Dance Place

‘Boys Don’t Cry’ at Dance Place rejoices in macho detox

Boys Don’t Cry made this boy cry. It happened near the end. I had been watching a performance by the French dance company Cie Hervé KOUBI. Seven shirtless male dancers, all from different countries,...

Washington Performing Arts and Council Member David Grosso Present Politics & Art: District Vox, June 13

Now in its fifth year, Politics & Art: District Vox is an annual “Made in D.C.” performing arts showcase presented by Councilmember David Grosso and Washington Performing Arts’ Mars Arts D.C....

Review: ‘Hair & Other Stories’ by Urban Bush Women at Dance Place

Don’t think you’re going to sit back and observe if you show up at Urban Bush Women’s latest, Hair & Other Stories, which made its Washington, DC premiere this past weekend at Dance Place. Oh no. Read...

Review: ‘Leather, Sand, Metal: An Audible Exploration of Tap Dance’ by Capitol Tap at Dance Place

Tap is its own beast. Any dancer can tell you that they can transfer training in ballet to jazz or contemporary, or swing into hip-hop, but they cannot transfer anything to tap. You either do it, or...

Review: ‘New Releases Choreographers Showcase’ at Dance Place

Back in the ’60s, Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are a-Changing,” an ode to protest, social change and the country’s mood moment. Dance Place’s New Releases Choreographers Showcase vamped Dylan’s...

In the Moment: Interviews with Storytellers of Better Said Than Done

Seven years ago, Better Said Than Done stepped out onto the theatrical stage as a storytelling organization. The idea behind the establishment of Better Said Than Done was to bring storytellers from...

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: ‘Kitchen Sink Fest’ at Dance Place

The amount of possibility encapsulated in one minute is a daunting thing to think about, and I pondered such a thing as I waited for the sold out performance of Kitchen Sink Fest to begin on Saturday...

In the Moment: ‘Kitchen Sink Fest’ at Dance Place: Part 2: 7 Dancers on Their 1 Minute Pieces

Hungry for inventive choreography? Up for a summer’s night adventure with performance that is unconventional and live? Hungry for inventive dance and movement? Desire a way to escape the summer’s heat...

In the Moment: ‘Kitchen Sink Fest’ at Dance Place Part 1: An Interview with Ben Levine

This summer’s Kitchen Sink Fest at Dance Place is showcasing a curated, meant-to-provoke on-lookers, dance and theater technical design elements collaboration. From Kitchen Sink Fest producer Ben...

Review: Dance Place’s 35th Year Reunion

Dance Place Reunion Celebrates 35 Years When Dance Place marks a milestone, invariably by the evening’s end its Founding Artistic Director Carla Perlo has more people on stage than in the audience....

‘See Between The Lines’ by Jane Franklin Dance at Dance Place

Jane Franklin Dance presented three performance pieces last night at Dance Place: “Incidence,” “Nested, and “Wash Over You, Part 1.” As a whole, they are entitled See Between The Lines. Rooted in...

‘See Between the Lines’ by Jane Franklin Dance Comes to Dance Place November 14th & 15th by Joanne Burke

Jane Franklin Dance has a way of looking at things that is not quite…right. Or left. Or, wait, where are we going? You don’t know where you’ll end up, but when we get there, you’ll be exactly where...

Bowen McCauley Dance 20th Anniversary Celebration at Dance Place

Bowen McCauley Dance is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary season with a four-piece retrospective. All choreographed by Lucy Bowen McCauley, the opening number takes the audience back to the...

