World-class review of ballet and dance.
Lillian Barbeito is a dancer, first and foremost. But beyond that, she’s a mover. Perhaps this is why when she has an idea, she can’t sit still. And when she devotes herself to bringing these ideas to life, she doesn’t do it halfway.
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It's not just little girls who dream of escaping into ballet. Created for the screen by Christopher Hampson and set and costume designer Lez Brotherston and filmed by directors Jess and Morgs, The Secret Theatre comes across as a Victorian toybox full of rich, endless surprises. When a young boy, played with exuberance and wonder by Leo Tetteh, finds his way into an empty theatre, he is taken on an adventure into the heart of Christmas ballet, where dancers cast spells before his eyes. Here, Scottish Ballet bring the viewer not one, but two, magical ballets for the festive season, as...
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Patricia Barker, former star of Pacific Northwest Ballet became artistic director of Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2017. Before taking up the position, Ms. Barker, who would be the third AD of the company in a decade, had only visited New Zealand once previously for a fleeting 72 hours. Ms. Barker has since brought stability to the company and has sought to cultivate an environment in which dancers can develop as artists. In this condensed version of our conversation, Ms. Barker discusses how the RNZB has fared during Covid, supporting female choreographers, and her vision for 2021.
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Shakespeare wasn't a man unfamiliar with pandemics. He lived through the plague and his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon was decimated by it, leaving thousands dead. It's timely, then, that Megumi Nakamura and Yasuyuki Shuto's beautifully produced and choreographed “Shakespeare The Sonnets” hit the New National Theatre Tokyo stage for two performances in late November 2020.
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It is difficult not to be effusive about Sydney Dance Company’s first live performance since Covid emerged. For the first time in nine months the audience is being ushered into Sydney's Carriageworks. It’s like so many performances, the lights are dimmed, there is chatter, but there are differences. Some people wear masks, and there is a spare seat on either side of each audience member. The occasion is not lost on the audience, excitable gratitude and disbelief seems to hang in the air. The Welcome to Country, recognizing the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of...
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On Thursday, December 3, in honour of the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the New York City-based, physically integrated dance company Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) will host an immersive durational performance and living installation “On Display Global” (ODG), in partnership with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and United Nations. For 24 hours, from midnight to midnight Eastern Standard Time, audiences can tune into Zoom to watch participants from over 100 cities take part in the performance.
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Let’s be blunt: This is a year of desperation “Nutcrackers.” To deliver even one-fifth the joy of a live “Nutcracker” during these darkest pandemic days (and, I fear, to attract an even smaller share of the usual audience)—this must be counted a triumph.
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Covid-19 has been devastating to the performing arts. However, over the weekend I watched a performance by the Sarasota Ballet that reminded me of a pandemic silver lining: expanded accessibility. From my apartment in Brooklyn I’ve been able to see performances streamed from all over the world. These digital shows are a little surreal, and they cannot compete with live ones, but they do offer a glimpse of companies I usually don’t have the ability to see. In a normal year, I would not have had the opportunity to review this small Gulf Coast troupe, but this year I was...
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In the last three decades, the term Dance and Technology became a thing, a niche where choreographers strove to enhance and marry kinetic movement with digital, animation, film and video. Brilliant failures and successes ensued, depending on how the collaborators gelled with each other. One of the great triumphs was “BIPED,” (1999) where Merce Cunningham partnered with Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar's dazzling projected animation imagery and the murky, sonar-like thuds of Gavin Bryars' score. The dancers' shimmering tourmaline costumes furthered the underwater impression and the choreography swam, receding, wavery, elusive.
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Designed by Alice has been a go-to for dancers for whimsical ballet skirts, and luxurious handmade accessories such as silk scarves and scrunchies. DBA has just released a bodysuit in the signature Somefish design, a jewel-toned watercolour reminiscent of the sea. We caught up with Alice Williamson, the talent behind the label, to chat about the new line, running a business during the pandemic, and her creative projects.
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From the moment Chloe Leong joined Sydney Dance Company she was a star on the rise. In her first season with the company, she won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Performance after captivating audiences in William Forsythe’s “Quintett.” In 2020, for the first time, she has turned her hand to choreography for Sydney Dance Company’s only performance to make the stage this year: New Breed. Claudia Lawson spoke to Chloe about her journey from Sydney to Barcelona to joining Sydney Dance Company, overcoming insecurities, her thoughts on choreography, and her hopes for 2021.
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The Swan, with choreography from David Dawson and written and filmed by Eve McConnachie, is of course inspired by “Swan Lake,” and focuses on the first six minutes of Act 4. It acts as (all being well next year) a wonderful taste of Scottish Ballet's forthcoming full adaptation and tour.
PlusTwo 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.
PlusWill 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).
PlusZvidance 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.
PlusCleveland 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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