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Dance
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Dance Preview: SPECTACULAR BALANCHINE! (American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles)
HAVING A BALL WITH BALANCHINE By the time of his death on April 30, 1983, George Balanchine had created over 400 works and was recognized as a 20th-century master alongside Picasso and Stravinsky. American Contemporary Ballet’s Artistic Director Lincoln Jones has already shown a profound ken for all things Balanchine with his original works that…
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Dance Preview: BODYTRAFFIC (The Wallis)
FIVE NOT-SO-EASY PIECES BODYTRAFFIC, the contemporary dance outfit headquartered right here in Los Angeles, has smartly scheduled three performances of this weekend’s upcoming showcase of exciting works — including a Company Premiere and a World Premiere — at The Wallis in Beverly Hills. The last four times I saw this exciting company (three at the Broad,…
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Chicago Dance Review: MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre)
JOFFREY STEPS OUT OF A DREAM, OR DELUSIONS OF A SCANDINAVIAN SOLSTICE First, a necessary clarification for A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The title and the setting could easily confuse lovers of, respectively, William Shakespeare and Ingmar Bergman. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not a ballet version of the former’s quicksilver 1595 comedy of rearranged lovers and quarreling fairies….
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: STARDUST (Complexions Contemporary Ballet at The Music Center)
BOWIE’S BACK … AND FORTH Founded in 1994 by a pair of former Alvin Ailey dancers and frequent contributors to the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance, New York-based Complexions Contemporary Ballet has wowed critics and audiences alike with their boundary-breaking style of ballet. Now Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden bring their acclaimed…
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Music and Dance Preview: TAO: DRUM HEART (International Tour)
TAIKO ME AWAY Ever since man could bang a stick on a rock, percussion has been a way for humans to express themselves. From the battlefield to the theater to your teenager’s bedroom, percussion has evolved from communicative and ritualistic purposes into an art form. We take for granted the use of percussion — primitive,…
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Dance Review: GISELLE (Dada Masilo & The Dance Factory at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
WILIS AT THE WALLIS First staged in 1841, Giselle is one of the oldest surviving ballets still in the international repertory, especially because the lead role is a showcase for the world’s leading prima ballerinas. Since its inception, the Romantic story ballet has had several revisions, but most companies follow Marius Petipa’s fin de siècle version. Now, South African…
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Dance Preview: ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET (on tour at The Soraya in Northridge)
NOW YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SANTA FE Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) celebrates the third year of its four-year residency at The Soraya with a program of three works that celebrate the company’s commitment to creating new contemporary dance. The entire evening, which plays only once — this Saturday April 7, 2018 at 8…
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Chicago Dance Review: HUBBARD STREET SPRING SERIES (An Evening of Alejandro Cerrudo at the Harris)
CERRUDO’S SPRING FLING It’s now dance history but, performed last weekend at the Auditorium Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s annual Spring Series, An Evening of Alejandro Cerrudo, delivered some exciting goods. This four-work salute to the creativity of the young, Madrid-born choreographer testified to his transformative alchemy. With rigor and style, Cerrudo turns dance into stories….
