Posts by Kris Eitland
Warm Enchanted Evenings
If you choose to attend one production this summer, consider Moonlight’s terrific rendering of South Pacific, the rare musical play that balances saccharine comedy with serious themes and stage craft, and an ocean of memorable songs. Even if you’ve seen the Rodgers & Hammerstein gem before, or the film, or read James Michener’s book, Tales of the South Pacific, which sparked them all, you should drive to Vista to experience this production outdoors, especially when a heat wave makes normally cool nights feel like the breezy tropics.
Read MoreSummer Intensives: Where dancers can shadow a Limón Doppelgänger and other inspiring artists
“In Limón, the line is balletic, but from a different principal,” he said. “You oppose constant gravity; stretch an arm in one direction, and a leg in the other. It’s classical Humphrey-Weidman opposition. The struggle makes us human. I am Mexican and male, but I live in America and share my life with a woman. Those oppositions create people, and powerful dance.”
Read MoreDiavolo’s ‘architect of motion’ travels to the Garfield Theatre
Listening to Jacques Heim talk about hefty structures used in his choreography is fascinating, not because he’s also driving through the concrete jungles of Los Angeles, or that he’s the artistic director of the leaping and flying Diavolo Dance Theater based there. It’s his vibrant accent and his obsession with architecture.
Read MoreThe Mystery of Elle at Les Girls: a waste of talent, parody opportunity
Elle was an example of talented artists trying to be subversive, rejecting the basic rules of theatrical pacing, simply hell bent on using the slowest aspects of butoh and little else to convey a dark narrative inside a strip club. An opportunity wasted, and a big waste of talent.
The program could have been more successful as a complete and sleazy variety show, or a dark comedy. Imagine Dan Aykroyd’s character, Leonard Pinth Garnell, and how he introduced the “Bad Ballet” parody on Saturday Night Live. This was very bad butoh ballet indeed. Elle was best viewed as a parody, extreme yet simpleton in every way.
Read MoreCity Ballet’s sensory feast: ‘Carmina Burana’
City Ballet co-directors Elizabeth and Steven Wistrich have danced and staged “Carmina Burana” many times over the years, but none as grand as the version presented this weekend at the Spreckels.
Read MoreGritty ‘Billy’ still dazzles; demise of ‘Iron Lady’ adds extra punch
A motherless child trades boxing for ballet – sigh. At first glance, the only thing missing from the uplifting production “Billy Elliot the Musical,” is a cuddly dog. It has all the right stuff: talented kids who can really sing, dance, and act, little tykes in tutus, a grizzled grandmother, and a lonely boy who overcomes …
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