World-class review of ballet and dance.
With its “sprawl to the wall” density, the city of Los Angeles seems a good fit for democratizing dance, i.e., presenting site-specific movement in an array of venues—both indoors and out—all free to the public. Indeed, Benjamin Millepied, the founder of L.A. Dance Project, began the series in the French capital with his Paris Dance Project in 2024, then called La Ville Dansée, with the idea of exporting it to his adopted city in a co-production.
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In Maia Chao’s “Being Moved,” the audience was ushered up to the 7th floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art in a large, crowded elevator with all sixty or so passengers carrying on conversations at maximum volume.
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They’re saucy, sweet and stunning! They’re the ballerinas of American Contemporary Ballet and they’re helping close the company’s 2025-26 season with performances of “Spectacular Balanchine,” a program devoted to the choreography of George Balanchine.
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Unlike its messy neighbor, Los Angeles, one would think that establishing a ballet company in the relatively serene Orange County would be welcomed.
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The current global zeitgeist of uncertainty and the tendency to jump to judgment inspired veteran dancer-choreographer Beth Corning's latest dance-theater work, “Foolish Assumptions.”
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At a time when the roots of toxic masculinity are still being hotly debated within society (I'd argue nature and nurture aren't necessarily mutually exclusive bedfellows) the excellent “Boys Don't Dance” arrives, fully formed at a festival for children, but with enough layers to appease any audience.
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Just as The Wizard of Oz to the United States or Pinocchio to Italy, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the coming-of-age novel of English childhood. The reception of Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet of the same name depends heavily on this legacy.
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Director and choreographer Naoya Homan’s reimagining of “Aleko,” a one-act ballet where art takes center stage, dazzles the eye with a tragic meditation on the limits of freedom.
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In “Me Time—Danza al Museo” by choreographer Camilla Monga, dance becomes a tool for deeper seeing. Through choreography, the museum becomes a space of cognitive and emotional activation. The result is an encounter that lingers long after the performance ends.
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In San Diego, a surprisingly robust number of ballet companies compete for a relatively small audience. While two such companies, City Ballet of San Diego and Golden State Ballet, present mixed repertoire programs, San Diego Ballet performs almost exclusively the work of director-choreographer Javier Velasco.
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Julie Mehretu’s current exhibition at the Marian Goodman Gallery is astronomical. Our Days, Like a Shadow (a non-abiding hauntology) is a series of large, new, multicolored paintings that seem to float like planets, inviting viewers to walk around and in between them as if orbiting through a cosmic labyrinth.
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An insistent electronic beat suffuses the dark-wood auditorium while people are milling about and locating their seats.
Continue ReadingLong 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.
Continue ReadingIt 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.
Continue ReadingAs 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.
Continue ReadingOne 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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