World-class review of ballet and dance.
“Giselle” is a ballet cut in two: day and night, the earth of peasants and vine workers set against the pale netherworld of the Wilis, spirits of young women betrayed in love. Between these two realms opens a tragic dramatic fracture—the spectacular and disheartening death of Giselle.
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Michele Wiles’ Park City home is nestled in the back of a wooded neighborhood, hidden from the road by pines and deciduous trees that are currently in the midst of their autumn transformations.
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It was a grand night of show and—well, show more—as eight members of L.A. Dance Project strutted their gorgeous, technically brilliant stuff in the US premiere of “Gems.”
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During the summer, two Chinese dance productions came to Koch Theater at New York’s Lincoln Center: “Lady White Snake” from Shanghai Grand Theater in July and “Butterfly Lovers” from Hong Kong Ballet in August.
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I walk into Roulette, a rough-around-the-edges world music venue, a couple of blocks from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). I am attending “Dambudzo,” presented as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, brought to the neighborhood by the bold imagination and creative enterprise of Zimbabwe performing artist Nora Chipaumire.
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A rehabilitated 117-year-old power plant situated on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, once a toxic waste site, now houses an amazing new contemporary arts hub—Powerhouse Arts.
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To say the least, the true story of a juvenile axe murderer seems unlikely to inspire a ballet. But the legends surrounding the late nineteenth-century murders of Lizzie Borden’s father Andrew and her stepmother, Abby persist, perhaps because Lizzie was ultimately acquitted, and no other suspect was ever identified or brought to justice.
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The National Ballet of Japan’s rendition of the Frederick Ashton classic, “Cinderella,” offers an authentic taste of English tradition, subtly flavored by Japanese aesthetics.
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When Wally Cardona and Molly Lieber enter to take their places on opening night, they’re stepping into the footprints of a venerable dance legacy.
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As October starts to draw to an end, so too does Dance Umbrella, London’s annual international dance festival. Having worked their way through the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells East, one of the final programmes is on at the Place—which has had an especially impressive Autumn season.
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This fall, the American Ballet Theatr is celebrating its 85th anniversary by highlighting the choreographers key to the company’s history. Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, Frederick Ashton, Michel Fokine, Marius Petipa, George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky are all featured, but only Twyla Tharp got her own night.
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What’s special about Rudi van Dantzig’s “Romeo and Juliet” is how deeply it is steeped in the textures of popular devotion and everyday life, reminiscent of Flemish painting in its chiaroscuro and crowded humanity.
Continue ReadingTwo 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.
Continue ReadingWill 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).
Continue ReadingZvidance 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.
Continue ReadingCleveland 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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