Dance

‘Cinderella’ at The Russian National Ballet Theatre at Hylton Performing Arts Center

I attended the Russian National Ballet Theatre’s enchanting Cinderella on Friday night at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Cinderella moves to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on April...

‘Cinderella’ at Ballet Theatre of Maryland at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric

Entering the closing phase of this season, Maryland’s premier ballet company –Ballet Theatre of Maryland (‘BTM’)- returned to the scene of last season’s major artistic triumph in Swan Lake for a...

‘Cinderella’ at American Ballet Theatre at The Kennedy Center

Just as the cherry blossoms come out, pure romance is in the air with Cinderella at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is performing this three-act ballet...

‘MindFluctuations’ at Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Last night, on Thursday, March 19, 2015, at Lisner Auditorium, Maida Rust Withers, artists from Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (MWDCCo), and Composer/Musicians John Driscoll and Steven C....

‘Just Be’ at Revision Dance Company

On Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 4 pm, the audience at Dance Place was treated to an enlightening and entertaining dance-video performance titled Just Be, by ReVision Dance Company, a resident company...

Arts Collective Dance Company Concert at Arts Collective @ HCC

HCC puts cutting edge moves on display Those looking for a quick introduction to what’s hot in contemporary dance could spend a small bundle on a whirlwind expedition to New York. Or they could stop...

Moveius Dance in World Premiere ‘Glacier’ Intersections Festival at Atlas Performing Arts Center

My phone told me it was 14 degrees as I made my way to the Atlas Friday evening. A fitting temperature for the world premiere of a work titled Glacier, by Moveius Contemporary Ballet. By day Diana...

In The Moment: An interview with Choreographer Shu-Chen Cuff of the Gin Dance Company on Appearing at Intersections at Atlas

Over the past several years, Shu-Chen Cuff and the Gin Dance Company have been making impressions on the DC area dance scene. Established in Reston, Virginia, the award-winning Gin Dance Company has...

Howard Community College Presents Arts Collective’s Dance Company Concert March 5 to 8, 2015 by Susan G. Kramer

Ninth-annual dance concert to feature inspiring contemporary works from locally and nationally recognized choreographers – performed by outstanding HCC students, and guest artists Continuing its...

‘Juiced’ at The Clarice

Tia Nina’s Juiced rocked the Dance Theatre at The Clarice for a solid hour on Saturday, February 7, 2015. This trio of fearless performers, Leah Curran Moon as J Van Stone, Ilana Silverstein as Sammy...

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia’s ‘Swan Lake’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia brings an ethereal and breathtaking production of Swan Lake to Baltimore For over one hundred years the compelling and romantic ballet Swan Lake, set to the music of...

Savion Glover’s ‘STePz’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

Friday night an enthusiastic and sold-out crowd voraciously devoured Savion Glover’s show STePz featuring American tap dancing icon Savion Glover, Marshall Davis, Jr, and the 3 Controversial Woman aka...

‘Deep Roots Wide World’ at Teatro de Danza Contemporanea at Dance Place

“Long title and long history,” said Dance Place Co-Director Deborah Riley to introduce DC Contemporary Dance Theatre, which has also worked under the moniker El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea. Its...

In the Moment: Chamber Dance Project Prepares for 2015 Summer Season at The Lansburgh

Who wouldn’t find it fascinating to listen to a performing artist describe a path to creativity to “put myself in a box as a way to take on a task or a new problem. Then to force myself to go and find...

‘Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’ at The Kennedy Center

Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater returned to The Kennedy Center last evening with a tribute to its famous six-foot tall Texan director. Ailey died 25 years ago and filling his size-12 shoes has...

Mariinsky Ballet Featuring Hodson’s ‘Le sacre du printemps,’ Fokine’s ‘Le Spectre de la Rose’ and ‘The Swan,’ and Petipa’s ‘Paquita Grand Pas’ at The Kennedy Center

Russians return to the glory days of ballet Ulyana Lopatkina could have wrapped up The Kennedy Center and taken it home with her after her performance in The Swan, a.k.a. The Dying Swan, created by...

