Caleb Stein’s excellent new book, “Down by the Hudson,” comes weighted down with text. His exhibition of some of its contents at Palo, in the East Village, keeps the focus of our attention on his black-and-white photographs, which hold it with a sense of ease that never undermines their moody soulfulness. Stein’s subject is the life in and around a swimming hole near Poughkeepsie, where the bodies are young, stripped down, and mostly male. The atmosphere is humid—not just sensual but erotic—and Stein is often close enough to touch. But his work’s power is in its restraint, so even when he’s looking at gnarled tree roots, a dangling hand, or the painterly reflections on water in motion, he’s never distracting us. He’s filling in the details, pulling us closer, and turning a show into an experience.—Vince Aletti (Through Oct. 3.)
Punk
For seven brilliant years in the nineties, the Washington punk-rock band Bikini Kill kicked up a ruckus as pioneers of the riot-grrrl movement. “When she walks, the revolution’s comin’,” Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer, howled on “Rebel Girl,” and the group seemed to embody that promise. Across six standout works (three LPs, two compilations, and an EP), the band burned bright and furious with white-hot indignation, etching feminist commandments onto bristling songs until it disbanded, in 1997. Its members didn’t play together again for two decades, but, since 2019, they’ve reconvened periodically for shows honoring a timeless back catalogue.—S.P. (Music Hall of Williamsburg; Sept. 24. Brooklyn Steel; Sept. 25. Under the K Bridge Park for CBGB Fest; Sept. 26.)
Dance
Chun Wai Chan, Sara Mearns, and KJ Takahashi in “Solitude,” by Alexei Ratmansky.Photograph by Erin Baiano
New York City Ballet’s season opens with a crowd-pleaser—“Jewels,” Balanchine’s evening-length exploration of French, American, and Russian ballet style—and ends with a farewell, for one of its most sophisticated dancers, Adrian Danchig-Waring. In week two, the company brings back Justin Peck’s “Pulcinella Variations,” a whimsical work set to Stravinsky, with fabulous, Matisse-like costumes by Tsumori Chisato. Peck will create a new pas de deux for the gala, on Oct. 1; the evening also features a new piece by the hip-hop-influenced choreographer Jennifer Archibald. Christopher Wheeldon’s elegant and mysterious “Continuum” returns, as does Alexei Ratmansky’s chilling “Solitude,” a response to the war in Ukraine.—Marina Harss (David H. Koch Theatre; Sept. 22-Oct. 18.)