All Together Now
A unique cooperation by New York City’s five largest dance companies, BAAND Together Dance Festival was conceived as an effort to restart live dance performance after the pandemic.
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Beethoven, Boots and Cats
Bookending my first day at the Edinburgh Festival are two very different but beautiful performances at the wonderful Dance Base venue in the Grassmarket, Matthew Hawkins’s “Ready” and Christine Thynne and Robbie Synge’s “These Mechanisms.”
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Dance of Joy
Bharatanatyam soloist, Christopher Gurusamy, describes his practice as purely based on his traditional dance training, Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance that originated in the Hindu temples of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
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By the Water
On a sultry day like this, it might be easy to imagine we’re somewhere in the south, rather than the urban confines of Hearst Plaza, where a small group has gathered, curious about a free event. We’re not quite sure where to sit.
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A Metamorphosis of Meaning
One night, three premieres, and a mixture of tradition and originality. Queensland Ballet’s “Bespoke” presented new works that playfully experimented with the classical technique in a contemporary setting.
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Don't Look TooGood
When viewing a work by Pam Tanowitz, it pays to look closely. Beyond the precision and fleet feet of her Cunningham-trained dancers, there is often another layer to discover. She refers to pre-existing works of art and literature (recently T. S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” and the biblical Song of Solomon) using movement to reveal and remix their elements.
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Touch the Sublime
The crowning ornament of Lincoln Center’s India Week was the collaborative creation and performance of “Samsara” by Aakash Odedra and Hu Shenyuan. India Week, the weeklong summer curation of events celebrating India’s culture, elevated the concept of performing arts with this journey to the sublime.
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Listen, Notice
On a steamy July evening, the arty fashionistas of Bushwick seem remarkably crisp and refreshed, wine spritzers in hand, as they gather for a rare showing by two rock stars of dance at Carvalho Park gallery in Brooklyn.
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Christopher Wheeldon, Impossible Dreams
One of the most industrious, clever, and revered choreographers working today, Christopher Wheeldon—he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016—has been on a balletic and Broadway tear for years. Indeed, since the British-born Wheeldon first donned ballet shoes and took to the barre as an eight-year old, the world has taken notice.
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A Little More Action
Smuin Contemporary Ballet is a different company than when it last came to New York in 2012, five years after the sudden death of its popular founder. Michael Smuin was known for his highly accessible works full of musical theater splash. While his San Francisco based company continues to perform his repertory, it has commissioned a broad range of new work under succeeding director, Celia Fushille.
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Summer Fun
In its Summer Series 2024, the Philadelphia contemporary ballet company offers three world premieres by choreographers Amy Hall Garner, Loughlan Prior and Stina Quagebeur. The extended run, July 10-21 at the Wilma Theater, is just about the only dance to be seen during summer’s dog days. And what a cool and breezy show it is. Just the boost we needed.
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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,...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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