Back to Nature
In the forest, it is never silent. Everything is in transmission with something else, be it tree roots to soil, plants to animals and insects, or warning cries that ripple through the forest when predators approach.
Plus
Latest
Crossing the Line
At the vertical and horizontal intersection of two white lines on a darkened stage, performer Layla Meadows and her corresponding organic outline appears. For this restaging of “Glow,” a work choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek for the Melbourne Festival in 2006, it is Meadows’s time to be scanned and surveyed in this duet between a dancer and a machine.
Plus
Stars and Stripes
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.
Plus
Home Town Dance
Unlike its messy neighbor, Los Angeles, one would think that establishing a ballet company in the relatively serene Orange County would be welcomed.
Plus
Testing Assumptions
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.”
Plus
Positive Masculinity
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.
Plus
We're all Mad Here
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.
Plus
Dancing for Chagall
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.
Plus
A Moving Museum
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.
Plus
The Art of Movement
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.
Plus
Wandering
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.
Plus
Perpetual Motion
An insistent electronic beat suffuses the dark-wood auditorium while people are milling about and locating their seats.
PlusFeatured Reads
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.
Plus
Rare Birds
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.
Plus
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.
Plus
Jack of Hearts
As 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.
Plus
School Report
One 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.
Plus