Hidden Worlds
“Circle Electric” makes a magnifying glass of the stage, and places different dancers in different configurations in the spotlight with the intention of observing them and thereupon making inquiries.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Measured against his own criteria, French dance maker Jérôme Bel would seem a failure. In the eponymously named show that opened the L’Alliance New York Crossing the Line Festival last week, Bel professes he has no desire to entertain an audience.
Continue ReadingAs the fight for greater visibility for women choreographers continues, it was encouraging to see Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, commission an all-female creative team for “Luna,” the final piece in his trilogy celebrating the company’s hometown.
Continue ReadingThe Fall for Dance Festival programming formula runs roughly thus: feature a new troupe, include a pet (or vanity) project of a big NYC star, and end with a feel-good group showcase.
Continue Reading“Circle Electric” makes a magnifying glass of the stage, and places different dancers in different configurations in the spotlight with the intention of observing them and thereupon making inquiries.
Continue ReadingHe is the love of your life. You are his one-and-only. The pair of you is doomed: Obligations to the social order make your relationship impossible. The only way out—double suicide. Actually, this being eighteenth-century Japan, you let him literally do it all; still, you are his forever and there...
Continue Reading“Circle Electric” makes a magnifying glass of the stage, and places different dancers in different configurations in the spotlight with the intention of observing them and thereupon making inquiries.
Continue ReadingAcross North Africa, the all-night music-dance-trance ritual called lila (pronounced lee-lah) is celebrated as a means for spiritual healing.
FREE ARTICLEThe Fall for Dance Festival programming formula runs roughly thus: feature a new troupe, include a pet (or vanity) project of a big NYC star, and end with a feel-good group showcase.
Continue ReadingAs the fight for greater visibility for women choreographers continues, it was encouraging to see Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, commission an all-female creative team for “Luna,” the final piece in his trilogy celebrating the company’s hometown.
Continue ReadingHe is the love of your life. You are his one-and-only. The pair of you is doomed: Obligations to the social order make your relationship impossible. The only way out—double...
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Measured against his own criteria, French dance maker Jérôme Bel would seem a failure. In the eponymously named show that opened the L’Alliance New York Crossing the Line Festival last week, Bel professes he has no desire to entertain an audience.
Continue ReadingIt’s a new era at Smuin Contemporary Ballet, but incoming artistic director Amy Seiwert was still invoking her old boss pre-curtain as the company toured its first program under her leadership to the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek.
FREE ARTICLEI have a confession. Until last week, I had never seen “Coppélia.” I know the story well, however, and a young me performed many approximations of Swanilda’s role alone in my bedroom, thanks to a beloved and well-worn copy of The Illustrated Book of Ballet Stories, a book and cassette combo narrated by Darcey Bussell.
Continue ReadingThe second program of the New York City Ballet’s fall season was called “Eclectic NYCB” and it lived up to its billing. It featured a second-tier Balanchine work, a Jerome Robbins crowd-pleaser, and two heartfelt pas de deux acquired from outside dance festivals—one a company premiere.
Continue ReadingNew York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival continued with programs featuring Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a world premiere duet performed by Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo, and a tap tribute...
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This past July, the newly resurrected London City Ballet opened its first season since 1996 with a program of rarely seen works and new choreographies.
Continue ReadingImagine a large net stretched across the vast expanse of our world system studded with an infinitely faceted jewel at each intersection.
Continue ReadingA smoky, orange hue hovers over the stage like wildfire smoke. A woman emerges from the flame, floating erect atop a crawling man’s back. She bends her knees and dismounts, arriving center stage, delivered to the audience like a queen.
Continue ReadingLast night I went to my first show of New York City’s jam-packed fall dance season, and though I never floated outside of the space-time continuum, I did feel invigorated by the New York City Ballet’s excellent opening program.
Continue ReadingEn Chalant,” Richmond Ballet artistic director Ma Cong said at the opening night of the company’s Studio Finale series on September 17th, “is the opposite of nonchalant.”
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Terry Beck first saw Hellmut Gottschild’s Zero Moving dance company as a student at Temple University in the ’70s. Beck was working towards a teaching degree in Special Education and took a work study gig as a glass box technician.
FREE ARTICLEWhether bending backwards as if channeling Paul Chavez’ otherworldly sounding music, or crouching down ever so slowly and quasi-teetering on the floor, dancer Roxanne Steinberg proved a master of the body.
Continue ReadingOn opening night of the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Oscar” at the Australian Ballet’s new home for the next three years, the Regent Theatre (as the State Theatre undergoes renovations), I am catapulted from September 13, 2024 to April 26, 1885, and the commencement of the trial of Oscar Wilde.
Continue ReadingHaving a dance company is always difficult. But founding a troupe and keeping it going for 25 years is even more challenging. Add to that the political, cultural and economic landscape of South Africa, and the odds might seem unsurmountable.
Continue ReadingNew York City Ballet concluded its 75th anniversary year with its traditional summer residency upstate at the amphitheater of Saratoga Springs’s Performing Arts Center (SPAC).
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