"In the U.K. next month, a dance artist who has epilepsy will attempt to induce a seizure on stage. Rita Marcalo has stopped taking her medication ahead of the event at the Bradford Playhouse, according to the BBC News. "If she has a seizure, an alarm will sound and the audience will be invited to film on their mobile phones," said the report."
"You might not expect a project subtitled “A multi-media dance drama based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead” to generate laughter. But, then, you may not know about Krissy Keefer, the local dancer/choreographer/producer/feminist/activist/provocateur who operates out of San Francisco’s Dance Mission Theater."
In his most famous utterance, he said that dancing “gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”
"All of these slippery subjects are the matter of Bill T. Jones’s “Serenade/The Proposition,” an hourlong work that reaffirms this artist’s gift for creating powerful theater but reveals little of sustained choreographic interest."
"Lady Gaga, the pop star known as much for her baroque wardrobe as for her music, will be performing with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet in a new work that will be presented at gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles."
"This film records three days of rehearsals by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, Calif., an extraordinary space overlooking San Francisco Bay and the hills beyond."
"Paula, who has also been linked to Australian Idol since quitting the American version of the show, said she "might need a break from judging for a while".
..."we asked Michael Jackson's own dancers — the talented men and women working alongside the King of Pop as they rehearsed for his "This Is It" concert series — if they could give us tutorials about Jackson's iconic dance moves. Even if you can't nail 'em all, you'll have a pretty good time trying."
"The company sets out to rouse spectators through a program of nonstop visual astonishment, and the biggest affront wouldn’t be boos but the reverential silence of a ballet recital."
Alastair Macaulay writes: "The audience was near fever pitch throughout Tuesday evening at City Center for the first night of the annual Fall for Dance programs."
"Under the discouraging circumstances, ABT used its ingenuity, and commissioned a program of site-specific dances by Alexei Ratmansky (formerly the director of the Bolshoi Ballet, now ABT's Artist in Residence and already a favorite with American dance fans), and Benjamin Millepied and Aszure Barton, whose careers are conspicuously on the rise."
"You can take any concept and make it good or make it bad. You have to be very careful about how you tell the story with dance -- if it's too literal, it's too corny."
"With their lithe, gravity-defying bodies and their wordless presence, ballet dancers often seem so otherworldly and ethereal that it's a shock to see them looking and acting like the rest of us normal slobs."
"PETA cited concerns about how great apes are separated from their mothers, beaten and shocked in training, and discarded once they become too large to handle safely. PETA also sent Green this short video, narrated by Anjelica Huston, which illustrates the many problems associated with using great apes on TV and in film."
"Forsythe returns with Decreation, a work that challenges our notions of dance in the 21st century and asserts his place as one of the world's most innovative choreographers."
"Dancing with stress fractures on both feet, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay did a red, white and blue samba that earned him a score of just 15 Monday night on "Dancing With The Stars."
"As the numbers of subscribers and ticket buyers decline, dance groups are looking for enticements, beyond actual performances, to get audiences to queue up at the box office."
"It is Jenkins' particular genius that even on the crowded stage, she leaves a kind of mental space for our minds, for viewers to fill in the interstices with our own memories, experiences, impressions."
"Now, Jenkins, the doyenne of Bay Area modern dance, has returned with another crosscultural project, this one with members of China’s Guangdong Modern Dance Company, fashioned here and in Asia over the past couple of years. "
Veteran choreographer Margaret Jenkins and her dancers join forces with China's Guangdong Modern Dance Company for "Other Suns," an intersection of cultures and ideas, which premieres Thursday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
"I'm interested in the ways we do — and do not — communicate with other cultures, and in what we think we have the right to assume about what people feel," Jenkins says. "I want to create situations in which I'm vulnerable to new ways of thinking and learning."
"Patrick Swayze, the actor and classically trained dancer whose role in the enduringly popular "Dirty Dancing" made him a movie star, one who struggled with the alienation of fame and against being typecast as a leading man, died Monday."
"A difficult choreographer with a popular following, a minimalist with a tendency to dramatise, a reticent person with a lot to say … Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is a fascinating contradiction."
"Off Kilter will showcase the country's (Scotland's) eclectic dance traditions, and will include new work by choreographers Mark Morris and Ashley Page."
“Arlene has managed to get City Center back to a place dance audiences want to go,” said Alistair Spalding, the artistic director and chief executive of Sadler’s Wells."
"If you’re interested in the dance theater of Mark Morris, then the fragmentary dramas of his two new pieces, “Visitation” and “Empire Garden,” are strange and fascinating; they show him moving in unfamiliar directions."
