Pennsylvania Ballet's "Tango With Style' (3rd review)

Neenan reveals his sensual side

Keep, an impressive and powerful new work by Matthew Neenan, proved the highlight of the Pennsylvania Ballet's otherwise lackluster “Tango with Style” program. It's the most mature blend of emotions I've seen in Neenan's shorter works.

Jim Rutter

May 12, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Tango With Style' (2nd review)

A troupe at the top of its game

Not long ago the Pennsylvania Ballet was struggling. Today it's a model artistic institution. Credit artistic director Roy Kaiser, who brings a dancer's instincts, institutional memory and personal commitment to the job.

Janet Anderson

May 12, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Tango With Style' (1st review)

Tango clichés (and how to avoid them)

The Pennsylvania Ballet's penultimate performance of the season was a pleasing mixture of one of the company's repertory works, Robert Weiss's Octet for Strings; Keep, a world premiere by its resident choreographer, Matthew Neenan; and Hans van Manen's Five Tangos, a company premiere of a work that's achieved international status. The corps was in good form, though the live musical accompaniment was often ragged in tone.

Robert Zaller

May 09, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Megan Mazarick's "Avatard'

Through the virtual looking glass: Planet Cunningham?

Megan Mazarick's playful and imaginative Avatard joined the illusionistic cultures of video games and science fiction into a loopy mix.

Jonathan M. Stein

May 02, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

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Apr 29, 2009 · Articles · less than a minute read

Jeanne Ruddy's "Juxtapose"

Civilization's trappings, stripped bare

Jeanne Ruddy Dance presented two divergent world premieres: Ruddy's elegant but confusing Lark, and Martha Clarke's lusciously nightmarish Sandman.

Jim Rutter

Apr 28, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Ballet X: 'Striped Hat' and "Largo'

Dr. Seuss meets Fragonard

Ballet X presented two world premieres whose moods could not have been more different. Christine Cox's wonderfully entertaining The Striped Hat celebrated a child's spirited imagination. Edwaard Liang's Largo plumbed the melancholy emotions that accompany affection.

Jim Rutter

Apr 07, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Dive into Dance' at Temple's Conwell Theater

So weird, but so beautiful

For her final magic trick in a month-long virtual festival of weekend dance programs and workshops, Terry Fox created an evening of unexpected synergy and excitement. With the Wilma's “Dance BOOM!” series in limbo, I long to see Terry Fox working her magic during the other 11 months of the year.

Jonathan M. Stein

Mar 10, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Milk Traces' by Shinichi Iova-Koga

In search of a fig leaf

Shinichi Iova-Koga's Milk Traces reflects the atmosphere of the East. Yet it also reflects hints of Genesis, Kafka, Hegel and Martin Buber— specifically, the human obsession since Adam and Eve with concealing our nakedness and/or our lack of perfection.

Steve Antinoff

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

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