Ballet for Life
Nearly thirty years since its world premiere, and society’s catching up to the complex diversity showcased in Maurice Béjart’s “Ballet for Life.”
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Join the Club
Many contemporary choreographers, especially recently, have attempted to capture the distinctively visceral, freeing experience that comes from dancing at a rave, that phenomenon where the lights go down and the music revs up; where people release their inhibitions and give in to the beat.
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Interconnected Networks
Colette Sadler's mini-festival, “Present Futures,” a team up with producer Feral Arts, is a cohesive, exciting collection of groundbreaking dance, performance, panel discussions, visual art, workshops and films which tackle contemporary issues, featuring brilliant international artists.
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When Dreams Come True
San Francisco Ballet is riding high this season, cruising onward from a new works festival that yielded some real keepers; a “Giselle” freshly energized by new artistic director Tamara Rojo’s coaching; and a mixed bill that scored a hit with the stage premiere of Myles Thatcher’s youthful “Colorforms.” Recently retired artistic director Helgi Tomasson handled all this programming before he stepped down, and it was surely smart of him, box-office-wise, to schedule Christopher Wheeldon’s family friendly “Cinderella” to coincide with spring break. A packed Wednesday night house was clearly delighted by the whole spectacle. I regret, then, to confess an...
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Stella A Trois
Tennessee Williams’ most spiky love triangle, the ultimate study in late 1940s Southern American melodrama, is an interesting piece to adapt in the twenty-first century. Tackling issues around abuse, class and consent would undoubtedly be a challenge for any dance company. To that end, Scottish Ballet brought in an intimacy coach—ensuring all of the dancers feel comfortable, dealing with portraying the darker themes of sexual violence, addiction, suicide and domestic violence.
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Tranquil Intrigue
The title of this dance interpretation of The Tempest highlights a notable departure from canon. In “We Caliban,” Shobana Jeyasingh imagines Shakespeare’s titular native in the collective sense—a tribe, a spirit and a place at once.
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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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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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Too Good to be True
When we think of countries that have shaped the world of dance our mind will often drift to the United States, Russia, or Germany. But what of Luxembourg?
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Looking Forward
In times of rapid change, predicting the road ahead can seem to be a fool’s errand. But on a spring afternoon at Lincoln Center, I feel confident in this assertion: the future of dance is very bright.
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