Ballets Jazz de Montreal at Annenberg

Amid the absurdity, one humbling moment

Both MAPA and Rossini Cards, performed at Annenberg by Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, largely wasted the dancers' talents with repetition and inanity. But one stunning five-minute interlude left me speechless at my own inadequacy to ever approach such a moment of ideal human beauty.

Jim Rutter

Feb 21, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Keely Garfield's "Limerence'

This woman is dangerous

Keely Garfield's Limerence could be the Cliff Notes to poet Gary Snyder's line: “The pointless wars of the heart.” It draws blood. And if you're like me, it takes a night of fitful sleep before you realize how badly you've been cut.

Steve Antinoff

Feb 10, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Greed,' by Rebecca Davis Dance

Where business and choreography meet

Can Wall Street's Enron scandal be set to music and dance? Choreographer Rebecca Davis— herself a business student and entrepreneur— has made something incredibly celebratory, beautiful, and powerful about a financial disaster.

Jim Rutter

Feb 03, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Twyla Tharp's "Noir' by UArts

Tharp, and a cat playing with a dead mouse

Twyla Tharp's Noir allows the audience to view the world she creates on stage with the eyes of Eternity and Death. It's the world as Freud described it: civilized and polite on the surface but ruled, in fact, by erotic desire and aggression unto the death.

Steve Antinoff

Dec 16, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Ballet X: Work by Booker and Neenan

Searching for meaning in modern dance
(without program notes, yet)

Watching Giselle’s Room was like hearing poetry in a foreign language. But two works by Ballet X co-artistic director Matthew Neenan caused no such confusion. Ballet X, more accustomed to Neenan’s individual style and tone, gave superb performances of both pieces.

Ballet X: Giselle’s Room, by Zane Booker; Duet From Cali and Steelworks, by Matthew Neenan. November 6-9, 2008 at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. (at Spruce). (215) 917-1513 or www.balletx.org.

Jim Rutter

Nov 11, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Balanchine and Tharp'

One more cause for euphoria

It’s too bad the Pennsylvania Ballet didn’t stage these pieces after the election— because regardless of the outcome, these performances would have restored anyone’s faith in humanity. You can’t feel anything less than admiration after watching a corps of young people dancing with such pure elation, so fluid, lovely, and promising, as they moved in perfect unison.

Pennsylvania Ballet: “Balanchine and Tharp. ” October 29-November 2, 2008 at Academy of Music, Broad and Locust St. (215) 551-7000 or www.paballet.org.

Jim Rutter

Nov 05, 2008 · Articles · 5 minute read

Ellen Forman Memorial Concert

Ellen Forman's body language, fondly recalled

As founder of the South Street Dance Company in the early ’70s, the late Ellen Forman introduced Philadelphia to post-modern dance. The humor, romanticism and ebullience that marked her life and work were appropriately recalled in a studio dedication in her honor.

Ellen Forman Memorial Dance Studio opening. October 3, 2008 at Mandell Theater, Drexel University, 33rd and Chestnut Sts. (215) 895-2787 or www.drexel.edu/comad.

Jonathan M. Stein

Oct 08, 2008 · Articles · 2 minute read

Scrap's "Tide' at Fringe Festival (2nd review)

Energy vs. environment on South Street

In Isaiah Zagar's mosaic garden on South Street, dancers perilously climbed and danced off walls of embedded bottles and ceramics in the early evening, when subtle lighting added a mysterious glow to the performance.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 24, 2008 · Articles · 1 minute read

React/Dance's South Philly Tour, at Fringe Festival

Beyond gentrification's reach

React/Dance, led by Jacelyn Biondo and Kristen Shahverdian, took its dancers and audience on a tour of South Philly, with nary a chic restaurant or much of a sign of gentrification in sight.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 24, 2008 · Articles · 1 minute read

"Car' at Fringe Festival

All the world's a garage

In Car, director/choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace took audiences of three or four in a car ride within a parking garage— an ambitious, aggressive and sometimes violent experiment.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 24, 2008 · Articles · 1 minute read