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Dance Review: ROMEO AND JULIET (Joffrey Ballet)
SUCH SWEET SORROW FOR THE WRONG REASONS It’s as if choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, director of the Polish National Ballet, gave Prokofiev the opportunity to protest Stalin’s tyranny that he never had in 1940. Pastor’s two-act treatment of the Russian’s celebrated three-act ballet carries no Renaissance finery, just real-world immediacy. Premiered by the Scottish Ballet in…
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Chicago Dance Review: 8TH ANNUAL WINNING WORKS (Joffrey Academy of Dance and MCA, Chicago)
LITERAL LEAPS INTO THE FUTURE It’s all over — but this review of record is as much a promissory note as a remembrance. Worth noting as much as seeing, Winning Works, the Joffrey Ballet’s debut of four trail-blazing works at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, carried a train load of future reference. Both encouragement to cutting-edge…
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Chicago Dance Review: MODERN MASTERS (Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre)
MOVEMENTS WITHOUT DEMANDS Modern masters indeed. A splendid showcase for steps and leaps, Joffrey Ballet’s annual winter engagement always brings fresh glory to the state of their art. Modern Masters, now enthralling the Auditorium Theatre through February 18, presents four works, only one on a return visit, that test the imagination of dance as much as the…
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Concert Review: MEOW MEOW (with Pink Martini’s Thomas M. Lauderdale)
THE DIVINE MISS MM When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramovic allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? And when you hear the term “cabaret,” do you think of tired patter, same-old showtunes, and folks who’re trying to jump-start their career? Well, prepare to…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: ASTAIRE DANCES (American Contemporary Ballet)
I’LL TAKE ASTAIRE’S WAY TO PARADISE The great ballet choreographer George Balanchine compared Fred Astaire to Bach, and Baryshnikov claimed Astaire gave him an inferiority complex. Katharine Hepburn once said about his partnership with Ginger Rogers: “He gives her class, and she gives him sex.” Astaire himself said, “I don’t make love by kissing, I…
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Theater and Music Preview: IL RITORNO (Circa Contemporary Circus)
AN OPERATIC CIRCUS ODYSSEY The uber-innovative Australian performance troupe, Circa, returns to the States with its newest production, Il Ritorno, a unique production that melds circus arts with Baroque opera to explore themes of loss and displacement. This special engagement takes place one night only, Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at the gorgeous Musco Center for the…
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Los Angeles Music and Dance Preview: Mí„LKKI, STRAUSS & DANCE (Zimmermann’s Cello Concerto & Alpine Symphony, Susanna Målkki and the LA Phil)
DANCE! U.S. PREMIERE! ALPINE SYMPHONY! One of the reasons that the LA Phil is doing better than ever is the programming variety. With plenty of classics, we are also getting a slew of new music, much of it seeing its premiere at The Walt Disney Concert Hall (there will be over 50 such works next…
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Dance Review: SOFT GOODS (Karen Sherman)
SOFT GOODS’ SMOOTH SELL Karen Sherman’s Soft Goods presents the audience with a new perspective on dance by focusing on what happens behind the curtain. The show is set up like a play that explores the stagehands’ job, the dancers’ rehearsals and the less-than-pleasant interactions between the two groups as they come together to create a…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE (American Contemporary Ballet)
BUSTING A NUTCRACKER Before you grumble and run screaming, “Not another Nutcracker Suite!” — trust me when I tell you that American Contemporary Ballet has something up its red-fur, white-trimmed sleeve with an all-new imagining that presents new choreography while putting you directly inside the Land of the Sweets. When I was told patrons will…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER (Miami City Ballet World Premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
CRACK AWAY Miami City Ballet’s new redesign of the magical George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker will feature enchanting new costumes and sets by the Cuban-American artist/designer power couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Balanchine’s glorious choreography, and Tchaikovsky’s beloved timeless score. The production, co-commissioned by The Music Center, will have its world premiere in Los Angeles on…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: MALPASO DANCE COMPANY (part of CUBA: ANTES, AHORA / THEN, NOW at The Music Center)
THE RYHTHM OF CUBA COMES TO THE MUSIC CENTER FOR ONE DAY ONLY Cuba: Antes, Ahora / Then, Now is a celebration of the art of Cuba, and Angelinos will get the chance to experience the country’s dynamic arts from November 30-December 2, 2017. Among the more than 48 world-class Cuban musicians, dancers and visual…
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Los Angeles Dance Review: INFERNO (World Premiere Ballet from American Contemporary Ballet)
ACB’S JOURNEY INTO HELL: THE ONE TIME YOU MIGHT WISH THE TRIP WERE LONGER Inferno, American Contemporary Ballet (ACB)’s season opener was a musical blast from the past with a twist. Just in time for Halloween, Artistic Director Lincoln Jones’ latest ballet—set to music from Charles Wuorinen’s seven-part opus The Mission of Virgil—was one for…
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