Why it’s called American Street Dancer
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continua a leggereWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
I went to see “Illinoise” on its last day at the Park Avenue Armory. The Justin Peck production was already set to move to Broadway, and Sufjan Stevens fans were already ecstatic: the singer-songwriter’s deeply felt, ingeniously conceived 2005 album Illinois is not only the impetus and origin of the Peck dancical but also its libretto and score, with a group of wondrous winged singers and multi-instrumental musicians scaffolded above the stage performing the album in its overwhelming entirety, though re-arranged a bit and shuffled. The critics had also already weighed in; they divided sharply between those, usually from the theater world, who deemed the 90-minute show sweet and novel for being as wordless as “Movin’ Out” and those, from the dance end, who found it cloying and sentimental.
But no one mentioned God.
Performance
Place
Words
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continua a leggere“Lists of Promise,” a new work currently in a two-week run from March 13- 30 at the East Village cultural landmark, Theater for the New City, promised more than it delivered, at least for now.
Continua a leggere“State of Heads” opens with a blaze of white light and loud clanking onto a white-suited Levi Gonzalez, part Elvis, part televangelist addressing his congregation. A pair of women sidle in—Rebecca Cyr and Donna Uchizono—dressed in ankle-length white dresses and cowered posture.
Continua a leggereThe late John Ashford, a pioneer in programming emerging contemporary choreographers across Europe, once told me that he could tell what sort of choreographer a young artist would turn into when watching their first creations.
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Thank you, Rachel. I see things that need tweaking. (I wrote it too fast, for me.) But thank you.
What a deeply considered, sensitive, and evocative review. Thank you.