Dance
678 results
Page 57
Melanie Stewart's "Kill Me Now' at Live Arts Festival
'They Shoot Horses' meets 'The Gong Show'
Choreographer Melanie Stewart and writer John Clancey seize on the pop-culture mania of dance contest shows to examine the sadistic role of competition in our society and in capitalism. To make their point, they enlist the audience as co-conspirators.
Kill Me Now. By John Clancey; choreographed by Melanie Stewart. Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre/ Live Arts Festival production September 4-7, 2009 at Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St. (at South St.). 215.413.1318 or www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=8371.
Articles
4 minute read
Kate Watson-Wallace's "Store' at Live Arts Festival
A gospel for consumers
Kate Watson-Wallace's “anonymous bodies” troupe brought its audience to an abandoned Rite-Aid pharmacy, now transformed into a set for a shopping network's infomercial. The choreographed tight, manic rhythmic dancing contrasted tellingly with the surrounding consumer chaos.
Articles
2 minute read
"Urban Scuba' at Live Arts/Fringe Festival
Urban survival test, in a swimming pool
In an abandoned Center City swimming pool, Brian Sanders's visual assortment of dance theater magic brought the kind of performance energy to the Gershman Y that's been missing there since its salad days in the '60s.
Articles
2 minute read
Merce Cunningham's final challenge
Merce Cunningham confronts the future (from the grave)
The late Merce Cunningham was ferocious about protecting his dry, acerbic, difficult, complicated and often downright incomprehensible work. Now his greatest challenge lies ahead— namely, can a choreographer preserve his vision from the grave?
Articles
4 minute read
In Bosnia: Dance conquers fear
A Bosnian Odyssey: Dance will bring us together
When I arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina in June for a two-month humanitarian stint as a volunteer dance teacher, the challenge seemed daunting: In this tragic country, torn apart in the ‘90s by ethnic cleansing, could Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats possibly dance together, much less live peacefully together? Within a few weeks I got my answer.
Articles
5 minute read
90 years of Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham remembered: At 90, still taking my breath away
People I know who don't quite respond to Merce Cunningham's dance often complain that it looks too mechanical. Well, if it does, that's what I always loved about it.
Articles
4 minute read
BalletX "Hot Summer Series' (2nd review)
A spunky newcomer finds confidence
BalletX has segued from an intriguing experiment into a mature local institution with a viewpoint and edge all its own, as this spunky little troupe demonstrated in its second summer program as the Wilma Theater's resident dance company.
Articles
4 minute read
BalletX "œHot Summer Series": Neenan and Gates (1st review)
Sometimes older is better
Jodie Gates's new but dreary Inevitable Kiss contrasted sharply with Matthew Neenan's older but inventive and prop-driven Broke Apart in the BalletX “Hot Summer Series.”
Articles
5 minute read
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Pina Bausch: a personal memory
She made dance theater out of life
Pina Bausch, who died June 30, changed our perception of ballet, modern dance and theater. Wherever she went, she soaked up the essences of a community and then held what she absorbed back up to it like a mirror— as I discovered firsthand when she visited Arizona.
Articles
6 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "La Sylphide' (2nd review)
Why La Sylphide (yawn) survives
In theory, we're all anxious to see our local ballet troupe perform new and experimental work. The truth is that nothing suits ballet dancers or their audience better than these oldies but goodies with corny nonsensical stories, big sets, plenty of costumes and character parts for witches and zombies and crazy folk of all kind.
Articles
4 minute read