Dance

690 results
Page 55
Gibson's 'Vested Souls': Find the meaning.

The dance season: Nine highlights

In search of honest generosity: A backward glance at the dance season

Whether because of the economy or burnout, Philadelphia's 2010 dance season was thinner and weaker than in past years, in terms of intelligent dancers opening themselves to the choreographer's vision and then channeling it to us. Merilyn Jackson finds nine encouraging exceptions.
Merilyn Jackson

Merilyn Jackson

Articles 5 minute read
Ochoa (top) and Torrado: Love without words.

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Romeo and Juliet'

Who needs Shakespeare?

Shakespeare may be history's greatest playwright, but the Pennsylvania Ballet's current production of Romeo and Juliet proves that we don't need a great writer to tell a great story.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read
‘Requiem For a Rose’: Heartbeat or serpent? (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Program IV'

From the familiar to the experimental

“We Can Do Anything” should have been Pennsylvania Ballet's title for its May performance. In a well-balanced program the company performed works as wildly different and separated by time and choreographic sensibilities as can be imagined.

Janet Anderson

Articles 5 minute read
Samantha Barczak: Parable of regimentation. (Photo: Gabriel Bienczycki.)

"Braving the New World' by Rebecca Davis

Orwell and Huxley meet their match

Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World shaped the course of modern thought. But Rebecca Davis's choreography has gone those cerebral works one better, enabling us to see and feel how totalitarian regimes work in practice.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read
Goodman (left), Cox in 'Carry Me': Return of a real-life mother. (Photo: Bill Hebert.)

BalletX's Spring Series (2nd review)

Xperimental and xciting, too

Feisty BalletX's Spring Series was sophisticated and polished, offering four new ballets, each from (mostly) new choreographers.

Janet Anderson

Articles 4 minute read
Colby Damon, Jennifer Goodman in 'One Word Play': Dancers as individuals. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

BalletX's Spring Series (1st review)

Ballet for people who don't particularly like ballet

Classical ballet has become a closed and rigid system. BalletX offers an antidote, opening up ballet to new movements and new forms of expressiveness.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 3 minute read
Lorenzo: Like a terrified animal. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's Chopin Celebration

Experiments with Chopin

Choreographers Matthew Neenan and Jerome Robbins both heard something in Chopin's work that suggested movements far removed from gentle early 19th-Century dances. Combine the three of them, as Pennsylvania Ballet's Roy Kaiser did, and you have an exciting program combination.

Janet Anderson

Articles 5 minute read

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Jonathan Bowman, Laura Stiles in 'Carmina': Happy peasants. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Program II'

Mathew Neenan takes (too many) liberties

Pennsylvania Ballet's version of Balanchine's Four Temperaments demonstrates that artists know more about life than philosophers. Matthew Neenan's take on Carmina Burana, on the other hand, tells us more about the artist than about life.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read
Mathis, Steigerwald: What's in a woman's chest?

Pink Hair Affair's "Take It Off!'

This was burlesque— or was it?

Pink Hair Affair's Take It Off! purports to blend burlesque and modern dance, although its pieces rarely achieve a mix of either.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 3 minute read
The power and grace of the natural world.

New Zealand's Black Grace at the Kimmel

Samoan energy heads west

In a memorable performance, the thrilling and brilliantly executed New Zealand company Black Grace integrated many aspects of modern dance with Samoan and South Pacific indigenous dance forms. The result was no cut-and-paste assemblage, but a new art form.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 6 minute read