Spring brings a vibrant season of arts performances, celebrating renewal and creativity. Here’s a roundup of major arts events happening across Seattle this spring.

Dance

One of the buzziest performances to hit the Pacific Northwest Ballet stage in years, Crystal Pite’s Emergence returns on March 14, sharing the bill with the late Jerome Robbins’ neoclassical duet Afternoon of a Faun, Marco Goecke’s solo work Mopey, and a world premiere from PNB dancer and choreographer Price Suddarth. Staged at McCaw Hall, Emergence runs now through March 23.

Crystal Pite’s Emergence at the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

For its annual Spring 25 show, local contemporary dance company Whim W’Him is bringing three new creations to Seattle, including from its founder, artistic director, and award-winning choreographer Olivier Wevers. The set includes new works from LED’s artistic director and cofounder Lauren Edson and choreographer Mark Caserta. Performances will take place at Cornish Playhouse (May 9-17) and Vashon Center for the Arts (May 15).

Velocity Dance Center has two must-see shows this spring: the world premiere of Once Upon A Time in a Place Called NOWhere, by Keyes and the Nogooddoers, running for two weekends (March 27-29 and April 3-5) at 12th Avenue Arts, and Dani Tirrell’s much-anticipated Elysium, Leviticus Or Love to Walk Amongst the Humans! Book II, commissioned at On the Boards and performed May 29-31 at Kubota Gardens.

Another On the Boards commission is Super Nothing, a piece choreographed by New York artist and performer Miguel Gutierrez that looks at the relationship between the process of art-making and life outside the studio. The work runs May 1-3 at On the Boards in the Uptown neighborhood.

Super Nothing, a quartet of performers choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez.

Photo courtesy of Miguel Gutierrez

Over at Meany Center for the Performing Arts, a plethora of shows are slated for this spring. From Alonzo King LINES Ballet (April 3-5) to Complexions Contemporary Ballet (May 8-10), the dance representation is strong, and when it comes to music, piano, percussion, and world beats are sure to thrill a wide range of audiences.

Up north, Olympic Ballet Theatre is combining the old with the new, featuring excerpts from La Bayadere by Marius Petipa and 1 in 10^2,685,000 by company dancer Alberto Gaspar at Edmonds Center for the Arts on April 12 and 13.

Visual Art

This spring is a busy time for the visual arts, especially at the city’s biggest institution, Seattle Art Museum, where the much-anticipated Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei opens on March 12, looking at the career of the rebel Chinese artist. Hitting an Ai Weiwei triple play, the organization will show the LEGO-based Water Lilies at the Seattle Asian Art Museum (March 19, 2025-March 15, 2026), and 12 of his bronze zodiac heads at Olympic Sculpture Park (May 17, 2025-May 17, 2027).

Another not-to-miss SAM show is Tariqa Waters: Venus is Missing, which will feature new, immersive work from the 2023 Betty Bowen Award Winner (May 7, 2025–Jan. 5, 2026).

UW’s Henry Art Gallery Josh Faught: Sanctuary runs through Aug. 3), displaying the artist’s multi-media works that include weaving and found objects to explore queer culture and craft traditions.

Already open (and running through Jan. 4, 2026), Tacoma Art Museum’s Echoes of the Floating World focuses on the influence of Japan’s ukiyo-e wood-block prints on contemporary Pacific Northwest art.

Echoes of the Floating World exhibit.

Photo courtesy of Tacoma Art Museum

Another big hitter, the National Nordic Museum, opens its newest exhibition runs through June 8). Anne-Karin Furunes: Illuminating Nordic Archives will show the artist’s landscape paintings inspired by photography of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago.

At the Frye Art Museum, two new exhibitions are up this spring: Dawn Cerny: Portmeirion (through June 22) and Alex Katz: Theater and Dance (through–June 8), the latter featuring the painter’s collaboration with choreographers, and the former, an installation of Cerny’s colorful sculpture.

Music

Seattle’s always been a music town, and those looking for some great jazz have a handful of options: from a packed calendar at downtown’s Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley to West Seattle’s The Alley (featuring live jazz on Sundays and Mondays), while the 28th annual Hot Java, Cool Jazz puts next-gen talent on the stage for one night (March 28) at the Paramount Theatre.

Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley.

For one afternoon only (March 29) the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Passionate and Fascinating:” Schumann’s Fourth will play at Benaroya Hall, opening with the U.S. premiere of Suite para Orquesta by Spanish composer Rosa García Ascot.

Starting on April 6 (and running through May 18), the Seattle Men’s Chorus will kick up its boots in a can’t-help-but-sing-along tribute to Dolly Parton. Titled Dolly — and including fan favorites such as Jolene and Islands in the Stream — the show will travel to theaters around the region.

Theater/Performing Arts

As we head out of winter, Seattle Rep is presenting two must-see plays. The world premiere of Mother Russia (through-April 6) sees two bumbling friends working retail after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the comedic caper that looks at familial relationships in the face of crisis, Laughs in Spanish (April 17-May 11).

Catch an American classic at Taproot Theatre, which is mounting a production of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 masterwork, A Raisin in the Sun (March 19-April 19). The play follows the Younger family as it moves from a tiny apartment into a home in a historically white neighborhood — and the tensions and trials that follow.

One of Seattle’s oldest fringe venues, Annex Theatre, has two mainstage shows this spring. Starting in March (the show runs through April 12), Blue to Blue is a story that looks at loss, coping with it, and the ways in which peace can suddenly arrive. Alice in Arabialand sees three friends leave their small college town to multiple countries in the Arab world so that one of them can finish her doctoral thesis about Arab LGBTQ cultures. A series of misadventure ensues.

The Things Around Us, a solo musical and narrative performance by Ahamefule J. Oluo.

Photo courtesy of Ahamefule J. Oluo

In his latest live show, The Things Around Us, Seattle’s own multidisciplinary artist, Ahamefule J. Oluo, layers live music and spoken word at Capitol Hill’s Broadway Performance Hall. Presented by Intiman Theatre, Oluo layers musical styles (jazz, Nigerian hi-life, experimental electronic) and darkly funny stories for an evening meant to make us understand ourselves — and those around us — more deeply. Running April 24-May 4.