Star Dust
We are all of us, beings, in a constant state of continual change. We humans are a composition of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Astonish me,” said impresario Serge Diaghilev to choreographers, composers and collaborators of his famed Ballets Russes, the bespoke company that reigned supreme from 1909 through 1929. And so it was that during this year—with two wars raging and Covid strains still running rampant amid a world seemingly going mad—there was a boatload of fabulous dance in the City of Angels that managed to, well, astonish this writer.
We are all of us, beings, in a constant state of continual change. We humans are a composition of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
Continue ReadingThe title of Catherine Tharin’s latest production, “In the Wake of Yes,” is a reference to “Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy,” an inner monologue on womanhood and sexuality, from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Tharin matches the tone of this work as she picks up on an exuberant string of “yeses” from that text. Her witty series of dances explores romance and its complications. At the center of the show is a film by Lois Robertson that lifts the dancers out of the tiny East Village stage and transports them (and us) to scenes of contemporary New York City. Tharin, who danced with the...
Continue ReadingThrough its newly opened program, “Other Dances,” Dutch National Ballet kicks off the summer with a slate of lighthearted fare that varies in precise approach but altogether evokes an effervescent mood.
Continue ReadingTaking the historian’s long view, the message within “Last and First Men,” that “the whole duration of humanity, its evolution, and many successive species, is but a flash in the lifetime of the cosmos,” is, to me, ultimately a comfort.
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Thank you for this fun wrap-up. I always tell students to use colorful verbs to describe dance, and you’ve packed in the verbs. You’ve also given me a hit of all the things I missed on the other coast. Tnx much.