Tiler Peck's Thrilling Debut as Aurora

posted Thursday, Feb 04

 

 

 

 

The second she appeared, the whole stage came alive. She was light and happy as the 16-year old princess, but not too happy. She never pushed it. She danced with her customary crispness, but also with the assurance and graciousness befitt… Read More >

 

I'm here at the Prix de Lausanne

posted Sunday, Jan 31

This world renowned competition emphasizes potential, and there was plenty of it in the finals earlier today.  The big winner is a boy from Argentina who studies at the Ben Stevenson Academy in Houston. His first round was a solo from La Sylphide, in which he made a beautiful present… Read More >

 

J.D. Salinger Liked Dance and Here Is How I Know

posted Friday, Jan 29

I met J.D. Salinger around 1982 and visited him several times. He had a collection of old movies he loved to watch. One time he set up his screen and projector for me and watched a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. After all, the parents in his famous Glass family, Les and Bessie, had been a song-and… Read More >
 

Exhilarated by David Zambrano’s “Soul Project”

posted Sunday, Jan 24

His performers were all so intense that at times they were hypnotic. Their solos, danced to soul music, were each unpredictable: hell-bent or convulsive, with sudden stops or loosenings. And each of the six dancers, including David (pronounced d… Read More >

 

Where is the humor in Agon?

posted Thursday, Jan 21

 

 

 

It’s there, in the choreography, but I don’t see it in the dancing. I never really focused on it before, cause there is so much going on in that ballet—the bold lines, the now-thick-now-thin Stravinsky music, the mathematics of trios, … Read More >

 

Haiti, Katherine Dunham’s “Island Possessed”

posted Tuesday, Jan 19

The catastrophe in Haiti made me re-look at what Haiti has meant in the dance world. It was the place and culture Katherine Dunham fell in love with, the place that helped her build her dance vocabulary and her spiritual, artistic self. If it weren’t for her researc… Read More >

 

Freddie’s Gems

posted Tuesday, Jan 12

It’s such a privilege to hear Freddie Franklin talk about his decades of dance experience—he is 95!—that I decided to write it down for those of you who missed his talk at the Guggenheim Works & Process program last night. It&r… Read More >

 

Oh Why oh Why Is Ragtime Closing?

posted Thursday, Jan 07

 

 

 

 

Ragtime is an epic, irony-infused, emotionally wringing experience. I can’t believe it’s closing because it’s one of the glorious things on Broadway. I left feeling fully satisfied, energized,… Read More >

 

Talking About Momentum

posted Wednesday, Jan 06

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements was nonstop… Read More >

 

Martha Graham Needed Her Rage

posted Friday, Jan 01

I had heard about the fights with Louis Horst that were part of Graham’s creative process, but I had no idea how violent their sessions were—and how necessary. Dorothy Bird, who danced with Graham in the 1930s, descr… Read More >

 

Best of 2009 (and a few Worsts)

posted Wednesday, Dec 30

As usual, I have no discipline when it comes to narrowing down my favorites to 10 best. There are way too many performances and people that I loved. 

On another note, the deaths of two giants, Me… Read More >

 

Why Is Memphis Staying Open and Bye Bye Birdie Is Closing?

posted Saturday, Dec 26

A few decades back, when Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke danced and sang in Bye Bye Birdie, I loved it and learned all the songs. Dick Van Dyke was funny, vulnerabl… Read More >

 

Does Choreography Need to Have Momentum?

posted Sunday, Dec 20

I just saw a performance that had everything going for it except one thing. It had interesting movement, a sense of humor, terrific music (on tape), a fascinating diversity of dancers, a beautiful visual setting (with hundreds o… Read More >

 

"Dance Porn": Is It an American Curse?

posted Friday, Dec 18

I’ve been thinking about Roslyn Sulcas’ term “dance porn” that she used to describe Rasta Thomas’ “Rock the Ballet” in yesterday’s  New York Times (click hereRead More >

 

A Light Bulb Crashed to the Floor

posted Monday, Dec 14

An uncanny thing happened in the middle of Arkadi Zaides' work in progress. Being a quartet for two Jewish men and two Arab men, it was very intense--the most intense, hard-to-watch thing I've seen here at International Exposure at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. One duet sequence had two men… Read More >
 

Fish and Fowl in Israel

posted Friday, Dec 11

I've only been in Tel Aviv one day and have already seen two fantastic pieces. The first was Rooster by Barak Marshall. The second was Trout by Inbal Pinto. Both were totally absorbing and consuming and represent the best of International Exposure, which is sort of the Israel APAP but also for the pu… Read More >
 

Why Is a Performer with Cerebral Palsy the Perfect Faun?

posted Wednesday, Dec 09

 

 

 

A faun is half man and half animal. Gregg Mozgala is half man and half invalid. His upper body is wiry, strong, beautiful. So is his lower body; it just doesn’t work so well. As he explained in a talk after Tamar Rogoff’s Diagnosis of a … Read More >

 

Ballet Hispanico Breaks Through

posted Thursday, Dec 03

 

 

 

 

Andrea Miller’s new Nací demolished all stereotypes of Ballet Hispanico. Like … Read More >

 

Giving Thanks for NYCB, Its Music & Theater

posted Wednesday, Nov 25

I got chills as the NYCB orchestra came into view, slowly rising magically so that the whole audience could see them—and hear them better. I hadn’t known that a movable orchestra pit would be part of the big renovation of the David H. Koch Theater (formerly NY State Theater), so I was … Read More >

 

Female Power, Male Power in Fela!

posted Monday, Nov 23

 

 

 

Fela!, which opens tonight at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, starts with an intoxicating wave of female pelvic power. Fifteen or 20 gorgeous women dance to Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat music all over the stage, and Marina Draghici’s fant… Read More >