Dance

Review: ‘DEMO’ at Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

No curtain opened on the black and white picture of Jerome Robbins, smiling, in a sweatshirt, a hand on his forehead and another on the chest of one of his two dogs. There was no boundary unrolled, no...

Review: ‘Belén Maya: Romnia’ at URBN Black Box Theater

The life of a Gypsy is hard. For centuries the Romany people, who are commonly referred to as Gypsies, have been persecuted across Europe. They have been discriminated against and have been subjected...

Review: ‘The Red Shoes’ at Kennedy Center Opera House

Generations of budding ballerinas have lusted after the shiny crimson satin pointe shoes in the classic 1948 film The Red Shoes. Who can resist those shoes, they make the wearer dance, and dance, and...

Review: ‘Lotus’ at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater

Tap dancers are family. As family they gather together, catch up, trade stories, reminisce, honor their forbears and simply, yet profoundly, enjoy each others’ company. Saturday evening’s sold-out...

Review: VelocityDC Dance Festival

Velocity is speed with purpose: a change in distance over time, crucially defined by direction. The VelocityDC Dance Festival took us in many. In its ninth iteration, the variety-style performance,...

Interview: Dominic North Discusses ‘The Red Shoes’ and Life As a Dancer with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company

Based on the film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Red Shoes comes to The Kennedy Center October 10 – 15, 2017. The Red Shoes received two...

Review: Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Performance of ‘EroSpace’ and ‘When Snails Collide’ at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

It’s often difficult to shake off the pre-conceived notions and expectations of what a particular dance concert is going to be like. I am not exactly clear on what I expected with from EroSpace and...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Kink Haüs’ by Gunnar Montana at The Latvian Society

Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll have long been the rallying cry of post-modern youth, and Gunnar Montana takes that hedonistic call to its most emphatic, explicit, and artistic extremes in Kink Haüs....

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘(insert thoughts here)’ by Bradley’s Bucks at Franky Bradley’s

In a delectable mash-up of the 2017 Fringe with an extended Restaurant Week, Franky Bradley’s gives festival-goers the option of enjoying dinner while attending the latest all-new offering by its...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Mistress of the Maze’ by WeftWorks at CHI Movements Art Center

Hypnotic, transportive, and exquisitely beautiful, Mistress of the Maze marks the unforgettable debut of WeftWorks with its stunning world-premiere performance in the 2017 Fringe. Created,...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘. . . strand . . .’ by JUNK at Grays Ferry Crescent Trail Park

A transportive adventure awaits Fringe-goers in JUNK’s . . . strand . . ., as Brian Sanders and his stunning troupe contemplate the enigma of the time-space continuum in a dreamlike meditation on the...

Singing From a Trapeze: Interview with Tangle Movement Arts’ founder, Lauren Rile Smith

Lauren Rile Smith, a Philadelphia poet and performer, founded Tangle Movement Arts in 2011. She has trained trapeze and other circus arts at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts and many other...

Review: ‘New York – The Melting Pot’ at Soulpepper on 42nd Street

The first in Soulpepper Theatre Company’s three-part musical celebration of the history of diversity in New York – The Melting Pot pays tribute to Lower Manhattan, from Battery Park to Chelsea....

From Bethlehem to Philadelphia: An Interview with Rami Khader, Director of the Diyar Dance Theatre

Director Rami Khader, along with a group of talented and committed artists, both male and female and of differing ages and backgrounds, founded Diyar Dance Theatre in 2008. Based in Bethlehem, their...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Shinka’

The post World War II Japanese dance theatre form, Butoh, is traditionally performed in white body make-up. Slow controlled movement, body tension and muscular involvement may rely on elaborate...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Aflight’

There is no doubt in my mind that Jane Franklin Dance’s Aflight brings something special to Fringe. Usually based in Arlington, this group blends music, dance, and visual art in a way that is not only...