In the Moment: Erica Rebollar on ‘Sacred Profane’ at Dance Place on October 3rd

With the ongoing Women’s Voices Theater Festival, I wondered if other performing arts in the DC area were highlighting the work of women artists. I didn’t have to search far to find that there is a...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘DancEthos with The West Shore Piano Trio’

DancEthos is not your average dance company – filled with identical stick thin dancers sashaying in unison behind a soloist. Company founder and director Tiffany Haughn has a gift for choreographing...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #54 ‘An Interview with Cara Gabriel on Her Show ‘I AM THE GENTRY’

An interview with DC performer and director Cara Gabriel, whose one woman show, I AM THE GENTRY runs during the Capital Fringe Festival. The show is about her experience moving into the H Street NE...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘St. Jimmy Celebrates “The Food At Our Feet”’

Sharp and hilarious, somehow Jimmy Grzelak interweaves Copyright law, Christian religious ritual, cooking show culture, pop songs, and poignant questions about the nature of spirituality and how we...

2015 Capital Fringe ‘The Human Algorithm’

What do lion attacks, football fanatics, muppets, dog pee, and Vladimir Putin have in common? According to CJ in her most recent iteration of The Human Algorithm, they all describe the four basic...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Princess & The Pea (or) A Millennial’s Guide to Dating’

When she was alive, I would occasionally discuss love and dating with my grandmother. Her guaranteed formula for finding the love of your life was to “go to the bowling alley–that’s where you’ll find...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘So We Meet Again’

On the television show Grey’s Anatomy, when characters are having a difficult time dealing with pain or another type of struggle, they “dance it out.” This means that the characters will release their...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Purge’

Memories can break you down. They can take away your power, strength and ability to trust. In the Capital Fringe Festival show Purge, the fusiondance company uses contemporary dance and excerpts from...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Act Like a GRRRL’

You had me at grrrl. Act Like a GRRRL is a showcase of work developed and performed by teen girls, in which personal stories are shared as a process of empowerment and an act of defiance against...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Mine/Field’

Unbeknownst to you, Glade Dance Collective knows your identity, your likes, and your dislikes. The dancers are hungry for more data whether you want to give it up or not. Intrigued? Paranoid?...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Niche’

Peer into the trials and tribulations of love, cohabitation, and relationships that is Niche. This whimsical journey draws in audiences of all kinds whether your bag is music, visual art, dance, or...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Une Soirée Au Cabaret’

Une Soirée Au Cabaret is a collection of dance, vocal, and aerial works inspired by early 20th century Paris nightlife. An amalgam of styles and eras, this is a contemporary take on the cabaret style...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dancing Ophelia’

A fierce and elegant collection of dance works, Dancing Ophelia is mostly but not exclusively inspired by Shakespeare, framed by the long tradition of storytelling through movement, and radical...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Wrestling with the WIP’

Wrestling with the WIP puts forward the metaphor of quilt making as a strategy for reconfiguring women’s lives that are ripped apart, fragmented by harmful and impossible ideals. These ideals are...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Second Coming of Joan of Arc’

In theatre generally, and in Washington, D.C. particularly, it is quite common for theatre companies to take a classic story and update it in with a contemporary lens. Admirable as this may be, too...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Suicide Journals’

“Death is inevitable for a young lost soul…” In its world premiere at the 2015 Capital Fringe Festival, The Suicide Journals by Playwright and Director Veronique LaShell MacRae explores the dark,...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Good Egg Fables’

Why did the chicken cross the road? To create a heartwarming play devised by Good Egg Community Theatre! Their Good Egg Fables, now playing at Capital Fringe’s Brookland Artspace Lofts, begins with...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘After Eleven’

Once the lights are up, After Eleven is relentless. With persistent intensity, Rebecca Roy delivers a monologue that switches from a mother character to that of a child who suffers with mental...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Giant Turnip’

Beech Tree Puppets The Giant Turnip is a gentle retelling of an old Ukrainian folk tale, presented by two classically trained singers with a flare for lyrics and miniature sets. Using rod puppets and...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Witches’

Brookland Artspace’s intimate dance studio-turned theater mythically transforms into medieval mayhem. The real life heroes and sorcerers at Red Knight Productions’ conjure up Witches, a fractured...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hello Girls: Unknown Heroines of WWI’

Thank God for plucky women. While our society today continues to struggle with the question of gender equality, we sometimes forget to look back at the times when women were truly invisible. Hello...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Tammy Faye’s Final Audition’

