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REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

Fire-eater

Coloured fanciful and utterly distorted, the window onto the world, trumpeted the circus of former glory: Let me show you the fantastical, long-necked “cameleopard”[note]The “cameleopard” turned out to be a giraffe, as the mysteries of the world moved from the ‘discovered’ realm of explorers to the big top’s window on the world.[/note] of yore; behold “300 dancing girls in entrancing revels.”[note]Ringling Brothers advertisement from 1913 in Dominique Jando, “Wonders of the World Await You,” The Circus 1870s–1950s, ed. Noel Daniel, (Germany: Taschen, 2010), 111[/note] The promise of “the marvels of many nations,”[note]The world map depicted on W. W. Cole’s 1881 circus courier...

REVIEWS | By Erica Getto

Playing to Win

We could be watching children flit across an imagined stage, constructing a mock performance for their elders or, perhaps, their porcelain dolls. The six dancers here are innocent—ignorant, even. They stretch their arms and snap their fingers. They are focused on perfecting their practice. But they are not trying to charm each other—yet.

INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Art of Falling

With 24 dancers and six actors, “The Art of Falling,” a collaboration between Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the improvisational comedy troupe, the Second City, is not only startlingly original, but, in a way, unclassifiable.

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Americana

Paying homage to American composers, a new program of five ballets, titled “Americana x Five” and presented as part of New York City Ballet’s fall season at Lincoln Center, covered an impressively broad range of choreographic and musical styles and moods—from classical to modern to Broadway.

REVIEWS | By Penelope Ford

Paradise Found

On this evening at the Citadel, the audience were turned longways; the brick wall to our right. We looked from tiered seating to a small white square floor with a good number of coloured lights on the ceiling and at the edges. The set up is important because this performance was about memories, memories from childhood, and how you frame a memory can be everything.

REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

Craftwork

“The soul desires to dwell with the body because without the members of the body it can neither act nor feel.” –Leonardo da Vinci

REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

Wild and Free

Finding my seat at Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company’s “Decadance,” the performance has already begun. In his own private world, on the stage of the State Theatre, Shamel Pitts, in a loose black suit and untucked white shirt, is dancing and I am so glad I have arrived with enough time to catch his playful, loose-kneed, liquid groove. To the side-to-side sway of early samba and late ’50s bossa nova, his moves call to mind how we might all dance if no one were watching. It is the contented, inward, and liberated dance of getting ready for a party,...

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Hourglass Figures

A kind of transcendent, spiritual healing took place over the weekend when Paris-based Sankai Juku, an eight-member troupe founded by Ushio Amagatsu in 1975—the master is still dancing at 66—wove a spell over those audience members who allowed themselves to be enveloped by a work about time, memory, the body and ritual. Visceral as well as highly cerebral, the 80-minute intermissionless “Umusuna” (it premiered in 2012 in Lyon, France), is a testament to humankind in all of its iterations.

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Love and the Waltz

Throughout his life George Balanchine had a special affinity for the waltz. In his early works such as “Valse Fantaisie” and “Serenade,” and later in his mature pieces, especially in “La Valse” and “Vienna Waltzes,” and finally in “Davidsbündlertänze,” he imbued the waltz with dramatic meaning, bringing this popular social dance form to new emotional highs.

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Keeping Time

An ubiquitous presence on the cultural scene for many decades, Bill T. Jones, at 63, has conquered Broadway, winning Tonys for “Fela!” and “Spring Awakenings,” as well as the world’s most elite concert halls. Snagging boatloads of awards along the way, including last year’s Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, several Bessies, and a 2010 Kennedy Center Honor, he has also been the artistic director of New York Live Arts since 2011.

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Vish Fulfilment

Is there anything prima ballerina Diana Vishneva cannot do? Having recently turned 39, this reigning Goddess of the dance world (one who also commissions works made expressly for her), seems to be at the height of her powers—physically, emotionally and, possibly even spiritually—as she infuses every step, every swoop of her arms, indeed, her entire being, with breathtaking beauty, grace and a generous humanity.

FEATURES | By Sara Veale

The Cult of Fragility

One of the greatest challenges—and for me, joys—of being a dance critic is navigating the not infrequent clash between contemporary values and those embraced in classical ballet, a centuries-old institution that venerates ‘tradition’ in all its old-world, patriarchal glory. How should a world increasingly concerned with racial diversity respond to an establishment that in 2015 remains overwhelmingly white? How can an art form that worships prescriptive gender roles address the growing call for LGBT inclusivity? What messages of value can women divine from stories that glorify female fragility and are primarily written and directed by men?

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching 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,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

Beneath 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.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After 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.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.