My New Year’s resolution for this blog was to post a compilation review every month, but coronavirus has upended that plan along with everything else. Hope you're well and happy at home, and see you back at the theaters when they safely reopen. Instead, I want to revisit the last live performance I saw, American …
February Digest: Caleb Teicher, Pam Tanowitz, SF Ballet, Blue13
At any dance performance I attend, whatever the style, musical accompaniment or scenic elements, I most closely observe how the choreographer is talking to me through movement. I don’t mean the dancers should literally speak up from the stage, with words. I mean the choices the choreographer makes with body placement and movement to communicate …
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Review: JA Collective, A.I.M. & Contra-Tiempo
I have been reviewing dance concerts for 37 years. It’s been such a privilege – as well as a responsibility -- to do this for a living. It has brought me great joy. But I’ve lately been craving a shakeup of my routine. I have been thinking about how to change the lens through which …
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Review: Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake,’ Again
“Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake” is back for a month of performances at the Ahmanson Theatre, the site of its 1997 U.S. premiere and its follow-up engagement in 2006. This remarkable revision of the seminal 19th century ballet became a sensation on its first trip here from London. It was called the “gay Swan Lake,” because …
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Thoughts on Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet
The annual — sometimes biannual — performance by Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet has come to feel like a special L.A. summer tradition, akin to s’mores around a beach fire pit or music at the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater. This year, that single performance at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A. (thank you, Wendy …
Review: Barak Ballet New Repertory
The opening tableaux of “Pretty, Peculiar Things” is an announcement that Melissa Barak has good things in store. Unexpected things, like the backward toss of a ballerina. Subtle humor. And a lively stage atmosphere overflowing with a deep kinetic intelligence of what movement can express. Barak keeps it fresh. She’s a dance-maker’s dance-maker. Here’s the …
Missing Bella
At age 81, Los Angeles’ modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky closed down her dance company. That was 22 years ago and her works have been revived only sporadically since then. A good portion of her repertory is in danger of being gone for good, which would be a terrible outcome. A few people, happily, have …
Review: ‘Pepperland’ & Raymonda, etc.
Mark Morris — that most-musical choreographer and sometimes-conductor, who was the 2013 director of the Ojai Music Festival — has shown little interest in setting his dances to rock ’n’ roll or other popular music. So “Pepperland,” seen this weekend at the Segerstrom Center, is an outlier. The piece was a commission, made for the …
A Breakthrough Season
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills announced this week that its 2019-2020 dance season will be stocked with Los Angeles-based dance companies--only. It is, I believe, the first time a Los Angeles theater presenter has programmed a complete dance season just with L.A.-based companies. Quite a milestone. Artistic director Paul …
Review: Misty, Calvin & ABT’s ‘Harlequinade’
“Les millions d’Arléquin” was a fluff-ball of a ballet, popular with audiences from its debut in 1900 until its last performance in 1929. It had a goofy comedic story, a lovely score by Italian composer Riccardo Drigo and unvarnished yet gracious choreography from the French-Russian ballet master, Marius Petipa. Now, American Ballet Theatre has staged …
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