Areas We Cover
Categories
Dance
-
Dance Review: VAN MANEN: DUTCH GRANDMASTER (San Francisco Ballet)
At 92, Hans van Manen remains a towering figure in European choreography—a master of form, musicality, and provocation. Van Manen: Dutch Grandmaster, San Francisco Ballet’s four-part tribute to the Dutch icon, is more than a retrospective; it’s a sensual and cerebral immersion into a choreographer whose style is at once spare and lush, abstract and…
-
Dance Review: MARTHA GRAHAM (Program C at The Joyce)
The Martha Graham Dance Company is back at The Joyce for its 99th season with a new dance concert titled Dances of the Mind, featuring 11 works across three programs through April 13, 2025. I saw Program C, and it was a moving, powerful experience. Janet Eilber, the exquisite Artistic Director of the dance company,…
-
Dance Review: THE WINTER’S TALE (ABT at Segerstrom)
EXIT, PURSUED BY MOVEMENT THAT CUTS DEEP Jealousy doesn’t sneak in. It bursts. You can see it take hold of Leontes the second doubt flickers behind his eyes. His body folds in. Hands clutch at air. His spine locks. His stare slices across the room, scanning for proof that isn’t there. This isn’t some vague…
-
Dance Review: Dance Review: DIABELLI & SLACKTIDE (Twyla Tharp Diamond Jubilee at Kennedy Center)
AN EXERCISE IN JUBILATION In the midst of a Trump takeover of The Kennedy Center, thank goodness one production wasn’t canceled or withdrawn from the roster. I’m talking about Kennedy Center Honoree Twyla Tharp’s Diamond Jubilee modern dance tour. The iconic choreographer is celebrating 60 years of impeccable dance. With astounding dancers equipped with strength,…
-
Dance Review: FRANKENSTEIN (San Francisco Ballet)
STITCHING TOGETHER BEAUTY AND HORROR: SF BALLET’S ELECTRIFYING FRANKENSTEIN San Francisco Ballet’s Frankenstein, a co-production with The Royal Ballet of London, had its world premiere in London in 2016 and its American premiere with SF Ballet the following year. Now returning for an engagement through March 26 (with an encore April 26 to May 4),…
-
Dance Review: HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO (The Joyce Theater in New York City)
HUBBA-HUBBA HUBBARD STREET “It’s not magic, but it should seem like it is.” That advice came from a veteran jazz musician in the 1930s as he counseled a young aspiring player. In many ways, that nugget of truth applies to the world as dance as well. Closing in on its fifth decade, few contemporary dance…
-
Dance Review: DIABELLI & SLACKTIDE (Twyla Tharp Diamond Jubilee at New York City Center)
THARP LOOKING SHARP AT NY CITY CENTER Ten polished, pseudo-suited dancers graced New York City Center with playful panache in Twyla Tharp’s Diabelli (1998)– one of two pieces in the Diamond Jubilee program, running through March 16. Their polite yet zingy attitudes, melding with Anton Diabelli and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 120, imbued the theater…
-
Dance Review: GOLDEN HOUR (Joffrey Ballet Mixed Rep)
JOFFREY ADDS SURPRISE TO A PROGRAM ALREADY BRIMMING WITH EXCELLENT DANCE Joffrey Ballet certainly must be conscious of its earth shifting habits. More likely, its propensity for greatly broadening ballet’s possibilities has been welded into the dance company’s DNA. Joffrey’s four-piece winter program Golden Hour showcases adventurously inventive choreography and splendid dance converge to prove borders and limits…
-
Dance Review: ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER (The Auditorium Theatre in Chicago)
THE PERPETUATION OF LEGACY Once a year we’re reminded of the unique space Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) occupies in the global dance sphere. And every year we’re also reminded how the venerable dance company remains as relentlessly intent on stretching its horizons as it is in honoring and maintaining the legacy of its…
-
Highly Recommended Dance: 15th ANNUAL WINNING WORKS CHOREOGRAPHIC COMPETITION (The Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet)
The Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet’s 15th annual Winning Works Choreographic Competition is set to showcase five world premieres that are guaranteed to stir things up. This annual event, which highlights ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American) choreographers, gives a fresh platform to voices that are shaping the future of ballet. With…
-
Dance Review: TANGO AFTER DARK (Germán Cornejo at the Joyce Theater)