Review: ‘Ballet, Brass & Song: Chamber Dance Project’ at Sidney Harman Hall

Baseball players take the winter off. Football players do the same in the summer. Ballet dancers are of a different breed. When their companies go on hiatus, typically in early June, they find other...

Review: ‘Rebollar and Friends: 40 and Up!’

We’ve all heard the cliches about aging: Life begins at 40. You are not getting older, you are getting better. Age is just a number. Once a man, twice a child. The inspiring dance repertoire Rebollar...

Review: ‘Still Life with Rocket’ at Theater Alliance

A few facts are laid at your feet as you move through a couple of simple rooms. Black and white video on old portable television shows a boxing match, which is no match for the clutter. A person...

Review: ‘Swing!’ at the Gateway Performing Arts Centre of Suffolk County

Currently playing at the Gateway Performing Arts Centre of Suffolk County is Swing! a song and dance showcase celebrating the classic sounds and dance steps of the swing era. It is a swirling,...

Review: New York City Ballet: 2 Programs of Works by Balanchine, Peck, Ratmansky, and Wheeldon

Urgency propels them forward. In a blink there are flashes of precise articulation and rapid fluidity as sweeping curves carry a leg overhead or propel a body high in the air. Dancers merge from...

Review: ‘New York City Ballet: Works by Balanchine, Peck, and Ratmansky’ at The Kennedy Center

Last evening’s ballet concert at The Kennedy Center was one of those magical evenings of dance. Sipping champagne and not talking politics, balletomanes gathered on the sprawling deck that surrounds...

Review: ‘(In)Security: Or, Jack and Nikki Do the Cold War Tango’ at The Kennedy Center

Memorial Day this year coincided to the day with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy. To commemorate the occasion, The Kennedy Center put on a full weekend of events,...

TODAY Only: ‘Tribute to Classical Ballet’ at L’Etoile, The Classical Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Dance Preview: L’Etoile Dances a Ballet Gem Pretty, pastel costumes, new ribbons on the toe shoes, tiaras that sparkle bright as a shiny new penny – these are signs of spring recitals where young...

Review: ‘My Funny Bone’ at Brian Sanders’ JUNK

In My Funny Bone, the latest offering from Brian Sanders’ JUNK, the boundary-breaking choreographer/dancer traces the evolution of his, let’s say, “eccentric” sense of humor from childhood to the...

Review: ‘Fronteras: A Door in the Desert’ by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre at FringeArts

I held my breath in glorious anticipation at several instances during Almanac Dance Circus Theatre’s captivating show Fronteras: A Door in the Desert. A Door in the Desert is the second part of...

Who’s in Town?: Debbie Allen Discusses Hosting the CityDance DREAMscape Gala on Saturday, May 6th at 8pm

Folks looking for a good cause and a night of show-stopping entertainment need look no further than CityDance’s annual DREAMscape Gala. This Saturday, May 6, donors can expect performances from the...

Review: ‘crazy beautiful’ at FringeArts

How are dances created? What might inspire a choreographer? Specifically, how does Tania Isaac develop a dance? What role does the viewer have in it all? These are some of the questions that come to...

Review: ‘Bradley’s Bucks’ at Franky Bradley’s

Acrobatic, athletic, comic, and erotic, Bradley’s Bucks have it all and delivered it all upstairs at Franky Bradley’s in their latest high-energy offering. Founded, led, and directed by Teddy Fatscher...

Review: Howard University’s Spring Dance Concert: ‘Unjust’

Every time I send a reviewer to Howard University to review a show they always have this reaction: “Oh My God!!” And there were many divine moments when I saw the final perfomance of Howard...

Review: Hamburg Ballet: John Neumeier’s ‘The Little Mermaid’

In this production, John Neumeier adapts the classic 1837 tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid. The production, not only explores the story of a young woman who wishes to have a human...

Review: ‘Cave of the Heart’ By the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

“Archaic/Modern” is not only the title of the estimable exhibit of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi mid-20th-century works at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Archaic/modern describes...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of The Little Mermaid, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, is a gorgeous spectacle of storytelling through dance. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen...

