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The Royal Ballet
REVIEWS | By Madison Mainwaring

Lobsterbacks

Is there such a thing as “Englishness?” What would be at the heart of such a quality—habits and customs, the time reserved for a late-afternoon snack, the famously reserved sense of humor? I'm writing this from America, a country that can only define its people by their plurality and multifariousness, the "anything goes" mentality which frequently manifests itself as aberrant exceptionalism. But contemporary scholars and thinkers shun the idea that a national stock or stereotype even exists. Characterizing a country's people reveals more about the observer's bias and preconceptions than it does anything else. According to this line of thought,...

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Amy Seiwert Imagery
REVIEWS | By Erica Getto

Starting Over

This week, I found myself curled up in the corner of my kitchen, shaking. It comes over me swiftly, sometimes, thunderously, always—a wave of weight. My partner knows this routine well by now, and slips into his role: he hovers over me, cups my ears, lifts my chin, and has me look into his eyes. Slowly, softly, it feels—no, I feel—lighter.

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Jacques Heim
INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Architecture in Motion

Jacques Heim has been obsessed with geometric shapes for years. After founding the risk-intensive, hyper-physical dance troupe DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion™ in Los Angeles in 1992, Paris-born Heim translated that passion into full-blown, custom-designed stage sets. Included are a 5,000-pound, 16-foot rotating aluminum wheel (“Humachina”), a large, scary-looking vertical pegboard that could serve as the centerpiece at an S&M soiree (“D2R”), and a 14-by-17 foot rocking boat (“Trajectoire”).

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Louise Lecavalier
INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Louise Lecavalier

Not too many dancers have a desire to perform in Newfoundland. But Louise Lecavalier, who got the idea from reading Annie Proulx’s book, The Shipping News, is decidedly unlike any dancer—past or present—in the universe. Indeed, it’s safe to say that nobody moves like Louise Lecavalier. The erstwhile star of Édouard Lock’s Montréal-based troupe, La La La Human Steps from 1981-1999, Lecavalier honed her fierce and extreme style that was—and remains—instantly recognizable.

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Between the Dancer and the Dance
FEATURES | By Apollinaire Scherr

Between the Dancer and the Dance

Six years ago, when I began teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology for applied and not-so-applied arts, the professors hiring me asked if I might like to try my hand at a course that prepared graphic design students for the workplace—or at least got them in the door.

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Sylvie Guillem
REVIEWS | By Sara Veale

Sylvie's Swansong

No extravagant gestures accompanied the final curtain of Sylvie Guillem’s farewell performance at the London Coliseum, which marks the end of her 39 prolific years on the stage—no lavish bouquets of roses were presented, no encores demanded or tearful hand-on-heart curtseys obliged. The iconic ballerina simply took a few bows, raised a hand to her adoring audience and marched into the wings.

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Deep Breath
REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Deep Breath

If it’s summer in Los Angeles, it’s time for REDCAT’s annual three-week NOW festival. Featuring nine premieres by some of the city’s foremost dance, theater, music and multimedia artists, the 13th edition was launched with a mostly thoughtful, provocative and awe-inspiring trio of works that happily confirm this burg’s reputation as a hotbed of creativity.

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Sarah Aiken
REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

The Creative Act

A single bicycle wheel upturned and mounted upon a stool (Bicycle Wheel, 1951, third version, after lost original of 1913). A snow shovel (In Advance of the Broken Arm, 1964, fourth version, after lost original of 1915). A painted window (Fresh Window, 1920). When Marcel Duchamp placed a mass produced ‘readymade’ before us and disrupted how we thought about and interpreted art, the “ordinary object [was] elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.”[note]Marcel Duchamp, as quoted in The Art of Assemblage: A Symposium, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October...

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Lula Washington Dance Theatre's “Message for My Peeps.” Photo by Heather Toner
REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Moves after Dark

Los Angeles, often dubbed the ‘city of the future,’ is not a town known for honoring its past. But with the Music Center having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, it seemed the ideal venue for four local dance troupes to perform simultaneous, site-specific works on and around its Grand Avenue campus, one that’s been, on occasion, likened to New York City’s Lincoln Center.

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Ballet Revolución
REVIEWS | By Claudia Lawson

Power Pop

Anyone who has visited Cuba will know it is a country full of music and movement. The country’s first ballet company, the Ballet Alicia Alonso, was founded in 1948 by the renowned ballerina of the same name, Alicia Alonso (the company went on to become the Ballet Nacional de Cuba). Contemporary or modern dance, as it is known in the West, was only introduced in the early 60s after Cuba’s revolution. With trade embargos meaning the world has seen little of the Cuban dance scene, when Cuban dance company Ballet Revolución decided to include Australia in its world tour, the opportunity to attend opening night...

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Age of Magic
REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

Age of Magic

As befits the dreamscape of a fairy tale, the chance to revisit an encore Melbourne-only 2015 season of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Cinderella”[note]I wondered what I would see this time around—would the frame within a frame staging still toy with my sense of space and time? Would the celestial planets, in lieu of a pumpkin coach, continue to entrance with their circular orbit about the stage/through the cosmos? Would the ticking of the clock as time is suspended, chased, and distorted remain visible in the choreography melded to the score?—and I marvelled at the clever sorcery that made October 2013 feel like...

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Roberto Bolle in “Passage” with Polina Semionova. Photograph by Luciano Romano
INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

BalletNow

In the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram era, everyone can rack up ‘friends,’ followers and ‘likes.’ But in the real world of ballet, bringing together 18 major stars from 12 foreign countries to dance on one stage is no easy feat. Don’t tell that to Roberto Bolle or Herman Cornejo, however, as this dynamic duo—both principals with American Ballet Theatre—are doing just that with the world premiere of BalletNow.

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