NYCB in LA

Allan Ulrich?s review of New York City Ballet in Los Angeles is now up on Voice of Dance, with a tidbit of information that will likely tantalize many West Coast ballet lovers: ?The West Coast – at least Costa Mesa and Berkeley – have...

Dancing in their seats

I’ve got an article in the Chronicle today on the 25th anniversary of Rhythm & Motion dance center: “A jazz dancer slinked in her silky dress. Robust women shook their shoulders to Cuban drumming. Twenty-year-olds in cargo pants...

Balanchine in the 21st C.

It’s incredibly difficult, I think, for anybody under 40–and especially a non-New Yorker–to write about New York City Ballet these days. There is the omnipresent shadow of the many persuasive detractors of Peter Martins’s...

Good News

Given all the (justified) hand-wringing that dance is in down-cycle in terms of creativity and popular appeal, I thought I?d post two stories about efforts to fight the malaise. For starters, New York?s $10-per-ticket Fall for Dance Festival in...

Kudelka Rising

I’m en route to see the New York City Ballet in Orange County–four programs in two days. But I’ve just got time to post my Chronicle review of the National Ballet of Canada, which closes a Cal Performances run on Sunday...

Shen Wei

I?m in the Chronicle today with a review of Shen Wei Dance Arts. I entered the theater skeptical about Shen?s ?The Rite of Spring? but exited a believer: ?Shen uses the two-piano reduction of Stravinsky’s score, played with spine-tingling...

More delays and another take

My review of Shen Wei Dance Arts will actually run in the Chronicle tomorrow. And Thursday I?ll be checking out the National Ballet of Canada at Cal Performances, with a review appearing in the Chronicle on Saturday. In the meantime, Allan Ulrich...

London calling

The reviews of San Francisco Ballet keep rolling in from London. Raves for the dancers and for Tomasson?s leadership, and pans for Bolshoi director Alexey Ratmansky?s ?Carnival des Animaux.? I could not agree more. I was in the minority when this...

Eureka?

Voice of Dance?s Allan Ulrich is unmoved by John Jasperse?s ?CALIFORNIA?: ?There is a moment in John Jasperse?s CALIFORNIA when you suddenly sit up, giddy with delight. A man bends and nuzzles his female partner like a youthful gazelle expressing...

The first (short) reviews of San Francisco Ballet?s London engagement are in. Judith Mackrell in the Guardian: ?As director of San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson has started to acquire an aura of infallibility, his expertise in laying down...