In the Moment: Atlas Intersections Festival 2017: Four Dance Troupes: Company Danzante, Jane Franklin Dance, Gin Dance Company, and Rebollar Dance.

This year’s Atlas Intersections Festival has a theme of “where the art world and the real world intersect. The Festival aims to “engage audiences and artists alike by sparking conversation, deeper...

Review: Balé Folclórico da Bahia at the Merriam Theater

They say “music is the universal language.” Balé Folclórico da Bahia definitely proved that in their one-night-only performance in Philadelphia at the Merriam Theater. The show, Bahia of All Colors,...

Review #2: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is back at The Kennedy Center for a week-long run. Now 57 years old, the company pulls from a repertoire dating back to 1960. Using a combination of...

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is looking as strong and beautiful as ever in its annual February visit to The Kennedy Center Opera House. Now in his sixth year as artistic director of the...

Review: Mariinsky Ballet’s ‘The Little Humpbacked Horse’ at The Kennedy Center

Movement and merriment abound in Mariinsky’s The Little Humpbacked Horse Restraint and sutlety are generally not traits associated with Russian comedy ballet, and that proved true last evening at The...

Review: American Ballet Theatre’s ‘Swan Lake’ at The Kennedy Center

American Ballet Theatre Offers Magical Moments of Escapism The grey cloud of uncertainty that hovers over all, especially dance, lifted last evening at The Kennedy Center Opera House, if only for a...

Review: ‘Doug Varone and Dancers’ at the Prince Theater

Congratulations are in order! Doug Varone and Dancers (a contemporary/modern dance company) is celebrating its 30th anniversary! Doug Varone’s creativity has stood the test of time. In top form, Doug...

Review: ‘Image China: Confucius’ at The Kennedy Center

It seemed fitting somehow during a full moon, on Friday the thirteenth, to be attending Confucius on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Kong Dexin, a 77th-generation direct descendent of Confucius...

Review: ‘Red Bull Flying Bach’ at The Warner Theatre

Not a soft drink, not a circus, Red Bull Flying Bach, with music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, and conducted by Christoph Hagel, and choreographed by Yui Kawaguchi (contemporary dance) and Vartan...

Review: Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show

With the audience seated in the round on a floor shared by the playing space, you could feel the whole place shaking and quaking. It was no subterranean tremor; it was the ebullient Step Afrika!...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ at Metropolitan Ballet Theatre

Metropolitan Ballet Theatre’s 28th annual production of The Nutcracker is a veritable feast for the senses. With a gorgeous array of costumes, a set that will evoke contented sighs from any Downton...

Review: Estampas Porteñas Tango Company’s ‘Deseos’ at the Music Center at Strathmore

Images of the people of Buenos Aires, estampas porteñas, created nostalgic dreams of longing and desire in distant lands and rich cultures as the Estampas Porteñas Tango Company presented Deseos, a...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ at Ballet Theatre of Maryland at Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

Visions of sugar plum fairies quite literally danced in my head and into my heart last night at the Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s first performance of The Nutcracker this season, on November 23, 2016,...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ by the Cincinnati Ballet at The Kennedy Center

We know the holiday season is upon us when theaters around the country begin to put on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic The Nutcracker. The Cincinnati Ballet’s production at The Kennedy Center,...

Review: ‘DanceWorks Fall 2016’ at The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance

This past weekend, The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance presented DanceWorks Fall 2016. The program consisted of nine separate dance pieces, each by a different...

Review: ‘What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice’ at Dance Place

Walking into Dance Place for the world premiere of choreographer and dancer Vincent Thomas’s What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice, an homage to Marvin Gaye, the great Northeast D.C. native...

Review: ‘Salvador’ by Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company at GALA Hispanic Theatre

There’s good news and bad news floating out of GALA Hispanic Theatre this week. First, the bad news. Salvador—the full-length autobiographical dance drama, choreographed by the great Flamenco dancer,...