"The piece was inspired by some poetry that I was reading by a couple different poets, but they were all about people’s memories and the types of flashbacks you get with memory that don’t have anything to do with the moment you’re living in"
"Shows like ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" and Oxygen's "Dance Your Ass Off" are drawing millions of viewers and helping expose audiences to the art of dance."
"As my companion remarked, the first half felt like a Martha Wainwright concert with some dances tacked on. The second half, however, became more substantial in terms of both dance and Ms. Wainwright’s music."
" In June, at a point when Cunningham was still working, the foundation unveiled a "Living Legacy Plan," which broke the difficult news that the dance company and the school would shut down (after one international farewell tour) following Cunningham's death."
"The weekend engagement, scheduled as a regular part of the Evening Stars series in the River to River Festival in New York, will now function as a tribute to Cunningham, who died peacefully at his home on Sunday, at age 90. Shortly before his passing, the choreographer gave instructions for how to assemble the three 'Events' that the company will perform."
"One of the final works by the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died on Sunday, was a site-specific piece created for Rockefeller Park, where it will be performed on Saturday and Sunday as part of the River to River Festival."
"The effect of Merce's profound creativity will remain as a beacon throughout all of the arts. He was a warm and kind collaborator with a special appreciation for music and musicians. He was constantly working on new ideas and gave so many people the courage to explore."
"It was an innovative move in a career marked by innovation. But with Cunningham’s death Sunday, his foundation finds itself in the difficult position of having to fund the $8-million plan as it simultaneously goes into effect."
"Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.
"Cunningham once typed in his notes that dancing 'is not for unsteady souls.' His soul was supremely steady, but primed to embrace risk and make new discoveries. He woke up our eyes to see dancing for itself—as complex, fleeting, and often irrational as life. I will write at more length when I’ve accustomed myself to his absence."
"Wim Wenders has decided to forge ahead with Pina, his 3D dance film about legendary choreographer Pina Bausch, who died last month...At the time, Wenders put the project on hold, subject to consultation with Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal. Today, both sides confirmed that they would carry on the collaboration, citing letters from the public urging them to do so."
"Dandelion Dancetheater’s 'MUTT' is mad and maddening, a wild whirl of song, text, visual design and movement whose anarchic energies sometimes seem shot straight out of Dada."
"Jessica Miller Tomlinson is kind of choreographer du jour after winning last month's feisty competition, 'The A.W.A.R.D Show,' at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Her new work, 'Architecture: Splintered and Cracked,' unveiled over the weekend as part of Thodos Dance Chicago's "New Dances 2009," suggests that success is no fluke."
"Summerdanz (Friday and Saturday) This festival of contemporary dance at Dance Theater Workshop ends with ColleenThomasDance and a program featuring collaborative work by Ms. Thomas and the composer Chris Lancaster."
"The choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta, no fool apparently, gives the film center stage for several minutes during “Des Gens Qui Dansent,” which had its United States premiere on Wednesday night at Jacob’s Pillow, performed by his troupe, Groupe Émile Dubois, in its first appearance in this country in 20 years."
"Emanuel Gat Dance returned to the Lincoln Center Festival with 'Winter Variations' and 'Silent Ballet.' Once again Mr. Gat offered a middling vision of choreography: not too cold and not too hot, his work falls somewhere in the land of tepid."
"LeWitt occasionally froze the action, and when an immense image of Childs appears for the 20-minute solo that separates Dance's first and last parts, it looks like a still shot. Until she blinks. Glamorous, with beauty so severe that she makes Garbo at her stoniest look approachable, the Childs of 30 years ago made it clear that she was not out to seduce an audience, but to present intriguing equations."
"The six featured artists added up to a superior buffet, though it was clear that you might want to skip one or two items if you came back for a second helping. The performers mingled premieres with repertory and reconsiderations, live action with film."
"A longtime union lawyer was arrested and charged on Tuesday with embezzling approximately $150,000 from a union representing dancers and stage managers at American Ballet Theater, federal prosecutors said. "
"The usual flips and somersaults were ever present as Pilobolus Dance Theater performed to a sold-out crowd at the Joyce Theater on Monday night, but the main attraction was a bit of shadow play."
"Though the phenomenon feels new, it is of course part of one of the oldest trends in human history. People have been congregating to dance since civilization began. The digital means of dissemination are recent, but the act itself is as ancient as eating and sleeping."
