 2025, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders made a surprise appearance that wowed the crowd. Could they return in 2026? Like everything that TITAS/Dance Unbound does, it’s best to expect the unexpected.

—LINDSEY WILSON

Lindsey Wilson

Lindsey Wilson is a Dallas-based arts writer and critic with a journalism master's from Syracuse University and an undying love for chips and salsa. When not at the theater (which is rare), she enjoys reading, playing with her dogs, and traveling. Photo by Jeffrey Hummel.