If you still think of ballet as inaccessible formalist movement to stuffy classical music, you have not seen BalletX. With an inviting Winter 2014 program spanning Valentine’s Day, this is a great opportunity to make a date with dance.
View More Make a date with dance: BalletX Winter SeriesCategory: Dance
Coverage of dance, movement, and related performance art in Philadelphia.
So, Grandma Sets You Up on a Blind Date…
It stands to reason that pairing grandmothers (even fantasy ones) and a creative type like a dancer or composer would result in a match made in heaven. At Thirdbird’s BLIND DATES, we find just that in an improvisational sampler platter. With the help of a bingo-ball spinner, our hosts, Fantasy Grandma randomly pair up dancers and musicians who have been assigned numbers corresponding with the balls….
View More So, Grandma Sets You Up on a Blind Date…CONFETTI (Gabrielle Revlock): Duets Galore in a Hardware Store
Gabrielle Revlock’s latest work Confetti, a medley of duets that featured Revlock dancing with her peers, her mother and an eight-year old, offered a dynamic and colorful assortment of relationships with her varying partners.
View More CONFETTI (Gabrielle Revlock): Duets Galore in a Hardware StoreYou’re Probably Missing Out: A tour of Kensington’s performance spaces
The performance spaces which have made Kensington their home (Walking Fish Theatre, Hella Fresh, Mascher Space, and fidgetspace) are remote, both financially and physically, from the city, yet still close enough to converse artistically with downtown venues and even to attract funding.
View More You’re Probably Missing Out: A tour of Kensington’s performance spacesCare to Dance? The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alike
The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, bringing forth a series of diverse performances catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alike
View More Care to Dance? The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alikeThresholds in the fourth dance wall or please stand by for the next movement
Published by The Dance Journal. Reprinted by kind permission The audience was migrated from the second floor community room in Neighborhood House up a back stairwell…
View More Thresholds in the fourth dance wall or please stand by for the next movementDance ornaments sparkle in Pennsylvania Ballet’s NUTCRACKER (2013)
Pennsylvania Ballet is only one of just a few companies licensed to do Balanchine’s 1954 classic ballet.
View More Dance ornaments sparkle in Pennsylvania Ballet’s NUTCRACKER (2013)SNOWBALL (Brian Sanders’ JUNK): A Wondrous Urban Fairytale for Kids of All Ages
The latest installment of SNOWBALL, the annual wintertime extravaganza by Brian Sanders’ JUNK, is a must-see world-premiere holiday delight for the whole family. Combining a post-modern urban narrative with a charming “Winter Wonderland Furrytail,” the engaging two-act show will keep you smiling, gasping, oohing and aahing at its heartwarming moral, Sanders’ stunning choreography, and his acclaimed dance troupe’s extraordinary finesse.
View More SNOWBALL (Brian Sanders’ JUNK): A Wondrous Urban Fairytale for Kids of All AgesTHROUGH THE SKIN (Koresh): Flesh and the dance devil
The body beautiful is an aspect of dance that can be easily exploited. Two shows, from opposite ends of the dance spectrum, featuring scantily clad dancers, challenge audiences not to objectify – Koresh Dance’s Through the Skin and Flashdance, the Musical. In contrast to the sexy poster art for both show, they both un-voyeuristically sing the body electric.
View More THROUGH THE SKIN (Koresh): Flesh and the dance devilBalletX’s Matthew Neenan downshifts for THERE I WAS
Earlier this month BalletX dancers had their pointe shoes ready for a rehearsal for Matthew Neenan’s ballet There I Was. The piece showcases how inventive, within and out of specific pointe shoe classicism, Neenan can be. Even though it is weeks before the opening There I Was looks ready, Neenan only moved around to cue a specific music change, apologizing to the dancers for the pause.
View More BalletX’s Matthew Neenan downshifts for THERE I WASFALLING INTO HERE or THE IMPORTANCE OF NORMAL (The Naked Stark/ First Person Arts): Dance review
Fractured. Awry. Akilter. There is frighteningly little cohesion and order (or shall we call it normalcy?) in the dark visual and kinesthetic world that Katherine Kiefer Stark presents in Falling into Here or The Importance of Normal. The performance is a welcome dance work among the talking heads presentations of the 12th annual First Person Arts Festival, a 10-day affair dedicated mostly to autobiographical narrative expressed through storytelling and song.
View More FALLING INTO HERE or THE IMPORTANCE OF NORMAL (The Naked Stark/ First Person Arts): Dance reviewTHE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…
Six audience members isn’t an empty house; that’s the full load for Nichole Canuso Dance Company’s THE GARDEN. The basement below us is an expansive concrete stretch, a network of small rooms and squared pillars, and we’re sent down into a smallish room scattered with chairs. We’re invited to sit wherever we like.
View More THE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…NICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESH
SmokeyScout is named after artistic director Josh McIlvain’s cats: Smokey and Scout. The program of the November NICE AND FRESH thanks them, along with Moving Arts of…
View More NICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESHRaphael Xavier’s THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE at the First Person Arts Festival
Published by The Dance Journal. Reprinted by kind permission. Like many artists, dancer Raphael Xavier has a difficult time describing exactly what he does for…
View More Raphael Xavier’s THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE at the First Person Arts FestivalJEWELS (Pennsylvania Ballet): Dance review
Published by The Dance Journal, reprinted with kind permission. As noted in Lew Wittington’s interview with PA Ballet Artistic Director Roy Kaiser last month, George…
View More JEWELS (Pennsylvania Ballet): Dance reviewDANCE IT OUT: SEBASTIAN AND SHANNON (curated by Meg Foley): What Stays With You
Excerpted from thINKingDANCE.net. Upon entering the dark, intimate AUX space for Meg Foley’s first DANCE IT OUT (a new series she is curating), the crowd made…
View More DANCE IT OUT: SEBASTIAN AND SHANNON (curated by Meg Foley): What Stays With YouRoy Kaiser looks forward and back as Pennsylvania Ballet turns 50
Published by The Dance Journal. Reprinted with kind permission. Pennsylvania Ballet launches its 50th season this month with the celebrations, reunions and gala performances, but…
View More Roy Kaiser looks forward and back as Pennsylvania Ballet turns 50Modern dance DNA is Childs’ play
The retrospective of Judson Church choreographer-dancer Lucinda Childs’ SELECTED DANCES, 1963-78 last week was instructive and artistically purposeful. This work is still so vibrant in its exploratory nature that Childs’ innovations are part of the evolving dance stream.
View More Modern dance DNA is Childs’ playNICE AND FRESH October (SmokeyScout): New art pops up
Fresh from the inaugural weekend of NICE AND FRESH, I’m heartened to report that SmokeyScout Productions (founded by Josh McIlvain and Deborah Crocker in 2008)…
View More NICE AND FRESH October (SmokeyScout): New art pops upNICE AND FRESH theater in Mount Airy
What a pleasant corner of Philadelphia is Mount Airy. A suburban urban neighborhood: trees and grass yards but also sidewalks and train lines; driveways and…
View More NICE AND FRESH theater in Mount Airy