NOT YOUR AVERAGE TANGO Tango: a dance with European, Argentinian and Cuban influences, born in the impoverished backstreets of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, raised in smoky bars and brothels, and now, in all its seductive, high-voltage glory, has come a long way from these humble beginnings, and is now burning up the stage…
-
Dance Review: GOLDEN HOUR (Joffrey Ballet Mixed Rep)
JOFFREY ADDS SURPRISE TO A PROGRAM ALREADY BRIMMING WITH EXCELLENT DANCE Joffrey Ballet certainly must be conscious of its earth shifting habits. More likely, its propensity for greatly broadening ballet’s possibilities has been welded into the dance company’s DNA. Joffrey’s four-piece winter program Golden Hour showcases adventurously inventive choreography and splendid dance converge to prove…
-
Dance Review: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (American Ballet Theatre at Kennedy Center)
DISAPPOINTING CRIME PUNISHES Based on Choreographer Helen Pickett’s riveting dance interpretation of The Crucible at the Kennedy Center in 2023, I highly anticipated her version of Crime and Punishment performed by American Ballet Theatre. However, at Wednesday‘s opening something was lost in the translation (the show runs through Sunday). Instead of capturing the crescendo of…
-
Dance Review: COOL BRITANNIA (San Francisco Ballet)
BREATHTAKING BRITANNIA San Francisco balletgoers are in for a treat this month with Cool Britannia. Actually, as proved at last night’s opening, a better title would be Breathtaking Britannia. Now, that’s an apt description of this triple bill of one-act ballets by British choreographers. The cultural explosion of the mid-90s, known as Cool Britannia, fostered…
-
Dance Review: ALONZO KING LINES BALLET (“Mother Goose” and “Tribute to Alice Coltrane” at Segerstrom Hall)
Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Double Bill of Ravel’s Mother Goose and King’s Tribute to Alice Coltrane presented a fascinating study of how two musical worlds—one rooted in French impressionism and the other in American jazz spirituality—can be bound together through movement. King’s choreography bridged these contrasting styles, creating an immersive experience of transformation. The evening…
-
Highly Recommended Dance: WINTER SERIES 2025 (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at the Harris)
HUBBARD STREET’S WINTER SERIES PRIMED TO UNLEASH DANCE FIRE “It’s not magic, but it should seem like it is.” That advice came from a veteran jazz musician in the 1930s as he counseled a young aspiring player. In many ways, that nugget of truth applies to the world as dance as well. Closing in on…
-
Dance Review: MEMORYHOUSE (Los Angeles Ballet at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
KEEPING MEMORY ALIVE Memoryhouse, which premiered in 2023 as the first full-length ballet directed by Los Angeles Ballet’s new Artistic Director Melissa Barak, is an abstract work composed of vignettes commemorating World War II, all of which focus on aspects before, during, and after the Holocaust. Barak choreographed the ballet to Max Richter’s powerful 2002 album…
-
Dance Review: MANON (San Francisco Ballet)
MAN, OH MANON, DOES SF BALLET EVER DELIVER San Francisco Ballet opened its season last weekend with Manon—the first in its “British Icons” series—the sumptuous and heartbreaking ballet by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Based the hugely influential novel L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the colorful Abbé Prévost, Martin Yates arranged and…
-
Dance Review: MALPASO DANCE COMPANY (Emerson Paramount Center in Boston)
When I first heard about Malpaso Dance Company, Cuba’s preeminent contemporary dance ensemble, I misheard their name—I thought they were called “Mariposa,” the Spanish word for butterfly. But after last night’s performance, I realized my mistake held a certain wisdom. The dancers flitted, flew, fluttered, and floated across the stage like butterflies in the sky….
-
Highly Recommended Dance: MEMORYHOUSE (Los Angeles Ballet at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
YOUR MEMORY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME With its gripping ensembles, intense partner work and evocative movement, Los Angeles Ballet’s Memoryhouse tells personal and collective stories of loss, resilience, and the events of World War II and the Holocaust that forever altered history. Breaking traditional theatrical norms, this full-evening work by Melissa Barak combines contemporary ballet with stunning immersive…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
