San Diego Story – Page 736 – Reviews and Views of theater, music, dance and art in San Diego

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Barton’s inspired Bodylogue heats up the Vine

By Kris Eitland | July 16, 2013 |

When the lights came on, the dance took off. Gehman, Stephanie Harvey, and Cara Steen slapped their legs to create rhythms and changed direction with military precision. While Barton’s earliest training was in gymnastics and ballet, she channeled Graham’s modernism. Trance-like, the women created patterns in sweeping changes of direction to sink into deep second position; and they rose from the floor in contractions to become warriors in lace skirts and midriff tops.

La Jolla Celebrates Bastille Day, Hoping Revolutionary Ideas Won’t Catch On Locally

By Ken Herman | July 15, 2013 |

Like cheering at a St. Patrick’s Day parade or taking in fireworks and dragon dances at the lunar New Year, celebrating Bastille Day can seem downright patriotic in multicultural Southern California. A cadre of local musicians under the umbrella of Bodhi Tree Concerts put together an entertaining Bastille Day Cabaret Sunday (July 14) at La Jolla’s St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, touching on cultural icons high, low, and fashionably in between. Following the oft-quoted dictum of Casablanca’s Captain Renaud, the Bodhi Tree folks rounded up the usual suspects: a sampler of Edith Piaf songs, a pair of Jacques Brel favorites, and…

Company at Cygnet Goes For The Gags

By Bill Eadie | July 14, 2013 |

In general, audiences see Stephen Sondheim shows to be entranced by Mr. Sondheim’s clever lyrics and to hear how he pushes the envelope as he sets those lyrics to music. The books of Mr. Sondheim’s shows, which are always written by others, tend to be considered the weak link when compared to the score. So, it is quite a reversal to see Sean Murray’s production of Company at Cygnet Theatre push the humor of George Furth’s book to the foreground. The result is the funniest Company imaginable, though perhaps made so at the expense of the music…