Tammy Faye’s Final Audition is a whirlwind about a woman whose iconic eyelashes, televangelical devotion, and legal scandal have secured her a place in brightly lit pop culture heaven. The play is all...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘I Am the Gentry’

The air is cool, the metro rumbles within earshot, and the buzz of people talking fills the space. A woman offers me a glass of water— a red solo cup filled from a plastic pitcher in her hand. She...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG’

“I am not a human being. I don’t pretend to be a human being. I am a comic” are among some of the opening lines in Will Durst’s one-man comedy show BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG. Written and directed...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #48: ‘DancEthos with The West Shore Piano Trio Movement’

22 gorgeous dancers + 6 inspired choreographers + 3 brilliant musicians + 1 skilled spoken word artist = an amazing collaborative experience! This diverse and dynamic program will showcase dance,...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #43 Will Durst in ‘BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG’

Population scientists describe the Baby Boom generation as anybody born between the years 1946 and 1964. Which means the youngest of the Baby Boomers turned 50 last year, and the oldest will turn 70...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #42: ‘After Eleven’ by Amy Harbison

“I loved my son, but he terrified me,” admits Jude Temper, a 9-11 widow and mother. After Eleven bears witness to Jude’s struggle to love and protect her son Matty, who suffers from mental illness and...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #41: ‘Mine/Field’

Answer: Secrets. Data. Spying on other audiences. Charts and graphs made of dancers. Question: What is in a dance about debating data privacy vs. national security? Bonus Question: How do you make...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #34: ‘The Suicide Journals’ by Veronique LaShell MacRae

Death is inevitable for a young lost soul… In its world premiere at the 2015 Capital Fringe Festival, I (Playwright and Director Veronique LaShell MacRae) explore the dark, grim, and often hushed...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #33: ‘Tammy Faye’s Final Audition’ by Merri Biechler

In her professional acting career, Shelley Delaney has portrayed Joan of Arc and Lady Macbeth. But there was always one person she wanted to tackle: Tammy Faye Bakker. Most people know Tammy Faye as...

2015 Capital Fringe Festival Preview #31: ‘Wrestling with the WIP’ by Nicole Y. McClam

From birth stories and mother/daughter relationships to Black Velveteen and badassness: Wrestling with the WIP seeks to create woman in her own image. Wrestling with the WIP premiered last October in...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #18: ‘Poe Whitman’ with Robert Michael Oliver

Robert Michael Oliver Returns to Capital Fringe with Poe Whitman A Repertoire of Two of America ‘s Literary Giants Following last year’s sold-out performances of Song of Myself: The Whitman Project,...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #5: Jane Franklin Dance’s ‘Niche’ by Jane Franklin

Part of the 10th Annual Capital Fringe Festival July 9 – 26, 2015 CAFRITZ FOUNDATION THEATER, DANCE PLACE 3225 8th STREET, NE, IN WASHINGTON, DC July 15th at 7:45 pm July 17th at 8:45 pm July 18th at...

Enter by 8 PM Tonight To Win One of 5 Pairs of Free Tickets for Dakshina’s Spring Concert Tomorrow & Sunday at Dance Place & and May 6th at Reston Community Center

Enter to win a pair of tickets to Dakshina’s performances Dakshina is giving away 5 pairs of tickets to their Spring performances May 2nd and 3rd at Dance Place and May 6th at Reston Community Center....

‘We Wait in the Darkness by Rosy Simas Danse at Dance Place

As a long-time dance observer, I like to say the language of dance is universal and that in performance specificity on stage can imbue a work with universality. Saturday evening at Dance Place in...

In The Moment: Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company Presents ‘Persistent Voices’ at Dance Place 5/2-3 & Reston CenterStage 5/6

In early May, Daniel Phoenix Singh and the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company will be premiering a dance theater work at Dance Place and at Reston’s CenterStage. The new work is inspired by...