Dance
662 results
Page 50
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
Sign up for our newsletter
All of the week's new articles, all in one place. Sign up for the free weekly BSR newsletters, and don't miss a conversation.
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
"Black Swan': a ballet/horror film (1st review)
And you thought ballet was a tough career
Black Swan purports to be a film about ballet. Is ballet really this vulgar, violent and tasteless?
Articles
2 minute read
Parsons Dance at Annenberg
Hold the philosophy, pass the joy
David Parsons doesn't use dance to explore ideas. With Parsons, an evening of dance is just an evening of dance— and very enjoyable nevertheless.
Articles
3 minute read
The plump dancer and the 'New York Times' critic
Art and sensitivity: If a dancer's too heavy, should a critic say so?
The New York Times dance critic has been vilified for commenting on a dancer's weight. Was he insensitive? Maybe. But that sort of sensitivity is the enemy of art— especially the art of dance.
Articles
4 minute read