World-class review of ballet and dance.
In the canon of classical ballet, star-crossed love is an integral theme. With its US debut of “The Butterfly Lovers”—a new full-length work inspired by a Chinese folktale that dates back to the Tang Dynasty—Hong Kong Ballet brings an artfully rendered addition to this tradition
PlusFor nearly 50 years the legendary dance photographer, Paul Kolnik, helped create the visual identity of the New York City Ballet.
Plus
“I never set out particularly to be a creator of solos,” says Lar Lubovitch. “But after 60 years in the dance world and 120 dances, I will have made a number of solos.”
PlusTwo men enter the stage and hang suit jackets on the backs of chairs. They begin with a short movement phrase in staccato unison—an elbow juts over the shoulder as if an arrow sticking out of a quiver, then an arm slices cross-body like a sword.
PlusThey begin to move without warning, slowly, as if awakened from some eons-long slumber. A mass of 18 dancers, all dressed in varying bright tones, moves just at the edge of the rising tide in front of a U-shaped crowd sitting against the dunes of Rockaway Beach.
Plus
Two men enter the stage and hang suit jackets on the backs of chairs. They begin with a short movement phrase in staccato unison—an elbow juts over the shoulder as if an arrow sticking out of a quiver, then an arm slices cross-body like a sword.
Plus
“I never set out particularly to be a creator of solos,” says Lar Lubovitch. “But after 60 years in the dance world and 120 dances, I will have made a number of solos.”
Plus
In the canon of classical ballet, star-crossed love is an integral theme. With its US debut of “The Butterfly Lovers”—a new full-length work inspired by a Chinese folktale that dates back to the Tang Dynasty—Hong Kong Ballet brings an artfully rendered addition to this tradition
Plus
They begin to move without warning, slowly, as if awakened from some eons-long slumber. A mass of 18 dancers, all dressed in varying bright tones, moves just at the edge of the rising tide in front of a U-shaped crowd sitting against the dunes of Rockaway Beach.
Plus
For nearly 50 years the legendary dance photographer, Paul Kolnik, helped create the visual identity of the New York City Ballet.
Plus$69.95
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Tushrik Fredericks walks as if in a trance, arms floating forward and pushing back with each step. Fog transforms the air into a tangible element.
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Houston Ballet is the fourth largest ballet company in the United States, but when it comes to the talent of its top dancers, they are the equal of any American company.
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The height of summer has arrived to New York’s lush and idyllic Hudson Valley. Tonight, in addition to music credited on the official program, we are treated to a chorus of crickets and tree frogs in the open-air pavilion of PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance.
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Eschewing a conventional film narrative, Labyrinth of the Unseen World created in collaboration by French filmmaker Amelie Ravalec and Scots/Irish dance artist Paul Michael Henry, instead fuses visual poetry with dance performance, creating a hallucinatory, disturbing, yet beautiful dreamscape.
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Why does “Giselle,” a ballet that premiered in 1841, still captivate audiences today? At first glance, the story feels outdated: a peasant girl, Giselle, is deceived by the nobleman Albrecht...
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It’s been a banner year for Lula Washington Dance Theatre, as the Los Angeles-based troupe celebrates its 45th anniversary.
FREE ARTICLE
Time to step on the moving staircase once more—“Escalator,” an evening showcasing new choreographic work curated by the Stephanie Lake Company, in association with the Abbotsford Convent, is back.
FREE ARTICLE
Tiler Peck is wending her way through the airport with a smile on her face. She’s on her way from the Vail Dance Festival to New York to rehearse for the Jerome Robbins festival she’s curating and performing in this August at the Joyce Theater, a beloved, bijou downtown dance venue.
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The BAAND Together Dance Festival was created in 2021 to reintroduce dance to New York City after the pandemic.
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Ballet Asteras, the National Ballet of Japan’s annual summer gala launched in 2009 as an opportunity for Japanese dancers working overseas to perform for their home audience.
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“Vástádus Eana—The Answer is Land” opens outdoors, where the audience has gathered around a grassy area. Seven women in black skirts, ankle boots, red capes, and bonnets approach toting megaphones above their heads.
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Inspired by her fascination with microphotography, Noelle Kayser’s “Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly” at BalletX’s midsummer series opened with a pyramid of 16 bodies under Drew Billiau’s shadowed lighting.
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In 1963, Jeff Duncan started working from home. Duncan—born Thomas Jefferson Duncan Jr. in Longview, Texas—was a celebrated dancer and assistant for Anna Sokolow and Doris Humphrey in the 1950s.
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“I have nowhere to go, and I’m going there,” has been attributed to such disparate writers as Charles Bukowski, Carl Sandburg and Charles Simic, though this reviewer thinks the existential phrase sounds more like Cunningham or Cage.
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For twenty-five years, Roberto Bolle has brought together a constellation of celebrated stars and rising talent to share the stage with him.
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