Reviews

A group of five dancers, three women and two men, form a circle around a female soloist. The soloist, wearing a vibrant pink vest over a black top paired with light blue, wide-legged pants, moves exuberantly with her arms out akimbo while standing on her left toes with her right leg out to the side. A live five piece jazz band, including a piano, drums, a bass trumpet, and trombone, is visible behind the dancers upstage. A projection on the brick wall in the back displays a collage of sheet music and colonial artwork of a scene from a pub.
Photo: Jano Cohen
  • Reviews

Scats off the Score

Nadia Ureña

Lauren and Brent White breathe new life into Francis Johnson’s suites from the Antebellum.

Three dancers, two men and one woman, stand on a stage covered in bright autumn leaves. The background is black. They stand in a wide stance, holding thick black rolls over their heads. The man on the left, in gray pants and a t-shirt, looks up at the roll. The brunette woman wearing green pants and a brown tunic stares directly out. The man on the right, dressed in a red suit and white dress shirt, also looks straight forward.
Photo: Steven Pisano - Courtesy of Ballet Hispánico New York
  • Reviews

Mujeres in Motion

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

Ballet Hispánico’s 56th season is an exciting women-led tour of the Latine diaspora.

Douglas Dunn stands wearing a bright yellow mask which covers his eyes. His right arm is extended to his side while his other rests on a wooden chair painted with yellow flowers. He wears a grey vest, red tie, and dark pants--a contrast to dancers Dongri Suh and Janet Charleston who stand behind him weaering flowered garlands around their heads and wear tulle skirts. A video of two waterfalls is projected onto the wall behind them.
Photo: Jacob Burckhardt
  • Reviews

Douglas Dunn’s Post-modern Pastoral

Brendan McCall

An intrepid choreographer examines classical forms through a post-modern lens

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"