Wendy Whalen News

Danse Lumière presents a Conversation with Sidra Bell on April 8, 2022 at 7:00pm at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, NYC. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5372130, by phone at 1-800-838-3006, or in person at the Martha Graham Studio Theater Box Office on the day of the event.

Danse Lumière will present a Conversation with Sidra Bell on April 8, 2022 at 7:00pm at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, NYC.

The Fire Island Dance Festival and Hudson Valley Dance Festival, two of the most-anticipated annual charitable celebrations of dance, will take a hiatus this year due to ongoing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cast and crew of Terrence McNally's FIRE AND AIR celebrated the world premiere of the new play at Classic Stage Company last night, Thursday, February 1st. Cast members James Cusati-Moyer, Marsha Mason, and more were joined by guests like Molly Ringwald and Donna Murphy. Check out the photos from opening night!

Bebe Neuwirth (two-time Tony and Emmy award winner; Chicago, A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity,'Cheers,' 'Frasier') will host the Chita Rivera Awards, taking place at The Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 W. 45th Street) on Monday, September 11 at 7:30 pm, it was announced today by Nikki Feirt Atkins, founder and producing artistic director of American Dance Machine of the 21st Century.

Popular choreographer Al Blackstone, known for his Broadway style routines on So You Think You Can Dance, is excited to be returning for his third season at the Fire Island Dance Festival. Blackstone will be presenting an excerpt from his new work, Freddie Falls In Love, which recently had its premiere at The Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City. The show was also a benefit performance for DRA and Blackstone figured it would be a perfect fit for this year's festival.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.