Dancing in Circular Time
Amrita Hepi, a choreographer with Bunjalung and Ngāpuhi roots, has come a long way from her home in the Pacific.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of catching a perfectly shaped, humorous dance vignette of two dancers with two chairs, set to the first movement of Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor. It was both playful and choreographically complex. This duet has since, in the words of its choreographer Katie Armstrong, grown arms and legs. “Sketches” now encompasses four dancers performing the whole concerto, intertwined with specially composed sound from DJ, composer and improviser Mariam Rezaei and performed live by a string quintet. There is also a concurrent film project, which has been both created within and shown throughout this last tour throughout Scotland. Sounding complex? Well, funnily enough . . .
Amrita Hepi, a choreographer with Bunjalung and Ngāpuhi roots, has come a long way from her home in the Pacific.
Continue ReadingSir Kenneth MacMillan began his choreography for “Manon” with the pas de deux, and from this shining, central point spun outward. Building the story from its heart, almost as if from the inside out, the pas de deux reveals not only the emotional connection between the two dancers, but their place in the world.
Continue ReadingIf the ballet world now seems inundated with Dracula productions, Frankenstein adaptations are a rarer sight.
Continue ReadingIt’s amusing to read in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s generally exceptional program notes that George Balanchine choreographed the triptych we now know as “Jewels” because he visited Van Cleef & Arpels and was struck by inspiration. I mean, perhaps visiting the jeweler did further tickle his imagination, but—PR stunt, anyone?
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