Jane Comfort’s An American Rendition, which recently closed at the end of September, is the latest work in an oeuvre that continually reaches beyond what most other New York choreographers are producing. Comfort has never shied from topical subject matter, complex collaborations, or pushing her performers past what is normally demanded of them. This new […]

Fall for Dance is a wildly successful annual festival at New York City Center featuring $10 tickets and an amazing range of dance companies, 28 total. Now in its fifth year, the festival – produced by Ellen Dennis – spanned ten nights, with six different programs. All three programs I saw offered intriguing variety and […]

It’s not exactly news that space in New York is at a premium, particularly for space-hungry ventures like dance studios and performance venues. So it is with special interest that a few spaces off the beaten path have offered distinctive, thoughtful shows in the last few weeks. CPR – Center for Performance Research inaugurated its […]

Most of us don’t have the opportunity to be in Beijing for the Olympics, but Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s new work – The Copier, by Jill Johnson – might satisfy the interests of at least a few fans. The company’s dancers are essentially world-class athletes, capable of doing things most of us can’t even dream […]

I’ve touched on the importance of public art in a previous post, and the summer onslaught continues with the New York City Parks’ Dance Out! initiative, a series of site specific dance performances around the city (site specific dance around America will soon be finding it’s way to SundayArts in Great Performance’s Dance in America: […]

The best moment of Darkness and Light, Basil Twist’s new collaboration with Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken for Pilobolus, comes right at the start. A number of people stand or crouch amid scattered machinery, pointedly staring at the audience. It’s long enough for a mental snapshot, but after a scrim lowers, concealing the scene, I […]

When’s the last time you went to a concert where the average age in the audience was twelve? Last week, I—along with 800 elementary and intermediate public school students—went to LaGuardia High School of Music, Art, and the Performing Arts for a daytime performance of Purcell’s short opera Dido and Aeneas. This was a commission […]