In Praise of Light
France-based Compagnie Hervé Koubi returned to the Joyce after four years to perform its latest evening-length work, “Sol Invictus.”
FREE ARTICLEWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
France-based Compagnie Hervé Koubi returned to the Joyce after four years to perform its latest evening-length work, “Sol Invictus.”
FREE ARTICLEDressed in hot pink ruffles and five-inch heels, a tiara perched on his shaved head, Arthur Aviles entered the stage as Maéva, a “Latino ghetto matriarch,” who launched into rapid fire Spanglish as a welcome to the Abrons Art Center audience for “Naked Vanguard: Works.”
Continue ReadingÉpoustouflant! Indeed, breathtaking is the word for Diavolo|Architecture in Motion’s world premiere, “Existencia,” the 70-minute commissioned work seen at the Soraya for two performances in mid-January.
Continue ReadingHow does a gifted choreographer become an artist? I thought about this question a lot after seeing “Blooming Flowers and the Full Moon,” former ODC/Dance member Natasha Adorlee’s first full-length piece.
Continue ReadingI was nowhere near the Theater District last week, yet I saw a variety of Broadway-inspired dancing.
Continue ReadingPacking 31 performances into just over two weeks, San Francisco Ballet’s “Nutcracker” season is a grueling marathon for the corps dancers, and at the same time a field of opportunity for rising talents.
FREE ARTICLE“Love and Legacy”—a fitting title to honour the end of Li Cunxin’s tenure as artistic director at Queensland Ballet.
FREE ARTICLEIt may be unusual to imagine an ostrich in New York City, but it's certainly not unbelievable. New York's not all pigeons and rats.
FREE ARTICLE“Century,” Amy Hall Garner’s joyful new work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was crafted as a present for her grandfather on the eve of his 100th birthday. Such a personal gesture is unusual for a guest choreographer, but birthday ballets are certainly not out of place at the AAADT.
Continue ReadingIsadora Duncan. Doris Humphrey. Pauline Lawrence. These are the spirits invoked by artistic director Dante Puleio for “Women’s Stories.”
Continue ReadingThe Sarasota Ballet is nothing if not ambitious. Under the artistic leadership of Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri, the company has performed large nineteenth-century works like “La Sylphide” and “Giselle,” but also major works by Frederick Ashton like “La Fille Mal Gardée” and assorted ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, Antony Tudor, Paul Taylor, and George Balanchine.
Continue ReadingIn one corner of the black-box stage, three musicians adjust their instruments: drums, double bass, clarinet. As each performer enters barefoot, they set down a pair of sneakers with toes lined against the back wall.
Continue ReadingWatching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...
Continue ReadingThe choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.
Continue ReadingBeneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.
Continue ReadingAfter a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.
Continue ReadingAn “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.
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