DANCE THEATER REVIEWS

Yehuda Hyman's 'Mar Vista (Spanish for 'view of the sea') is a presentation of his Mystical Feet Company, a warm and poignant remembrance of his parents, two seemingly mismatched misfits who found each other. I wasn't sure what to expect when I entered the 14th Street Y on Sunday, June 14, 2015, but...

Who knew that lodged in a Red Hook warehouse is a porthole to the deep south? Mary John Frank's wild and detail-driven imagination transports participants who must be called party-goers, not audience members, to the world of Debutaunte, a world that feels as real and full-bodied as any of the high-b...

Remember history class in high school? The teacher presented a lecture and told us how exciting a certain historical period had been, going on to incessantly bore us because we had no recourse other than to take indecipherable notes we couldn't understand later, finally coming to the conclusion that...

William Shakespeare's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is a comedic, character-driven piece about the courtship of volatile Katherina and obnoxious Petruchio. Character pieces require great characters, naturally, and great performers. In his ballet adaptation, John Cranko delivers. In the Houston Ballet prod...

Marius Petipa first staged Don Quixote for the Imperial Bolshoi Theater in 1869 to great acclaim, and it immediately entered the ballet canon.  Almost every ballet enthusiast has seen a version of this work--new productions run the risk of seeming stale and mundane.  This general familiarity made ...

Nearly two weeks after famed dancer Dudley Williams' passing, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater took to the stage at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for a fitting tribute. Though the program was already set, the sudden passing led to the addition of "A Song for You" from Love Songs and ...

China's Sichuan Province based Leshan Song & Dance Troupe, in collaboration with New Zealand Choreographer Sara Brodie use contemporary dance to express the human responses to the earthquakes that changed China's Sichuan Province and New Zealand's Christchurch in FAULT LINES....

I remember where I was when I found out that Cedar Lake was closing--and so do most members of the New York City dance scene.  Reactions varied from shock, confusion, anger to the "oh, well all those dancers will get jobs in other companies, so who cares." ...

Ever seen the real Roma, the homegrown flamenco of Spain? It's the kind of harmonic and choreographic precision that leaves a theater breathless, with countless eyes in a daze trying to follow each step of a dancer, pluck of a guitarist and intonation of a singer....

It is nigh on impossible to resist a tap show, and so The Tap Pack just had to be on my list....

The Victory Dane Project celebrated its first anniversary on May 11, 2015, with a program that, if not stirring or original, at least caught my interest to see the well trained and very passionately committed young dancers....

Set in the Royal India of the past, La Bayadere is a story of eternal love, mystery, fate, vengeance, and justice. On Tuesday, June 2nd, at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, I was transported to this far away place and time by a marvelous cast, with some of ABT's finest dancers, in a mag...

Review of ABT's timeless recreation of Tchaikovsky and Petipa's 'Sleeping Beauty' as staged by Ratmansky....

SAB's annual Workshop performances have been a treasured staple on NYC dance lovers' calendars ever since 1965 when the legendary Alexandra Danilova, then a faculty member, initiated the iconic spring ritual. The event is not a graduation ceremony, but rather a tantalizing glimpse of what the future...

Without a resident theatre or base, Vienna Festival Ballet have achieved remarkable things over the last 35 years since its conception by Austria's most successful ballet dancer, Peter Mallek. They are very much a touring company living and working out of a suitcase but in doing so, have created a s...

The Scottish Ballet performed A Streetcar Named Desire as a ballet at the Kennedy Center on Thursday, May 29th.  On its face, this is a ridiculous statement.  How could a foreign company perform the iconic American story by Tennessee Williams, much less translate it into pure movement?  However, ...

Internationally renowned dancer and choreographer, Deborah Zall, restaged six of her dramatic female solos for the first time this past Thursday at the Martha Graham Studio Theater at Westbeth. This legendary choreography was taken down from the dance bookshelf, brushed off, and performed good as ne...

Wendy Whelan's 'Restless Creature' is an experiment in choreographic development worthy of cultivation....

So how far does an afternoon of Bournonville go? I would love to say a long way, yet in the performance on Sunday, May 24 at the Koch Theater, the dancers of the New York City Ballet proved that, while soaring high octane is definitely in their blood, the softer sounds and characterizations of Bourn...

Flamenco Vivo celebrated the inaugural performance of flamenco at BAM with high fashion, and dramatic ingenuity....

On May 21, 2015, at the David Koch Theater, New York City Ballet performed three works created by choreographers of today....

ABT's 75th Anniversary Gala, a balletomane's dream of a performance on May 18th 2015 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, treated the nearly sold-out audience to a joyous celebration in dance and archival images of the American Ballet Theatre's seven-and-a-half decade reign as 'America...

The Danish choreographer August Bournonville, who predates the NYCBallet's founding by a century, still delights audiences with a repertory cultivated from his Royal Danish Ballet. His aesthetic sparks with joyful spontaneity, and even his most tragic works seem lightly brushed with a pastel warmth....

The age-old story of a cinder girl disdained by her step family but destined to change her life to glitter and gold arrived at the Milwaukee Ballet's when Cinderella closed the season. This enchanting fairytale envisioned by Artistic Director Michael Pink captivated the audience with romance and s...

Cherylyn Lavagnino's choreography is an audacious blend of signatures, absolutely strong in her guidance of the body to fruition through movement and stillness....