World-class review of ballet and dance.
Shakespearean purists, leave your expectations at the door. With his rendition of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” first staged in 2009 to mark the 10th anniversary of K-Ballet Tokyo, Tetsuya Kumakawa plays freely with details from Shakespeare’s tragedy to create a psychological, theatrical study of doomed love.
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From charming stagings for children to edgy dance theater, Un Yamada Company, a creative collective based in Tokyo, has built a reputation for consistently innovative productions.
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For much of “Romeo & Juliet Suite,” Benjamin Millepied’s stripped-down take on the Sergei Prokofiev ballet—billed as a gender-bent, “contemporary, site-specific” version of Shakespeare’s classic—I find myself thinking of a different play by the bard. Specifically, the direction in The Winter’s Tale: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Most of the drama here, after all, happens offstage.
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Montreal based choreographer and artistic director, Virginie Brunelle’s eponymously named company performed its 2022 “Fables” at Penn Live Arts Zellerbach Theatre series on the brink of Women’s History month.
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What distinguishes a dancer from a choreographer? This is, in the end, an empirical question, one that can only be answered in the theatre.
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There is something charmingly didactic and intellectually generous about American dance companies touring Europe. At the start of a performance, it is not unusual for a director to step forward and offer a brief introduction, explaining the reasons for the tour and sketching the wider context of the programme. Paris audiences experienced this with the Martha Graham Dance Company last autumn, and now again with Dance Theatre of Harlem. Robert Garland, at the helm of the ensemble, took a moment to anchor the performance in lineage, recalling the company’s origins and its illustrious founder, Arthur Mitchell. As Garland recounted, Mitchell...
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Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Winter Series takes its audience on a journey back through time.
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What are you looking for in a night out in the theatre? Do you seek beauty? The ethereal? That may be the case for most at a ballet, but CCN Ballet de Lorraine’s double bill at the Southbank Centre wants to bring us on a whole trip.
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Dresses, domestic chores, grief. A community of women more feral than feminine. Five performers wear a changing selection of 40 dresses that serve as both costume and prop.
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Of the many stylish touches in Scottish Ballet’s “Mary, Queen of Scots,” the titular Tudor’s black pointe shoes are my favourite.
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The Australian Ballet’s “Signature Works,” as a whole, is a compact and varied celebration of dance in the moment.
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The Joffrey Ballet’s lithe and strong dancers take on four historic works in this mixed-bill “American Icons” programme.
Continue ReadingLong 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.
Continue ReadingIt 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.
Continue ReadingAs 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.
Continue ReadingOne 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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