Beauty Bind

Chronicle culture writer Steven Winn uses the near-concurrence of John Rockwell?s column on the comeliness of New York City Ballet Dancers and the Oscars as a point of meditation on our conflicted attitudes towards beauty: ?New York Times dance...

A Generous “Giselle”

The hot cast to see in San Francisco Ballet?s ?Giselle? last week was Tina LeBlanc and Gonzalo Garcia. I caught them Friday night. I wasn?t reviewing, wasn?t under pressure to analyze, and so I got to be swept away along with the standing ovation...

Fresh Faces at ODC

ODC Dance kicks off its annual “Dancing Downtown” season this Thursday, giving three programs with two premieres each by artistic directors Brenda Way and KT Nelson. The company has a clutch of gorgeous new dancers right now, with...

Heavenly Bodies

I led a small discussion group at Grace Cathedral last night on ?Art and Spirit,? with a particular focus on dance. They asked me to bring videos, and I was happy to oblige. My participation was somewhat on the fly, so I reached for two perhaps...

Four times the fun

I reviewed LEVYdance’s appearance with the new California Regional Dance Touring Project for the Chronicle today: “Talent: You’ve got it or you don’t. And from the start of Benjamin Levy’s precocious choreographic...

Kin is in

I reviewed San Francisco company Robert Moses? Kin for the Chronicle today. The dancing looked fabulous, the world premiere less so: ?The company looked as if it had arrived Thursday night, dancing with bite in a program of three Moses favorites...

Theater of the People

I just love 848 Community Space, San Francisco?s tiny arts venue that could. And now the theater is moving, and getting bigger. Today I report in the Chronicle on a dance benefit to fund the new 848?s sprung dance floor: ?The dancing was scrappy...

I?m back?or trying to be. I spent the last week in Santa Barbara with my mother and my brother Emmet, who?s on leave from Iraq, trying to absorb the stories of how he?s lived there, trying to simultaneously remember and forget the fact that he...

Black is Back

Fua Dia Congo raised the roof at the opening night of the first annual Black Choreographers Festival. I reviewed for the Chron: “Feet were tapping and voices were yipping Friday night — and the dancers of Fua Dia Congo hadn’t...

Epic “China”

I took a sneak peek at Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley’s latest premiere for the Chronicle today. It’s a three-act collaboration between artistic director Dennis Nahat and Chinese choreographer Yong Yao: “Nahat was undaunted a...

With the ballet season starting and SFB on everyone’s radar, there’s another show in town this weekend you shouldn’t miss. Hip hop innovator Rennie Harris and his company Puremovement are finally returning to the city. A few...