"'Dog•id,' which will open at the Joyce Theater this week as part of Pilobolus’s month-long run there, is its most elaborate and longest shadow work yet. And it bears the hallmarks of one of its most unusual collaborators: Steven Banks, the head writer of 'SpongeBob SquarePants.'"
"The sudden death of the German choreographer Pina Bausch last month left a wrenching hole in the lives of the dancers who dedicated themselves to her work in Wuppertal, a small city east of Düsseldorf. And it raised an essential question for all dance companies that exist to serve a lone creative voice: What happens when that voice is silenced?"
"It boasts a good, fresh lineup that showcases quality artists who represent the richness that is Bay Area dance. Including world premieres by experienced artists is always a good programming decision, and these are judiciously chosen."
"Expectation and fulfillment can make uneasy bedfellows: 'Orbo Novo' is not, unfortunately, a dazzler. Hints that it wouldn’t be, at least for the cynically inclined, could be found in the overly stuffed program notes..."
"Aficionados of dance music are used to waiting until the wee hours to catch top-of-the-line talent. But especially in summer an array of early parties, some outdoors, offer a respite from late nights and expensive clubs, allowing people with day jobs the opportunity to hear the latest in experimental beats and still be at the office on time in the morning."
"The summer calendar has been marked for dancing since 1933 when American dance pioneer Ted Shawn and his company of Men Dancers gave their first performances at Jacob's Pillow, his 163-acre farm in Becket, Mass."
"There's a certain unfettered joy, a cinematic moment when your dancing under the stars at Lincoln Center. The music is often timeless and the groups that attend come from various backgrounds and age groups. Its always a sizable, fervent crowd but never over-crowded."
"The National Endowment for the Arts announced 631 local arts groups have received direct grants totaling $29,775,000 as part of the American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act."
"Modern-dance pieces are now widespread in ballet repertories, and Mr. Reinhart said he wanted to pay homage to Mr. Taylor, Ms. Tharp, Ms. Dean and Mr. Morris for their efforts to unite the two arenas."
"I'm not saying you can't tweet a review. You can, and plenty of people do. I'm saying that tweeting a review in its entirety misses out on one of Twitter's major strengths: turning people on to something cool."
"Director Wim Wenders has stopped production on the planned 3D dance film 'Pina' following the death of the film's subject -- the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch."
"At 32, Cherkaoui is a rising star of European dance, and the fact that he agreed to collaborate with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet on his first piece for an American company, spending months on the process, is a major artistic coup for the bold young troupe."
"Ultimately, Bausch’s gift wasn’t for destruction but creation. She was a tough-as-nails realist ready to see the dark side of things. But whatever falls apart in her work sooner or later gets put back together again. She made catharsis a profound picking up of the pieces. And she was also good for a laugh and for coming up with a tune that stuck with you. How are we going to get along without her?"
"igel Lythgoe announced today that he is teaming up with director Adam Shankman, 'Dancing with the Stars' judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Katie Holmes to launch the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a foundation for the dance community that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth."
"Pina Bausch, the German dancer and choreographer who died aged 68 on Tuesday, five days after being diagnosed with cancer, was the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years, creating a much-imitated fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, sexual drama and danced body language, known as Tanztheater."
"You can count on one hand the number of modern-dance-makers who have changed the landscape – and Pina Bausch was one of them. Even though she never created a style that could be taught in the classroom, as Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham did, her influence went far and deep."
"The festival, which will run from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3, will open with a Boston Ballet performance of Nijinsky’s 'Afternoon of a Faun,' originally created for the Ballets Russes at its Paris premiere."
"Keith V. Goodman, a beloved figure in the Portland dance community, has died of an apparent heart attack. According to his longtime partner, Bill Flood, Goodman lowered himself gracefully to the ground as he concluded a performance outside the Beaverton library around noon Saturday."
"I can’t think how many hours I spent hunched over the video monitors at the library for the performing arts, watching grainy footage of her early, iconic pieces. And then being blown away when I finally saw one of her epic dance-theater works live."
"While the world mourns Michael Jackson – and, yes, the late king of pop played this medieval city in 1988 – there is scant evidence of moonwalking at this year’s annual Montpellier Dance Festival."
"Online videos from around the world have begun pouring in showing people singing, dancing, crying, smiling and mourning a man who shared his great talent with the world."
"If you are a fan of the unknown, follow SCUBA, the six-year-old brainchild of small-budget presenters in Seattle, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and (since 2005) Philadelphia."
