Indra’s Vast Net
Imagine a large net stretched across the vast expanse of our world system studded with an infinitely faceted jewel at each intersection.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Imagine 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.”
FREE ARTICLETerry 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).
Continue ReadingThe inaugural Unite Ballet Festival, directed by Calvin Royal III, took place at the Joyce Theater from August 13-18, 2024.
FREE ARTICLEBefore digital audio, compact discs, cassette tapes with their ribbons of sound sandwiched within a small case, and pressed vinyl records, came wax cylinders to record and reproduce sound, thanks to Thomas Edison’s 1877 invention of the hand-cranked phonograph.
Continue ReadingFar from Southern Spain, but in the heart of Hollywood, that once monthly dance staple, “Forever Flamenco,” was alive and well again at the Fountain Theatre, if only for the month of August.
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.
Continue Reading