At one performance of David Parker’s Nut/Cracked in 2005, three-quarters of his audience walked out prematurely. But the same moment that caused the offense—a duet between two men with their thumbs in each other’s mouths—earned Parker hearty laughs from the remaining crowd, and eventually an enthusiastic standing ovation. Humor is subjective, and it can be […]

After spending years in the studio honing your ability to express yourself with your body, movement can come to feel like the most natural method of communication. Yet in today’s contemporary dance field, speaking has become a necessary performance skill: More and more, choreographers are asking dancers to double as actors, spoken-word artists and onstage […]

Leriche in Kyle Abraham’s Counterpoint. Photo by Todd Rosenberg, Courtesy HSDC. Emilie Leriche Both delicate and strong, Emilie Leriche can move with the softness of a cool puff of air or strike a pose worthy of the mythic huntress Diana. She crystallizes moments in time with the magic of a born performer. And she’s whip-smart—as […]

The company teams up with Chicago’s iconic Second City comedy troupe.      Dancers Alice Klock and Kevin Shannon. All photography by Quinn Wharton.   Hubbard Street Dance Chicago boasts a serious, technical rep heavy on enigmatic choreographers like William Forsythe and Jirí Kylián. But this season, the dancers have taken on a whole new […]

    From All the Earth’s Corners EDINBURGH The global reach of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is awe-inspiring. At the top of the dance agenda is the beguiling union of kathak/postmodern wizard Akram Khan and powerful Taiwanese modern dancer Fang-Yi Sheu. Their collaboration Gnosis is based on an ancient story about a blind king […]

  Jacqueline Burnett in Forsythe’s Quintett. Photo by Cheryl Mann, Courtesy Hubbard Street   In her hometown of Pocatello, Idaho, Jacqueline Burnett grew up skiing, hiking and mountain biking. She trained with Romanian ballet master Marius Zirra and joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2009 after one year of apprenticeship, during which she graduated with […]

Double the Diva MONTE CARLO    What do you get when you combine the sublime dramatics of Diana Vishneva and the stylish eloquence of Bernice Coppieters? Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Switch, which comes to the Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo Dec. 18–19. Maillot chose a cinematic score by Danny Elfman for the work, which features longtime Les […]

The Mariinsky in Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. Photo by Natasha Razina, Courtesy Mariinsky.   One Hundred Years Later May 29 marks the centennial of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. Dance artists pay tribute to the original provocateur around the world (probably without the riots, but one never knows):     Akram Khan Company in […]