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Dance
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Dance Preview: LINCOLN CENTER AT HOME (Ballet Hispánico, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The School of American Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
DANCE ME TO LINCOLN CENTER We all know that dancing is good for you. But did you know that watching dance is also good for you? Science has suggested that the high you get after watching great dancing is your brain is attempting to turn that high into something real, as if you just danced…
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Dance Review: THE TIMES ARE RACING (Joffrey)
FEATS OF RACING FEET Just when we’ve forgotten what green looks like, a mid-winter shakeup in Chicago seems essential. Supplying that stimulus in quantum doses, the winter program of the Joffrey Ballet is warming up the Auditorium Theatre through February 23 with five well-contrasted ballets by four enterprising choreographers, a mixed repertory that features three…
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Dance Review: ASTAIRE DANCES III (American Contemporary Ballet)
TOP HATS OFF TO ACB With Astaire Dances III, American Contemporary Ballet recreates several iconic routines evolved by the great Fred Astaire and his choreographer Hermes Pan, and executes them with charm and grace. But the evening is about so much more than presenting a few meticulously copied dance numbers; the audience is treated to…
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Dance Preview: DANCE AT THE ODYSSEY 2020 (Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles)
AN ODYSSEY IN DANCE There is more dancing going on in L.A. than ever, but it’s difficult to discover these great little companies, as they have short runs and — being financially constrained — a short outreach. By offering its 4th annual Dance at the Odyssey 2020, Odyssey Theatre will give you many chances to…
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Dance Review: THE NUTCRACKER (American Contemporary Ballet; Santa Fe Ballet; Long Beach Ballet)
TRIPLE-CRACKED It wouldn’t be the holidays without The Nutcracker ballet, a wondrous fantasia limited in scope only by imagination — or, more practically, budget. This year I attended three separate SoCal productions: L.A.’s own American Contemporary Ballet’s sparkling condensed jewel and Santa Fe Ballet’s disappointing tour both pared down the work, while Long Beach Ballet…
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Dance Review: LA BAYADÈRE (Mariinsky Ballet at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
A TEMPLE FOR BALLET Segerstrom Hall is now filled with the gorgeous melodies of a late-blooming classical ballet from 1877. With an infectious score by Ludwig Minkus, La Bayadère premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1877 at the Imperial Russian Ballet, choreographed by the great Marius Petipa (who would go on to greater glory with…
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Dance Preview: GEORGE BALANCHINE’S JEWELS (Mariinsky Ballet at the Music Center)
STILL PRICELESS, BRIGHT AND SHINY The astounding Mariinsky Ballet from St. Petersberg is coming to the Southland for two engagements. The first at Segerstrom Center for the Arts this weekend will feature Petipa’s great Russian classic La Bayadère. Next weekend, October 24-27, The Music Center hosts the company — truly, one of the best globally…
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Dance Review: JANE EYRE (The Joffrey Ballet)
DEMONS DANCE ON THE MOORS You can’t keep a good protagonist down. A 2016 British ballet (also performed in June by American Ballet Theatre), Jane Eyre transforms a romantic heroine into a feminist icon, her sterling goodness sturdy enough for 2019. Joffrey Ballet’s Chicago premiere of Cathy Marston’s literally moving 130-minute version reaffirms a once and future…
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Dance Preview: FORMULAE AND FAIRY TALES (Invertigo Dance Theatre World Premiere at The Broad Stages in Santa Monica)
ONES AND ZEROS, APPLES AND POISONS, QUEENS AND WITCHES, FORMULAE AND FAIRY TALES A new dance work by Invertigo Dance Theatre is making its world premiere at The Broad Stages in Santa Monica next weekend on Friday and Saturday, September 13 & 14, at 7:30. Formulae and Fairy Tales is based on the life and…
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Dance Preview: THE ROYAL BALLET & COMPANY WAYNE MCGREGOR (World Premieres in Los Angeles)
ROYAL DANCE PREMIERES Do you hear the buzz? One of the biggest events of the year with some of the biggest arts organizations in the world involved, The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will host the dance world premiere of the 45-minute Inferno which will be a part of the full-length evening The Dante Project…
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Dance Review: MAYERLING (The Royal Ballet)