"Creating iMixes is easy and it's a fun way to promote upcoming performances to the huge number of iPhone/iPod owners. In addition, through the widget, you can encourage fans and online supporters to embed the song list on their websites and blogs."
"Dover Beach, Michelson's finest work to date, is also the one with the most dancing. As usual, she has remodeled the performing space, collaborating with Parker Lutz."
"Rainer was a major figure in dance in the 1970s but took a 25-year hiatus to concentrate on filmmaking. In an interview with Susan Josephs that appeared in Sunday's Calendar section, Rainer said returning to dance felt 'like coming home. I have always loved working with dancers, and as soon as I’m around dancers the ideas start to flow.'"
"Mr. Harris is known primarily as a hip-hop choreographer, though in 'Philadelphia Experiment' he takes his movement vocabulary further, building irregular rhythmic phrases that show more than the brashness of a leap but the way the dancers hover in the air."
"With the move to the Durham Performing Arts Center, the festival gets a major upgrade, but a budgetary crisis has forced the festival to cut a full week — and a quarter of its marquee mainstage productions — from its calendar."
"The idea is to use communal dance as way of healing the earth, a concept and practice as old as humankind. Some hardy souls, event instigator Anna Halprin among them, have been participating since the beginning, 29 years ago."
"Adoniou collaborated with dramaturge Talal Al-Muhana on 'Rags al Moza,' a free-associating piece of absurdist dance theater that falls short as cultural commentary, but succeeds as a framework for bits of beautiful movement experimentation."
"On Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater unleashed some real choreography. It was, blessedly, an all-Ailey program with two important bookends: 'Blues Suite,' from 1958, and 'Revelations,' his 1960 masterpiece."
"Its cool surfaces thrum with simmering heat, as well as with often disturbing power dynamics and erotic undertones, particularly in one dramatically lighted section toward the end that features Greg Zucculo partnering the diminutive, terrifically spooky Allegra Herman."
"You always want to see her next work because you can sense the questioning spirit that leads her into unexpected terrain. Her own nine-year old company, im'ij-re — with its excellent dancers — is the place where she can experiment in the way the tight schedules of more traditional ballet companies (her latest commission was for Colorado Ballet this spring) don't always have the means to support."
"Merce Cunningham, the nonagenarian choreographer, is planning for a world without him. He has decided that when he dies, or when the right time comes, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will embark on a final two-year international tour and then shut down, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, which supports the company, announced on Tuesday."
"Though there is nothing overtly political about Brown Ceres' choreography, her dances are forceful and affirming of female identity. At their best, they draw you in because of the complexity of the impulses that generate and control them."
"The arts are where hope lives. And right now, as the very tenets of civil society are being re-written, and as health and human service needs rise, there is legitimate concern about whether the arts will survive, how the arts can thrive."
"Celebrating the 'screendance' genre, the Dance Camera West festival kicks off this weekend with its eighth year of screenings. More than 30 films -- most made independently -- will be screened at half a dozen L.A. venues during the three-week fest."
"'Dancing Across Borders' is an 88-minute love letter to Cambodia, to ballet, and to hard work. Like every good love letter, it conveys the preciousness of the intangible."
"The awards, given by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, cite excellence in performance, choreography, design, music and other categories for L.A.-area dance presentations."
"Damrosch's reasons for helping OBT also help us form the basis for thinking about future rescue efforts -- and in this economy, all arts organizations are under stress. Here is her list..."
"A commemorative edition DVD of Judith Jamison's Emmy-winning 'A Hymn for Alvin Ailey' television special will be available along with the soundtrack to Alvin Ailey's landmark Blues Suite, on CD for the first time."
"Bland, a New York native who moved to Paris after a stint in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is an exuberant dancer. At Symphony Space on Friday night she alternated the three films with three dances, knitting them together seamlessly without room for applause."
"Sliding down the banister in companionable two’s, or racing up the steps as if in pursuit, the dancers filled the structure with a sense of pulsating vigor that could dissolve into dreamy lassitude."
"My husband and I believe strongly that art education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders of tomorrow," she said."
"He is somewhat serious when he talks about the glue factory. Dancers don’t often get to perform this late in their lives, nor call so many of the shots. Particularly in ballet, stage retirement comes early."
"Last weekend...as the musicians David Behrman, Robert Black, Shelley Burgon and Matana Roberts accompanied the Cunningham company’s final three Events of an almost two-year series at Dia:Beacon, the lines that came to mind were Caliban’s: 'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,/Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.'"
