Dance
655 results
Page 49
Myth vs. dreams in Wheeldon's "Swan Lake'
It was only a dream? Then give me my money back
In falling back on the framing device of a dream, Christopher Wheeldon's recent adaptation squanders the genuine mythical power of Swan Lake. The same goes for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.
Articles
4 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "Swan Lake' (2nd review)
The swan competition: And the winner is….
In the coveted Swan Queen role, the up-and-coming dancers Brooke Moore and Lauren Fadeley both displayed the necessary technical skill. But only Moore truly inhabited the part.
Articles
5 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "Swan Lake' (1st review)
Out of the forest and into the studio
Roy Kaiser says he wanted a Swan Lake that was an original production. He couldn't have known how well Christopher Wheeldon's poetic original interpretation of a long established classic would suit his company and his audience.
Articles
6 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "Swan Lake' competition
Truth is stranger? A real-life battle of the swans
In the film Black Swan, two ambitious ballerinas engage in a fierce competition for the role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. Now the Pennsylvania Ballet has set up the same scenario for the same ballet.
Articles
3 minute read
Kate Weare and Monica Bill Barnes at Annenberg
A hit and a miss
Kate Weare's Bright Land shakes up the folk traditions and gender roles that folk songs most often invoke. By contrast, Monica Bill Barnes's Another Parade was a lightweight attempt at parody.
Articles
3 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "Classical Innovations'
A program in search of a point
Two pieces on Pennsylvania Ballet's latest program offered beauty and sensory treats but no particular point. The company would do better to scrap both and stage the third by itself: Twyla Tharp's awe-inspiring In the Upper Room.
Articles
2 minute read
Argentina's Tango Fire at the Merriam
Tango's middle-age crisis
Like no other art form I know, the tango shows us who we are. But Tango Fire's brief but intense visit to the Merriam raised an implicit question: Like jazz, where is the tango headed?
Articles
3 minute read
"Black Swan' (3rd review)
Grand Guignol at the ballet
Darren Aronofsky's much-hyped Black Swan is a high-concept slasher film whose director wreaks his fantasies on the world of ballet. Ostensibly a film about ambition and intrigue, it's a phantasmagoric exercise in misogyny.
Articles
5 minute read
"Black Swan' (2nd review)
Hall of mirrors: Inside a ballerina's head
What sets Black Swan apart from other ballet movies is that it's a psychological thriller with genuine ballet roots. In the overheated work of learning the dual Swan Queen role, the heroine begins losing her ability to sort out what's real and what's imaginary.
Black Swan. A film directed by Darren Aronofsky. For theaters and times in greater Philadelphia, click here.
Articles
5 minute read
Pennsylvania Ballet's "Nutcracker': Three generations
To see with the eyes of a child
At what age should you introduce a child to The Nutcracker? And do you take her for her benefit, or yours?
Articles
5 minute read