In our busy daily lives, we don’t often have the opportunity to be immersed in anything outside of the regular stuff… I mean transported, outlook altered, mood changed. I sampled a couple of cultural experiences offering such a chance this week, Minneapolis-based Morgan Thorson’s Heaven at PS 122 which closed Oct 3 and Kurt Hentschläger’s [...]

Artist Bill Viola has a show of work from two decades titled Bodies of Light, at James Cohan Gallery, through Dec 19. He sat down to talk about his work last week. You had a residency at WNET a long time ago? The first time I did something at WNET was in 1976; I did [...]

It’s hard to view Strindberg’s Miss Julie—even Patrick Marber’s updated After Miss Julie—in light of today’s values.  The tragic weight of the play stems from the fact that after two people of a difference social class make love, their world is turned upside down. Today, a quickie with someone below you in social status is [...]

I think it’s safe to say that George Steel and Peter Martins are probably two of the happiest men in New York today. Last Thursday morning, Steel and Martins—the general director of New York City Opera and Ballet Master in Chief of the New York City Ballet—invited members of the press to a preview of [...]

Brazilian Deborah Colker’s company may rarely visit New York, but going by 4 Por 4 at New York’s City Center through Oct 25, the choreographer does not lack ambition. The program features four simply-titled dances with distinctive sets by different artists whose visions lay the thematic groundwork. Each dance’s visual environment sets parameters for the [...]

A Steady Rain, which recently broke the weekly record for highest grossing play in Broadway history, is simply a Chippendales show for women (and men, I suppose) who like to like to watch two hunks show off their brains as well as their muscles. (For those New Yorkers whose internet has been out of service [...]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so they say. So it is with ABT, which instead of two weeks at City Center this fall, did a handful of performances last week at Avery Fisher Hall. Making it perhaps even worse is seeing just one show, a reminder of how special their fall seasons can be, [...]

This morning I received a personal note from clarinetist José Franch-Ballester to let me know about his October 13 recital at Poisson Rouge with pianist/composer Adam Neiman. I first met José during the summer of 2008; you can read the text of our conversation for SundayArts here. The Poisson Rouge concert mixes new and old [...]

As I write this, it’s 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, and I’m listening to WNYC radio host Terrance McKnight count down the last 30 minutes before New York City’s all-classical WQXR becomes part of the WNYC public radio family. The change to a new radio frequency is being celebrated with a live broadcast of [...]

It’s hard to tell since we’re in the middle of it, but while the current dance scene may not be regarded as “golden,” it is undeniably rich. Part of the impressiveness of it all is the dazzling variety of styles and approaches. In a given week—say,  this one—you can choose from a tango musical (Tanguera), [...]