THE ROYAL BALLET TAKES ON ROYAL INTRIGUE Considering we couldn’t tell most characters from each other at last night’s opening of Royal Opera Ballet’s Mayerling, a good time was had by all. With Kenneth McMillan’s inventive and daring 1978 choreography, Koen Kessels’ live orchestra’s thrilling rendition of Liszt’s exquisite music (arranged and orchestrated by John…
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Chicago Dance Review: HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO (2019 Summer Series at the Harris)
SUMMER HEATS UP WITH THE CUTTING EDGE OF MOVING BODIES Talk about springing toward the solstice. Literally leaping into summer, this season’s edition of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Summer Series is not the place for premieres. Instead, retrospectively honoring four crowd-pleasing repertory highlights with faithful revivals, this weekend’s program at the Harris Theatre reprises works that didn’t…
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Dance Review: ACROSS THE POND (Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre)
BRITAIN’S BALLET FINDS CHICAGO Springing into the season, the Joffrey Ballet’s current visit to the Auditorium Theatre delivers very welcome art — two world premieres and a Chicago first. Across the Pond, with accompaniment by the Chicago Philharmonic conducted by Scott Speck, proves a stirring showcase for three cutting-edge choreographers. It’s an equal opportunity for…
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Dance Review: GRIMM TALES (Ballet Austin)
BEST WHEN IT’S GRIM GRIMM Born in Austin and now living in New York City, artist Natalie Frank created 75 works based on the stories of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Using gouache and chalk pastel, the images are almost a blend of Marc Chagall and Irving Albright. There’s a delicious, nightmarish, psychologically unsettling quality to…
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Dance Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID (San Francisco Ballet at the War Memorial Opera House)
A BIG LITTLE John Neumeier’s multi-cultural fantastical rendition of Han’s Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid has returned in a beautiful production at the San Francisco Ballet in the War Memorial Opera House. Created in 2005 for the Royal Danish Ballet and revised in Hamburg in 2007, Neumeier includes Andersen as the “Poet” guiding and lamenting…
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Dance Review: ASTAIRE DANCES 2: FRED & GINGER (American Contemporary Ballet)
LET’S FACE IT: THIS IS MUSIC AND DANCE The classiest dance company in town offered its longest and most romantic program yet — a combination of Balanchine and Astaire, two of the 20th century’s greatest and most influential choreographers. The great ballet choreographer George Balanchine compared Fred Astaire to Bach, and Baryshnikov claimed Astaire gave him…
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Dance Review: ANNA KARENINA (World Premiere by Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre)
LEO TOLSTOY TURNED TO LEAPS AND TWIRLS IN THIS WORLD PREMIERE BALLET MILESTONE So many superlatives to savor. Newly created by 35-year-old wunderkind composer Ilya Demutsky, who replenishes the rhapsodic romanticism of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and genius choreographer Yuri Possokhov, who finds new depths in dance, Anna Karenina, Joffrey Ballet’s first commissioned score, redeemed its promissory notes perfectly…
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Dance Review: MATTHEW BOURNE’S CINDERELLA (International Tour at The Ahmanson in Los Angeles)
IF THE BLITZ FITS… The audacious, eccentric and flashily theatrical choreographer, Matthew Bourne, is a man full of interesting ideas, most of which, under close scrutiny, are fairly half-baked, but prove catnip to dance enthusiasts while driving serious balletomanes to distraction. There’s the famous all-male Swan Lake and a theatricalization of The Red Shoes, the…
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Dance Preview: HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO (Musco Center for the Arts)
HUBBA-HUBBA-HUBBARD As one of the world’s most important contemporary dance companies, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago encompasses a vast array of techniques and forms, as well as an understanding of abstract artistry and the emotional nuances of movement. With an exuberant, athletic, and innovative repertoire, Hubbard Street presents performances that inspire, yes, but also challenge how…
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Dance Preview: THE GREAT TAMER (Dimitris Papaioannou at Royce Hall, UCLA)
A CREATOR WHO CAN’T BE TAMED Dimitris Papaioannou, who uses the human body to create vignettes brimming with humor, horror, circus-like stunts and optical illusions, has conceived, visualized, and directed The Great Tamer, a visually stunning and surreal pageant that grapples with the meaning of life, the mystery of death, time, destruction and reconstruction. This surrealistic and…
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