The 32nd Annual Choreographer’s Showcase at The Clarice

The 32nd Annual Choreographer’s Showcase at The Clarice offered up an evening of dance ranging from the outwardly exuberant, to the internally nuanced, and emotions in between. The evening’s...

‘Ascendance’ at CityDance

This weekend in the CityDance Studio Theatre at Strathmore, CityDance Onstage Ignite presents Robert J. Priore‘s Ascendance. CityDance Onstage Ignite is a program geared toward showcasing the work of...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2014: A Year in Dance 2014 by Lisa Traiger

My year 2014 in dance opened in January with a return of the now annually visiting Mariinsky Ballet to The Kennedy Center Opera House. Though the company brought “Swan Lake,” the company’s signature...

The Moscow Ballet’s ‘Great Russian Nutcracker’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

Be prepared to be dazzled. When this reviewer spotted hundreds of young children, mostly girls 3 to 16 in pretty party dresses, swarming through the lobby of George Mason University’s Center for the...

Ballet West’s ‘The Nutcracker’ at The Kennedy Center

Ballet West blends old & new in holiday classic Remember the way the holiday season used to make you feel? Remember walking around full of expectation, certain that wonderful, impossible, magical...

The Christmas Revels: ‘An Irish Celebration of the Winter Solstice’

The Washington Revels takes to the sea for their 2014 production and explores the music, dance, and stories of Irish immigrants. It is a rollicking good time and a poignant exploration at the...

‘BSO: Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker’ with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Step Afrika! at Strathmore

“There are two kinds of music, good music and the other kind,” big band leader, composer and D.C. native son Duke Ellington famously said. In 1960 he turned to Russian powerhouse Peter Ilych...

‘Join in the Dream’ at ClancyWorks at Dance Place

Join in the Dream featuring ClancyWorks Dance Company and Guest Choreographers, Deborah Riley and Susan Shields, performed this weekend at Dance Place, and provided a contemplative evening of modern...

‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

Fiddler on the Roof remains a musical theater audience pleaser, as it has been for five decades. The Arena Stage production is handsome and solid. Under Molly Smith’s direction, the Arena’s Fiddler...

Enter by Monday, November 3rd at 2 PM to Win a Free Pair of Tickets (15 Pairs to Give Away) to Dakshina’s ‘Fall Festival of South Asian Music and Dance’

Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company is offering 15 Free pairs of tickets to DC’s 11th Annual Fall Festival of South Asian Music and Dance November 6-8, 2014, at 8 pm At Shakespeare Theatre...

‘Beijing Dance Theater’ at The Kennedy Center

Chinese dancers meander through the grass without a GPS It can be a long ride home to Baltimore from the Kennedy Center, especially on a rainy night. After last evening’s Wild Grass presentation by...

‘Chéri’ at The Kennedy Center

Revisiting Chéri – and a Baltimore visionary The venerable Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts turned avant-garde last night with the return of modern dance maven, Martha Clark, and her latest (and...

‘creature’ at Deviated Theatre at Dance Place

In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic novel Oryx and Crake, the cutting-edge of modern science creates the Crakes, genetically modified human beings whose beauty is only matched by the healing power of...

‘NextDANCE’ at The NextNOW Fest at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

The NextNOW Festival at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has a wonderful line-up of performances running through this Sunday, September 14th at the gorgeous arts space on the University of...

Savion Glover at The Howard Theatre

There are those who have never heard of Savion Glover, those who have heard his name, and those who fly from England to see him dance at the Howard Theatre in Washington last night. Savion Glover is...

On Monday, 8/18@8 at Synetic Theater: ‘Dark Night Showcase,’ Presented by KG Dance, in Memory of Freeman Carden Fletcher by Philip Fletcher

Dark Night Showcase, Presented by KG Dance, in Memory of Freeman Carden Fletcher!! What’s with the name? The term “Dark Night” is a theatrical colloquialism used to describe times when a theatre venue...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘#albatross’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet, a DC-based company founded in 2010, presents #albatross in this summer’s Capital Fringe Festival, with a program of three works. The decision...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘#albatross’

MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet’s appearance at this month’s Capital Fringe Festival combines dance, electric guitar, and social media in its presentation of a brand-new work and two audience favorites....

