improvisation

Three people sit in an oblique triangle that fills the frame. To the left, a musician, Aabeizer, sits on a black bench in carpenter jeans and a dark t-shirt. His eyes are closed and his feet bare. He moves his hands around a circular plate and wooden dowels that extend from a wood board he holds against his chest. To the right, a saxophonist, Bhob Rainey, sits on a folding black chair in a black cardigan and grey pants, blowing into the mouthpiece and pressing the keys. Between them, a person with short red curls, Kayliani Sood, crosses their legs on a white stool, sitting higher than the musicians beside her. They wear brown shorts over grey pants and a black t-shirt with a blue square patch in the center. She rests one hand on her knee, and the other over their forearm, closes her eyes and tilts their head pensively to the right.
Photo: Loren Groenendaal
  • Reviews

Unscored Improvisation, H-O-T or Not?

Xander Cobb

Does dance need meaning to be meaningful?

Dancer Merián Soto kneels with one knee slightly higher than the other. Her body faces the camera but her eyes are downcast. Her medium length gray hair falls towards her face. She is wearing a flowy rust-colored top and loose khaki-colored pants. In her outstretched hands she holds two curved branches. The branch in her left hand is nearly bent in half and almost touches the floor. The branch in her right hand extends in a graceful arc above her head, mirroring the casual grace in Soto’s pose.
Photo: Bill Hebert
  • Interviews

I am the Archive

Ellen Miller

Still dancing, Merián Soto reflects on her storied career.

January, 2025. Lisa Kraus dances solo at Tictac Art Centre. Facing stage left, Kraus crosses her left thigh behind her right. Her knees meet. The tops of her left toes press into the ground as her right heel lifts in a demi releve. Kraus releases her sternum to the sky, elbows pulled back, forearms lifted, face tipped toward the ceiling.
Photo: Arnaud Beelen
  • Interviews

Part 2: On Dance Writing, Improvisation, and Dancing Forever—An Interview with Lisa Kraus

Charly Santagado

Kraus takes on the role ‘missionary for dancing forever’

On the right, a man sits in a red kayak with his back to the camera. He wears a green shirt. A white rope is tied to the back of his kayak and reaches out of the frame. He is on a lake heavily grown in with green plants. The water is blue and still. There is a mountain in the distance.
Photo:Rachel Keane
  • Reviews, thINKpieces

All That History in Those Very Seats

Emilee Lord

Steve Paxton remembered

In a blank expanse, a boat, a small wooden toy piano, and several clocks of various sizes pointing to different times are illuminated. In the boat sits Terry Beck, an older white man in a velvet jacket with coiffed hair. His eyes are closed as he raises one hand to his cheek and the other to the sky.
Photo: Brian Mengini
  • Reviews

“My Story Begins Very Simply” | a career’s worth of dancing

Madeline Shuron

A meditative start to Temple’s 50th anniversary of the dance department

Photo: Johana Austin
  • Reviews

A Communion of Former Zygotes Touching Rocks

Caitlin Green

A pause. A breath. A grounding exercise.

Photo: Brian Mengini
  • Reviews

Interdisciplinary Inquiry at Temple’s Dance Faculty Concert

Ziying Cui

Five innovative choreographies by the current faculty of the Dance Department.

Photo: Eiko Otake and Wen Hui
  • Reviews

When Bodies Remember – Eiko Otake and Wen Hui’s Film “No Rule is Our Rule “

Ziying Cui

As Wen Hui and Eiko note, “Our body memorizes.”

Photo: Dorrine Calhoun
  • Reviews

Mother to Son, Son to Mother – Megan Bridge and Tristan Price Celebrate Whistler and Bach

Rhonda Moore

Two nimble performers with a deliciously nuanced sense of timing.

Photo: Jano Cohen
  • Reviews

Vibrational Affinities

Shayla-Vie Jenkins

The musicians skillfully call and respond while the dancers unabashedly labor to find a visceral relationship in concert with