Creative Risk
If the ballet world now seems inundated with Dracula productions, Frankenstein adaptations are a rarer sight.
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Diamonds are Forever
It’s amusing to read in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s generally exceptional program notes that George Balanchine choreographed the triptych we now know as “Jewels” because he visited Van Cleef & Arpels and was struck by inspiration. I mean, perhaps visiting the jeweler did further tickle his imagination, but—PR stunt, anyone?
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Boundless Beauty
As I watch one after another pastel tutu clad ballerina bourrée into the arms of a white-tighted danseur, a melody not credited on the program floats through my brain. You know the one.
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Crossroads
Haneul Jung oscillates between the definition of the Korean word, man-il meaning “ten thousand days” and “what if.”
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Ground Control
Moss Te Ururangi Patterson describes his choreographic process having a conversation with other elements. As he describes pushing himself under the waves, and a feeling of meditative, buoyancy as he floated in space, the impression of light beneath the water was paramount.
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Machine Learning at Play
These days you’re hard pressed to use the internet without running into artificial intelligence.
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Dreams of Dance
All reviews of live performance are an exercise in hindsight. No matter how diligent a notetaker I will forever be rearticulating my in-the-moment responses into something that is ideally a cogent and cohesive response to a work.
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To Excavate and Elevate
This season opener from English National Ballet gathers four markedly different works to showcase the gamut of the company’s evolving repertoire.
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Song of Resistance
It will be impossible to walk past the Panthéon again without recalling what happened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in late September 2025: the extraordinary transformation—verging on possession—of Germaine Acogny into Joséphine Baker.
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An Ideal Don Quixote
The curtain opens on a stark, grey stage. Cut off from the vitality of the world, an aged man, shabby and nondescript, exists only for his books. Inspired suddenly by a romantic vision, he forces a lazing servant to attend him and leaves behind this colorless prison, carrying his fantastical determination along with the dated accoutrements of a crusading knight.
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His A.I.M is True
For its twentieth anniversary, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham showcased a trio of established works set to live music at the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center.
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Sparkling Shiraz
Semantic satiation is the psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener.
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Spellbound
Two performers crawl in on hands and knees wearing neon green, hooded coveralls—the lightweight papery kind made for working in a sterile environment—and clusters of balloons pinned to their backs.
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Green Light
Will Rawls makes boundaries visible by defying them. Known for the disciplinary and topical range of his projects, the choreographer, director, and performer approaches issues of representation in “[siccer],” a multi-part, multi-site work co-presented by L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival. A live performance at Performance Space New York...
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It is always interesting when multiple theme steps emerge over the course of a mixed repertory evening, but it is uncanny on one featuring five different ballets, each with a different choreographer and composer, covering a twenty-year span (2005-2025).
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Of Dandelions and Resilience
Zvidance premiered its new work “Dandelion” mid-November at New York Live Arts. Founded by Zvi Gotheiner in 1989, Zvidance has been a steady presence in the New York contemporary dance scene, a reliable source of compositional integrity, and a magnet for wonderful dancers.
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The Music Within
Cleveland native Dianne McIntrye received a hometown hero's welcome during her curtain speech prior to her eponymous dance group thrilling the audience in her latest work, “In the Same Tongue.”
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