Reviews

Edu Dìaz dressed in an ornate gown with a big white lacy collar stands speaking to the right. Behind them is a bluye projection of what appears to be someone screaming. The projection is framed by a red velvet curtain.
Photo by Ruby Goldner
  • Reviews

The Theatre Begs for Exploitation

Nadia Ureña

Her majesty desperately wants us to consume the beast.

A dancer wears a feathered head piece and bright red garment with yellow, orange, black, and white strips of fabrics that dangle as they dance in front of a black backdrop.
Photo: Native Nations Dance Theater
  • Reviews

Dancing Afroindigeneity

Caitlin Green

From Africa to Turtle Island and the Caribbean…

Image Description: Five young would-be campers, mostly smiling, with goofy patterned T-shirts standing in socks on a wood floor displaying supportive thumbs up. One dancer is seated, their face framed by a round lavender and white floaty.
Photo: Noel Price-Bracey
  • Reviews

A Letter from Fringe Summer Dance Camp

Noel Price-Bracey

Dreaming counselors were modern dancers and me a dance writer.

Image Description: Four figures, shrouded in gauzy silver, turquoise, crimson and beige sheer fabric atop their salakots (Asian-Strykers conical hats), crouch forward gesturing to the Earth. Surrounded by blackness, they stand, casting shadow on a light grey marley floor. There is a long piece of white plastic sheeting strewn across the floor in the foreground.
‘Find your way back… follow my hum.’
  • Reviews

Sarswela: Recovering from Twisted Tongues

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

‘Find your way back… follow my hum.’

Image description: an image of a dancer in fifth position on pointe, wearing a strapless leotard and skirt is copied three times over a black background with large bold lettering that reads “I don’t dance”.
  • Reviews

When The Inner Critic Meets A Little Delusion

Caitlin Green

Kirner exposes the quintessential stage dancers’ inner monologue.

Chloe Marie Newton, a black female dancer wearing a gauzy dark blue tank and Helen Hale, a white female dancer with a long brown ponytail wearing shimmery silver, sit on a light grey marley floor, reclined on one hip with knees gently stacked and one arm intertwined with the other, reaching upwards. They have their backs to us and around and beyond them, we can see pale, cool-toned, sheer fabric. Through and beyond the fabric, we see a row of shadowy-figured audience members, seated and wearing headphones that emit a blue glow.
Photo: Johanna Austin
  • Reviews

Indelible Release: a Moonscape

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

“Inside a womb of memories where the water body floats…”

In rehearsal with Sean Aaron Carmon, the Resident Choreographer at Banyan Dance Festival’s Inaugural week, dancers practice phrasework close to a light grey marley floor. In the foreground, a young white woman with loose brown hair in navy basketball shorts, black kneepads and black socks hinges backward. Carmon, a young black man with curly hair and a red bandana demonstrates floorwork in the background of the photo. Other dancers are busy at work in the rest of the photo. Some are part way out of frame.
Photo: Anthony Bethel
  • Reviews

Banyan Dance Festival: I Am Because We Are

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

"We must remember on whose shoulders we stand.”

Several lines of students are mid bounce/step, focused on executing the choreography. All face front toward a wall lined with mirrors. The instructor stands in the middle of the front row of dancers. Participants wear a variety of athletic wear–workout sweats, tanks, shorts, long-sleeve zip ups–and most dance in sneakers.
Photo: Kirwei Lo
  • Reviews

Variety and Conformity in Community Work

Zoe Farnsworth

The enthusiasm and community were vibrant, but the choreography left me wanting more at Philly Dance Day's 2026 Showcase

Around 20 workshop participants pose in front of an abstract oil painting in a bright gallery. They are all in different positions inspired by the artwork. Many stretch their arms out and up as if reaching. Some arch their backs or bend forward.
Photo: Chika Kobari, courtesy of KinoSaito
  • Reviews

The Four Mothers of Miki Orihara, or Learning Dalcroze’s 20 Gestures with my Daughter

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

Miki Orihara explores early modern dance and mothers in her newest work.

Eight dancers, all wearing loose white fabric, lean into one another and stare directly at the camera. Some rest their heads on one another’s shoulders; all lean inward toward the middle dancer, who sits in a casual seated position.
Photo: Artur Gevorgyan
  • Reviews

Sips of Stories: A Testament to (Short) Time

Megan Mizanty

Three Years, Boundless Connections