"The La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival is a three-plus week smorgasbord of samplers, wide-ranging in style as well as quality. While you sometimes hunger for a more rigorous curatorial eye, it is also nice to be surprised by the accidental synergy of shows..."
"William & Mary students, faculty and staff have broken the Guinness World Record for the most people doing the Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance simultaneously in one location."
"It's one of the peculiarities of Bay Area dance that so many choreographers are drawn to creating site-specific installations. Some work with an existing space, others add their own touches."
"'The company laughs at me while I sit on the side of the stage reading American History books,' giggles Sabra Perry, a dancer with Complexions for nine years. A former member of the National Ballet of Canada, Perry works towards her BA Degree at Empire State College between seasons."
"Expression is, indeed, the main issue here. On opening night in New York, it was obvious that the dancers had been rehearsed within an inch of their lives."
"Everything about Christopher Williams’s 'Golden Legend,' is extravagant, outsize: the star-studded cast of 39, the three-hour length, the gorgeous puppets, detailed costumes and 11-member music ensemble, even the program booklet, complete with footnotes and translations.
"We have too few chances these days to see Graham’s works in the theater. You can hardly miss the faults of 'Clytemnestra,' and yet you can hardly miss the imagination that qualifies Graham as one of the great dramatists of 20th-century theater."
"As the director Mr. Woetzel lands big names — Savion Glover, Edward Villella and his Miami City Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company — but aims for intimacy, inviting a few artists to talk as much as they perform."
"The sums at stake are comparatively small, but a contract dispute between a choreographer and the 92nd Street Y has caused a stir in the field — and provided a glimpse into the fraught relationship between struggling dance makers and presenters."
"So the upcoming Graham season will prompt debate, not only about "curatorial" methods, but more radically about the need to preserve historic dances."
"The lights dimmed and I made my way upstage center and felt my back press against the wall. My leg lifted from the ground, foot flexed, and I walked forward as the first piano chord struck; everything that followed is a complete blur."
"The double bill comes courtesy of SCUBA, the national touring network created by ODC Theater, Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, and the Southern Theater in Minneapolis."
"In commemoration of the group's 50th season, legendary dancer and Alvin Ailey veteran Renee Robinson reflects on the institution's golden anniversary."
"Arts administrators say they are fighting a subsidiary effect of the recession, a creeping perception among their largest and most reliable corporate supporters that contributing to the arts is somehow elitist and excessive at a time of rising unemployment and general economic hardship."
"They were the leading lights of Serge Diaghilev's company, Ballets Russes - and now, 100 years on, dance companies around the world are marking the centenary of that tumultuous first Paris season."
"Officials hope to use culture and art to improve America's image by sending the dancers to countries - such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Brazil - where its reputation has suffered in recent years."
"For the work, created in celebration of his 25 years in dance, Mr. Petronio opted for something new instead of a retrospective. His bizarre impersonation of a captain marks a departure, but the bulk of 'I Drink the Air Before Me' assembles his usual tools: ferocious speed, rigorous structure and dancers who ravel and unravel like ribbons."
"Ms. Brown, whose newest dance, 'L’Amour au Théâtre,' will have its premiere on Wednesday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a program spanning more than 40 years...has undergone several radical transformations of her own, including, most recently, going public as a visual artist."
"The festival kicks off this weekend, offering free public events, including classes, rehearsals and performances, celebrating dance of every culture and genre."
"Their first work, 'Abjection in America (2007),' a work that 'examines what we don't like about ourselves,' gained the young company an invitation to this year's prestigious Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts."
"'Glimpse,' like all of Shick's pieces, is richly sensuous, gentle yet robust, and forthright yet full of mysteries. She's attentive to small details and nuances of movement."
"The sense that Mr. Bensard is intrigued by the personage of Ms. Childs rather than by her choreography subtly infuses the film, although he does a good job of cramming in the outlines of her career."
"Just as he mastered pirouettes years ago as a young dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov is getting the hang of asking friends and strangers to donate to his nonprofit Manhattan arts center."
"In the work Ms. Shanahan tries to use movement to transform herself from the inside out, but the result is a meandering solo that explores impulses as they occur and reoccur in her body."
"The setting of 'Domestic Partner' is worth a visit in its own right. The whitewashed, bare rectangular space of the Chocolate Factory is dotted with sculptural objects that turn the everyday into something stranger."
"Long concerning itself with social issues, modern dance is increasingly incorporating environmental themes into its works—both artistic and otherwise."
