nyc.dancr
The Broadway Dance Center Student Showcase is less than a month away. Come join us!!!
I’m super excited to be dancing with Michelle Barber again. Here’s a throwback to our performance, In the Air Tonight, from last year.
Performing “In the Air Tonight” at the Broadway Dance Center Student Showcase
Choreography by Michelle Barber
Symphony Space, New York, New York
Had a great time watching the Industry Showcase at Steps on Broadway tonight.
Loved Nick Palmquist‘s “Love on the Brain” and seeing his movement vocabulary applied to a full story. Bravos Sam Lobel. You looked amazing!!
Other favorites: “So Long Baby” choreographed by Joshua Bergasse and performed by the Steps Conservatory dancers. “New York State of Mind” by James Kinney. Theatre tap “Old Fashioned Gal” by Denise Caston.
safeword. at the American Theatre of Actors until July 7th.
Love this wonderful off-Broadway play about the power of self determination and self empowerment. The show explores intimate relationships, what we need and desire from our partners, and what it means to have power and control… through a cleverly-crafted story centering on BDSM and food. Oh yes, food porn is definitely involved.
Bravos for a lovely performance, safeword.
Had a great time watching Martha Graham Dance at the Joyce Theater.
My favorites this afternoon go to Deo and Hérodiade.
Deo is a world premiere choreographed by Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith featuring an all-female cast, and explores the relationship between mothers and daughters. I loved the incredible amount of energy in the piece. Sections of the dance reminded me of Pina Bausch’s the Rite of Spring. e.g., When the women came together and moved rapidly in a tight formation (into the ground, arms crossing their chest, beating their feet to create rhythm) and individual women broke out into their own solo. Even the opening scene, when all but one dancer were lying flat on the ground, felt powerful.
I also enjoyed seeing Martha Graham’s distinct movement vocabulary so vividly executed by Xin Ying and Anne Souder as a woman and her attendant in the 1944 choreography, Hérodiade.
Beetlejuice was spectacular!!! ❤️
The show started with a bang and did not slow down for a single moment.
For a musical about death, it’s got so much life and courage, humor and laughters, kinship and friendship. Sure, people died. But I bet you’ll be clapping, cheering, and feeling good about the deaths. Such is the power of a good Tim Burton story.
The entire cast was fabulous from the leads Alex Brightman, Sophia Anne Caruso, Kerry Butler, Rob McClure, Adam Dannheisser, Leslie Kritzer to the ensemble.
The stage, lighting, and costume designs were amazing, and painted a vivid environment full of contrasts and craziness… to match this absurd but absolutely fascinating show. Bravos!
#beetlejuicebway #beetlejuice #betelgeuse
The 2,507th and final performance of Kinky Boots on Broadway.
Absolutely incredible energy in the house this afternoon. Standing ovation for just about every song after the intermission. An appearance by Cyndi Lauper herself at the curtain bow. Of course, the fabulous cast and heartwarming story of love and acceptance as always.
Glad to catch this show one more time. You’ll be missed, Kinky Boots!
#kinkyboots
Dance Lab NY is an organization devoted to the development of the art form of choreography. It was amazing to learn about their workshops and mentoring programs, and see what the choreographers and dancers accomplished!
A few belated posts from March…
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet at the Joyce Theater on Sunday, March 24.
I thoroughly enjoyed Aspen Santa Fe Ballet‘s last visit to the Joyce Theater, and liked learning about their focus on fostering new and creative works. I’ve been curious about what they would present this year.
My favorite today was “Dream Play” by Fernando Melo. The piece has so many unique and unexpected moments.
First and foremost, it’s theatre piece about a pair of lovers, about our desires, and about a dream world. The entire scene is set flat on the floor, with the dancers lying on the stage. The dancers move, roll, crawl, “walk” while lying on one shoulder, “fly” by gliding across the stage on a dolly. The choreography is captured and projected onto a screen via an overhead camera in real time. The movements feel both realistic — the dancers did an incredible job mimicking real-life activities as they “walk” across the stage — and surreal — without gravity, the dancers can jump as high as they want, walk a tightrope, spin, fly in all manners imaginable. I loved how the choreography took advantage of the stage setup and the dream-like environment to create such a rich movement vocabulary.
Second, interspersed between the storytelling were several gorgeous “human” kaleidoscope scenes. The dancers, wearing costumes with high contrast lines, would sit on the floor and move their arms, legs, and torso in beautiful geometric patterns. The patterns, when captured by the overhead camera, formed gorgeous — I mean absolutely gorgeous — shapes that looked like a kaleidoscope but more stunning in every way.
Finally, my favorite moment is when the storytelling and the kaleidoscope scenes merged at the end, and the two lovers burst out of the “human” kaleidoscope in the midst of a sea of spinning red umbrellas. The picture and the movements were just sooooo beautiful.
Hubbard Street presented three choreographies by Crystal Pite in their second week at the Joyce Theater.
I love how Crystal creates the connections between the dancers… from our relationship with ourselves in “A Picture of You Falling” and “The Other You”… to how 14 dancers work together and in contrast with each other in “Grace Engine.”
What a stunning program tonight!!! Hubbard Street presented “Decadence/Chicago”, a collection of excerpts from choreographies by Ohad Naharin. I am completely overwhelmed by the creativity, ingenuity, and the power of Ohad’s work. Bravos to the Hubbard Street dancers for an incredible presentation. It’s so wonderful to finally see piece such as “Minus 16” live on stage.
(top photo courtesy of the Joyce Theater)