‘Healing Wars’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wage on; in Syria, the blood still flows, as it does in Somalia and South Sudan; in Mexico, death continues to pile up bodies in the drug war, as they do in America’s...

‘Pure Tango II’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Tango is a sensual style of music that has enraptured the world for many years. This style of music was created in the working class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later in Montevideo,...

Preview: Pennsylvania Ballet Brings A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to The Kennedy Center

A few years ago the dance planners at The Kennedy Center came up with a terrific idea: Invite nine regional ballet companies to perform one special work in three separate concerts, held towards the...

National Symphony Orchestra: NEW MOVES: symphony + dance: Thomas Wilkins, conductor; Jessica Lang Dance; with Leila Josefowicz, violin/From Adams to Copland

Last night was the first performance of the final program of The Kennedy Center’s NEW MOVES: symphony + dance festival, a two-week celebration of dance, music, community, and passion. Maestro Thomas...

The National Symphony Orchestra: ‘New Moves Symphony + Dance: From Schuman to Bernstein’

New Moves: symphony + dance delights both dance fans and music aficionados. Give a MacArthur “Genius” award to the person who came up with the idea to merge music and dance in the National Symphony...

‘Wayne McGregor Random Dance’ at The Kennedy Center

The curtain rises on a dark stage, lit only by torches held by four dancers at the four corners of the stage, surrounding two dancers prancing and weaving about in coordinated, syncopated step. One by...

The Washington Ballet: Tour-de-Force: Balanchine!’ at The Kennedy Center

The Washington Ballet: Tour-de-Force: Balanchine is a truly spectacular evening at the ballet, with something for everyone. This program has, in my opinion, a balance of classical and contemporary...

Bhangra Blowout XXI at The George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium

Lisner Auditorium was filled with movement, color, dazzle and (ear-splitting) sound during Saturday night’s 21st annual Bhangra Blowout. Eight colleges vied for championship of Bhangra Blowout XXI....

We Are Giving Away 2 Pairs of Tickets to Washington Ballet’s Peter Pan-Choose 4/18, 4/19, or 4/20;Enter by Thursday at Noon

WE HAVE 2 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO GIVE AWAY TO THE WASHINGTON BALLET’S PRODUCTION OF SEPTIME WEBRE’S PETER PAN CHOOSE FROM THESE THREE PERFORMANCES: Friday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, April 19 at 1:30...

The Kennedy Center Announces Over 2,000 Performances in 2014-2015

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces its 2014–2015 Season 2014 with More Than 2,000 Performances of Theater, Dance, and Music of All Kinds Highlights include: Iberian Suite:...

Local Dancers Shake Off the Winter Blahs as Arts Collective Dance Company (ACDC) Presents Concert on March 6-8th by Carolyn Kelemen

Local dancers shake off the winter blahs Even people who don’t normally like modern dance love watching the works of Joan Nicholas-Walker. There’s something very smart and seductive about the way she...

Howard Community College Presents Arts Collective Dance Company Concert March 6th to 8th

Howard Community College Presents Arts Collective Dance Company Concert March 6-8, 2014 Continuing its tradition of bringing compelling and powerful dance to the Greater Baltimore Area, the Arts...

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ‘Program A’ at The Kennedy Center by Carolyn Kelemen

Alvin Ailey American Dance Celebrates Rich Heritage at the Kennedy Center Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater “came home” to the Kennedy Center last night, dancing a program of familiar works, a true...

The Washington Ballet’s ‘Blues/Jazz Project’ at Sydney Harman Hall by Carolyn Kelemen

DC Ballet shakes up expectations Yes, even classical ballerinas let their hair down once in a while. They relish tossing off those stiff upper body movements and tapping their feet to a syncopated...

Mariinsky Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ at The Kennedy Center by Carolyn Kelemen

Swooning over the first “Swan” Like those fabled swallows renowned for returning to Capistrano each spring, swans settle regularly in our area this time of year. Back in the heyday of classical ballet...

31st Annual Choreographers Showcase at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center by Rick Westerkamp

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center hosted the 31st Annual Choreographers’ Showcase this past weekend. The program welcomed seven modern dance works, which were all adjudicated by Sidra Bell and...