Reviews

Two people draped in brown fabric rest their heads on one another’s shoulders in front of a white background. The image is edited with faint red and blue outlines.
Photo: Kosoko Performance Studio
  • Reviews

This Is Not Surveillance. You Gon Have To Participate.

Caitlin Green

//shrouded\\ evokes a necessary discomfort within the container of performance.

Six young dancers stand in profile, all facing right, under bloodred stagelights. They balance on their right foot, while holding their bent left leg with their left hand behind them. Their right arms are extended in front of them, their palms flexed, as if threy are saying "stop."
Photo: Steven Pisano
  • Reviews

Donald Byrd’s Five Alarm Dance

Brendan McCall

Donald Byrd sounds the alarm in his latest work connecting 9/11 to the crises of our current moment.

The vast white skirt of a female dancer spreads out across the center of the stage, drawn and lifted by dancers concealed beneath it, resembling a giant wave. The dancers are constantly struggling to crawl out from within this undulating mass of soft fabric. With their upper bodies bare, they curl up on the ground, suspended in a state between weightlessness and struggle. The spotlight focuses on the white fabric and the figures at the center, plunging the surrounding space into darkness.
Photo: David Wong
  • Reviews

Bodies Exposed Under Hard Light: Encountering Fables

Yuying Chen

Virginie Brunelle's Fables reveals how bodies resist and transform.

Thirteen dancers in all white and different color tap shoes dance joyfully off of wooden boards in all directions. Their bodies blurred in space.
Image Courtesy of Michael J. Love
  • Reviews

Peering into Practice

Noel Price-Bracey

Michael J. Love’s “Exercise 3” teaches us to value the balance between preparation and performance.

A dancer caught mid-head spin with white sneakers punching into the air while a crowd of others watch intently, arms reaching towards each other.
Photo: Courtesy of Rennie Harris
  • Reviews

When do we Shout If Not Now?

Noel Price-Bracey

In Losing My Religion, Rennie Harris models resistance, teaching us to never tire until “victory is won.”

On a black marley floor and dimly lit stage, Amalia Colon-Nava and Anna Scattoni stand far left facing the audience. Behind them, three more dancers are captured in motion. Amanda Rattigan and Kayliani Sood are leaping, as Ian “Seven” Tackes is mid-handstand.
Photo: Jano cohen
  • Reviews

Carrasco/Haworth DANCEUPCLOSE: Where Artistic Rigor & Wit Meet Tender Touch

Caitlin Green

The complexity of care and connection

Four people in a desert. On the left, a woman with black hair in a red dress sits, a dusty backpack at her feet. Next to her, a bearded man with short brown hair sits looking down, his hands on his knees. To his left is a second man, bald and bare from the waist up, with tattoos covering his left arm and his right arm missing his hand. To his left is a third man, standing, with one hand on his right hip. He is older than the rest, has a white beard, and wears a light blue shirt.
Photo: Quim Vives
  • Reviews, thINKpieces

Nothing But Dust

Brendan McCall

Mysticism and rave culture collide in Oliver Laxe’s latest film "Sirât"

At center stage, Baoyu, dressed in flowing white robes, leads a semicircle of female dancers dressed in pastel, Han-style costumes. The dancers extend one leg in high arabesque-like lines while holding delicate props such as fans and round silk fans, creating a symmetrical and airy composition reminiscent of classical Chinese painting. Behind them is a large golden backdrop textured like aged parchment. Red calligraphic Chinese characters are written across it, associated with the supernatural framework of the story. A circular opening in the center of the backdrop reveals a cool blue background, evoking the moon or an otherworldly portal. The stage lighting highlights the dancers’ flowing sleeves and soft colors—peach, pale green, yellow, and ivory—suggesting the youthful elegance of the family's girls.
Photo: The National Ballet of China
  • Reviews

The Willis in a Red Mansion?

Ziying Cui

The Challenge of Chinese Ballet

Two dancers wear black costumes, and the lighting is low and shadowy. One dancer lays face-up on the stage with arms softly outstretched to the sides and their chest lifted off the floor, legs bending at the knees. The other dancer sits, gazing downwards at them. Dancers: Sayer Mansfield, Marla Phelan
Photo: Tim Richardson
  • Reviews

Science and Dance in Creative Conversation

Jen George

Science in partnership with dance yields collaboration and contrasting forces.

Two white women with bright red hair pulled back loosely, wear black pants and tank tops and accentuate the curves of their waists, leaning into their hips and slightly covering their eyes with elbows bent at different angles. They are loosely connected by a thin, red thread and in the background there is a hill constructed of wooden blocks against a white wall. Completing the scene are red galoshes, two picture frames hung above the hill and a large new moon hung from the ceiling.
Photo: Shosh Isaacs
  • Reviews

Jack and Jill Trudge up the Hill

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

"No one help me. I’m falling towards wholeness."