Looking Back, Moving Forward
One of the most important questions for any director who inherits a dance company from its founding choreographer is how to keep the repertory alive.
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Jennifer Archibald, On the Pulse
Jennifer Archibald’s choreography credits extend from ballet companies to commercial work, reflecting her signature ability to blend classical dance with hip hop.
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Counting on It
Listening to John Cage’s “Three Dances (for prepared piano)” is a wonderfully contradictory experience. The composer disrupts our auditory expectations by placing an assortment of small objects such as erasers, screws, and bolts, among the piano strings. A musician plays the piano in the typical manner, but instead of a harmonic tone, we hear more percussive sounds of kettle drums, timpani, xylophone, tin cans, even bells. One can imagine how an artist like Lucinda Childs, who was part of the Judson Dance Theater radicals in the ‘60s, might be attracted to such a composition. The choreographer is perhaps best known...
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Harper Watters, On his Toes
If ballet and politics were ever a thing, Houston Ballet principal Harper Watters is, perhaps, one of its staunchest advocates.
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Motivation for Moving
Petite in stature, with beautiful, delicate features, Scottish dance artist Suzi Cunningham is nonetheless a powerhouse performer: an endless shape shifter whose work ranges from eerie to strange, to poignant, or just absolutely hilarious.
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Pig Ghosts and the Irish Renaissance
Oona Doherty is a choreographer that increasingly needs no introduction. The London-born Belfast native, who worked as a dancer across Europe, roared onto the scene as a choreographer with her solo work “Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus,” a searing examination of masculine culture that had the contemporary dance world abuzz.
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Trajal Harrell, A Way of Moving
In a career spanning almost 30 years, American dancer-choreographer Trajal Harrell has created a body of work borne of a rich imagination and an enquiring mind.
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A New Memory
In 2017 Virginie Mécène reimagined the lost Martha Graham solo “Ekstatis.” A review from that Martha Graham Dance Company premiere ended with a strong vote of confidence from critic Gia Kourlas: “Ms. Mécène should keep going.”
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Arc of Life
On one of the first spring-like days this year in NYC, I arrive at Barnard College to observe rehearsal for John Jasperse’s new piece, “Tides,” which will open the LaMama Moves! Dance Festival on April 10.
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Can't Topp the Feeling
Houston Ballet has announced its vibrant programme for 2025-2026, with luminary contemporary ballet choreographer, Alice Topp, formerly of the Australian Ballet and the Royal New Zealand Ballet as a headliner.
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Shamel Pitts, Part of the TRIBE
Talk about having a banner year! In 2024 alone, dancer, choreographer and spoken word artist Shamel Pitts not only received a MacArthur Fellowship and the Doris Duke Award, but was also honored with the Knight Choreography Prize.
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A Century of Moderns
Sara Veale’s new book Wild Grace: The Untamed Women of Modern Dance (Faber & Faber) examines the lives of nine boldly subversive dancemakers over nearly a century, starting with Isadora Duncan and ending with Pearl Lang. Along the way, it provides a pared but potent mini-history on the emergence of women’s rights.
FREE ARTICLEFeatured Reads
Firebird Rising
Long before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.
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Rare Birds
It is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.
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The Spring is Blooming festival, by Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, now in its fifth year, has become a highlight of the spring dance circuit.
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Jack of Hearts
As the audience come to their feet at the end of this ballet there is a noted difference to be seen on stage. Three women stand with joined hands, taking their call as the romantic leads of a loud and proud lesbian ballet.
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School Report
One of San Francisco Ballet’s greatest assets is its home venue, the Beaux-Arts style War Memorial Opera House, with four rings of seating that require performers to project their energies practically to the exosphere.
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