Posts Tagged ‘dance review’
Live Dance at Liberty Station!
I’m excited to go anywhere these days, but a live dance show! My first in more than a year! In fact, it’s a festival—four weekends of performances by the resident companies at Dance Place! Declarations of “I’m vaccinated” were followed by hugs! I may end every sentence with an exclamation point!
Read MoreA.I.M Offers a Bonus: A Performance by Kyle Abraham
Kyle Abraham took us in his arms and invited us in with three intimate pieces danced by his superb A.I.M (Abraham.In.Motion) company at the Balboa Theatre on Thursday. Then, before anyone could get too comfortable, he ignited the stage with the propulsive, hip hop-flavored “Drive.” The program also offered a rare treat: Abraham himself, filling in—in “The Quiet Dance”—for a company member who couldn’t perform that night.
Read MoreWhat’s Old is New Again: Martha Graham Dance
Fresh. Vital. These are not words I expected to use for the Martha Graham Dance Company’s performance at the Civic Theatre on Wednesday. … What a happy surprise, then, to see the exciting show the Graham company did here, performed by dancers who seemed enraptured by this work.
Read MoreLuminous Dance from Aakash Odedra; Sometimes Too Luminous
Spinning on his heels, arms slashing, Aakash Odedra electrified the stage at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre on Tuesday. For the other solos on the program, titled “Rising,” he turned to three contemporary choreographers: Khan, Russell Maliphant, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. And it happened that the order of the pieces here marked a progression from breathtaking to meh.
Read MoreThe Genius of Ambiguity: Mark Morris at La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest
The performance by the Mark Morris Dance Group at Summerfest last week was like a loaf of artisan rye bread—dense, complex, chewy. The evening at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center was so packed with dance, music, and ideas, I would have like multiple viewings: once to focus on Morris’s choreography and brilliant movers, once for the world-renowned Summerfest musicians, and a third time to lose myself in the thrilling voice of countertenor John Holiday.
Read MoreIt’s the Music! It’s the Dance! City Ballet’s Balanchine Masterpieces Wows
In last weekend’s “Balanchine Masterpieces” program, the music proved as thrilling as the dance—especially Mark Polesky at the piano. Polesky brought brightness and verve to the Stravinsky and richness to Hindemith’s changing moods. And that was on an electric keyboard! The dance was equally stunning, from the moment the Spreckels Theatre curtain rose on a chorus line of dancers in sparkly lipstick-red.
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