To the Beat of the Drum
This fall, Japan Society is celebrating the centenary of legendary Japanese post-war author Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) with a series of works in theater, film, and dance inspired by his oeuvre.
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Home Lands
Powerhouse: International, the newly launched arts festival in Gowanus, Brooklyn, continued its fall offerings with the multidisciplinary work “Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna,” co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival.
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Past Lives, Future Selves
In an animation that is woven through the performances of traditional dances in Indigenous Enterprise’s “Still Here,” a young boy watches a video of powwow musicians and dancers with his grandfather on Youtube.
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Invisible Wounds
It was apropos that I attended choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu’s latest work, “Fragmented Shadows,” just before Halloween.
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Disappearing Act
Making its long anticipated debut at Sadler’s Wells, “Figures in Extinction" is perhaps the brightest new feather in Nederland Dans Theater’s cap.
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ABT, Past, Present, and Future
The final program of American Ballet Theatre’s fall season, titled “Innovations Past and Present,” featured the world premiere of Juliano Nunes “Have We Met!?” as well as two company gems: Alexei Ratmansky’s “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium” and George Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations.”
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Natural Histories
Miriam Miller steps into the center and raises her arm with deliberation, pressing her palm upward to the vaulted Gothic ceiling of the cathedral.
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Defining Connection
In a series called “Just Dance” on Nowness—a site I sometimes visit to see what’s up in the world of “genre busting” dance films that make it onto this stylized platform—I sometimes find little gems that quietly rock my world.
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Ryan Tomash Steps into a New Role
Back in October, New York City Ballet got a new cowboy. His arrival occurred in the final section of George Balanchine’s “Western Symphony.”
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Complex Female Characters
When Richard Move enters from stage left, their presence is already monumental. In a long-sleeved gown, a wig swept in a dramatic topnot, and their eyes lined in striking swoops, the artist presents themself in the likeness of Martha Graham—though standing at 6’4, they have more than a foot on the late modern dance pioneer.
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Ultimate Release
Perhaps not since Mikhail Fokine’s 1905 iconic “The Dying Swan” has there been as haunting a solo dance depiction of avian death as Aakash Odedra Company’s “Songs of the Bulbul” (2024).
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Weighty Issues
Dance, at its best, captures nuance particularly well, allowing us to feel deeply and purely. In its wordlessness, it places a primal reliance on movement and embodied knowledge as communication all its own. It can speak directly from the body to the heart, bypassing the brain’s drive to “make sense of.”
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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