"This is the second year that Eliot Feld has taken it upon himself to present Horse, a talented and appealing five-man troupe from Taiwan that is billed as a guest company under the aegis of Mr. Feld’s Mandance Project at the Joyce Theater."
"Dance Theater Workshop is one of many organizations that have invested in buildings in recent years, hoping for homes in which to safeguard their artistic mission. But these spaces have become burdens, contributing to escalating deficits."
"Rumor confirmed: the 2009 season will be one week shorter than usual, covering five and a half weeks from June 18-July 25. The festival has also cut the number of marquee main-stage presentations this year from 13 to 10, a reduction of almost 25 percent."
"In this first engagement since announcing his plans to leave in August, Hubbard artistic director Jim Vincent serves up reminders of his steadfast devotion to in-house choreography."
"Travel, it seems, is on Ms. Shick’s mind. But in 'Glimpse' she hasn’t yet spent enough time exploring her dancers’ inherent American and Hungarian sensibilities to land on solid ground."
"'North Star' was very well staged by Peggy Baker and John Dayger; the Juilliard dancers did them proud. In an age when "edginess" and inscrutability reign in dance, it must be a treat for them to be simply, liquidly, romantically lyrical."
"The site (synchronousobjects.osu.edu) is both a research tool for exploring the structures of a dance and a wildly creative extrapolation of the way that those structures can be pictorially expressed."
"No wonder the performers often look as if the ground were slipping from under their feet and their twisting joints and swinging limbs were encountering impermeable air. Melding with another is almost impossible."
"Mr. Naharin doesn’t scrimp with his cast. Exposing the theater’s wings, he uses 36 dancers who move with such explosive power, control and sensuality that by the end they almost trick you into thinking that they are members of his own Batsheva Dance Company."
"I know times are rough and budgets are tight. But I was shocked when I received an e-mail notice informing me that the budget for the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) was about to be slashed by 50%."
"Seattle is the last step in the audition process, which has already been to New York; Miami; Los Angeles; Denver; and Memphis, Tenn. From here, the producers head into callbacks, slated for April in Las Vegas."
"Given how hard these two dancers work, olfactory sensations also become integral to this latest version of an extraordinarily compelling investigation of how we perceive each other and ourselves."
"It’s interesting to contemplate why some artists are able to leave you feeling fine — even exhilarated — by the realization that you have absolutely no idea what’s going on."
"I've suggested this before, but I'll try again: Wouldn't it be cool if--along with its first committment, to new work--such palaces of experimentation as Dance Theater Workshop, the Kitchen, Danspace Project, PS 122, and Dixon Place had festivals of second looks?"
"Duets aren’t always about physical contact, and this work is a yearning commentary on the ties between us that stretch but do not break. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is also a fractured dance."
"'Eonnagata' is likely to disappoint anyone looking for a continuance of the earlier collaborations between Guillem and Maliphant. But on its own terms it is a fascinating evening and never less than beautiful to look at not least because of McQueen's wonderful costumes and Hull's magical lighting plot."
"This opening-night program, which featured Ms. Belilove’s Isadora Duncan Dance Company, also included an appearance by Cynthia Gregory, the former American Ballet Theater star, who recalled the time Agnes de Mille instructed, 'I want you to be real people onstage.'"
"It's one of Armitage's gifts to make each of the 11 dancers in Drastic-Classicism vivid as an individual, even though they're prone to joining in tangles and chains, like an unruly organism in flux. Smoothness and delicacy are sometime things."
"Three of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s most senior dancers — and among the most respected artists in contemporary dance — were told two weeks ago that their contracts would not be renewed at the end of their current period of employment in May."
"They’re aware of both the space around them and the space within—the way impulses flow along neural pathways and muscles anticipate motion. From absolute stillness, they can explode into full-force, yet precise action.
"Though signature Taylor moves recur, his dancers give astoundingly different performances in each, and we’re taken far in three very different directions."
"Paul Taylor's luminous new 'Beloved Renegade' could not, I think, have been made by a younger choreographer. It speaks of an artist's visions and memories, his regrets, and his awareness that death is nearer than it was a decade ago."
"Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche says touring for her dance collaboration with British choreographer Akram Khan was so exhausting she's unlikely to take part in a similar project again."
"The five dancers — all male theater artists capable of piercing intensity and precision — were riveting in the series of absurdist and surrealist exercises that characterize much of 'The Smala B. B.,' the hourlong work they performed on Tuesday night."
"For Guillem, life after classical ballet has turned into a golden age, one in which her sense of adventure has been rewarded time and again by the contemporary choreographers that she has chosen to work with."
