Mother Tongue
A colourful, decorative rug is positioned centre stage. “It lasted pretty well,” a disembodied voice comments through the speaker system, explaining how it was chosen for its pattern, which is ideal for concealing dirt.
Plus
Latest
- Tout
- BOOKSHELF
- DANCE FILM
- EVENTS
- FEATURES
- FIELD NOTES
- INTERVIEWS
- OPINION
- OTHER
- PHOTOGRAPHY
- REVIEWS
- TALKING POINTES
Romeo & Juliet Redux
This is decidedly not your mother’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Indeed, Benjamin Millepied’s “Romeo & Juliet Suite,” choreographed for the superb members of his L.A. Dance Project, featured a female duo (Daphne Fernberger and Nayomi Van Brunt) in the titular roles at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday.
Plus
Canadian Content
This October, the Canada National Ballet returned to London for the first time since 2013 with a series of performances at Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
Plus
Ghostly Figures
Seated on the floor before an overhead projector, Arabella Frahn-Starkie could be in her studio, working, sifting, collaging, thinking.
FREE ARTICLE
Incubating New Work
Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in New York’s Hudson River Valley presented a program of new works over the final weekend in September as part of its 2024 Annual Festival.
Plus
A Mystical Evening
This year’s Biennale Danza Venezia Silver Lion award went to Zurich-based choreographer Trajal Harrell. A house director at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, and the founding director of the Schauspielhaus Zurich Dance Ensemble, he brought the Ensemble to FringeArts Festival for the Philadelphia premiere of his 2022 “The Köln Concert” last month.
Plus
Resistance
What's your poison? Tom of Finland, or Boy George? Madonna, or Marilyn? Top, or bottom? There have been so many recent dramas of late, focussing on eighties' queer culture: The Line of Beauty, Pride, Love Song to Lavender Menace, and It's A Sin, among others.
FREE ARTICLE
Ladies’ Night
The New York City Ballet’s 2024 Fall Fashion Gala was once again a smashing fundraising success, pulling in 3.2 million dollars and packing the house with slew of well-dressed celebrities and socialites.
Plus
Imperfect Beauty
Jessica Lang’s “Black Wave,” her first creation as Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new resident choreographer, is an elusive allegory wrapped inside a metaphor wrapped inside a dream. Rarely have I so wanted to ask a choreographer what she intended.
Plus
Balanchine Ascendant
To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the School of American Ballet, advanced students performed Balanchine’s “Serenade” (also 90 this year) on a special, one-off New York City Ballet program.
Plus
Hidden Worlds
“Circle Electric” makes a magnifying glass of the stage, and places different dancers in different configurations in the spotlight with the intention of observing them and thereupon making inquiries.
Plus
A Journey of Healing
Across North Africa, the all-night music-dance-trance ritual called lila (pronounced lee-lah) is celebrated as a means for spiritual healing.
FREE ARTICLEFeatured Reads
Teenage Angst and Institutions
Watching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...
Plus
The Me of Today
The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.
Plus
Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.
Plus
America, F**K Yeah
After a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.
Plus
Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup
An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.
Plus