“We Choose to Go to the Moon”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
December 12, 2018

For thousands of years, people have stared up at the night sky in wonder — naming constellations and tracking stars as the cosmic landscape changed with the seasons. The advancements made in science and engineering during the space race in the 1960’s only elevated humanity’s fascination with the uncharted territories of the ever-expanding

Catherine Galasso
"Of Iron and Diamonds V3: Alone Together"
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
December 7, 2018

In 2011 Catherine Galasso finished a residency in San Francisco with the ODC Theater’s commissioned “Bring on the Lumiere”, an intricately structured evocation of the Lumiere brothers and their innovative working with light. It’s a piece that engaged with wit, imagination and some Gallic charm rarely seen on our stages. Then Galasso left for greener pastures. Now she has returned with

“The Nutcracker”
Ballet West
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
December 6, 2018

Ballet West’s splendidly refurbished “Nutcracker” is as warm and welcoming as a cup of holiday spiced tea on a cold winter evening. This company's version of the holiday classic is no stranger to Washington audiences (having visited in 2012 and 2014), but this year’s production boasts a lofty $3 million overhaul that delightfully blends the old

“The Call,” “Shelter,” “In/Side ” “Revelations”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York City Center
New York, NY
December 4, 2018

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continued its long-running tradition of beautifully choreographed and danced gems, with the addition of an homage to its founder. Ronald K. Brown’s “The Call,” premiering at Ailey’s winter season at New York City Center, was a soulful addition to a program that packed power from beginning to end — what Brown called

"The Dream" and "Being and Nothingness"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 10, 2018

The National Ballet of Canada's fall mixed program featured two contrasting and complimentary one act works. First was a revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's "The Dream", arguably one of the most successful dance adaptations of Shakespeare's work. This provided a wonderful chance to see a new generation of dancers in this timeless piece. Next

“Minimalism and Me,” “Eight Jelly Rolls,”
Twyla Tharp Dance
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
November 15, 2018

In a charming two-part evening at the Joyce Theater, Twyla Tharp has joined the parade of excellent retrospectives of post-modern giants who are being heralded at MoMA’s current Judson Dance exhibition. Although she took a turn at Judson, Tharp’s path was different than the Judson group (including Yvonne Rainer, Deborah Hay, Trisha Brown and others,) but, like them, she

"Blak Whyte Gray"
Boy Blue
Michael "Mikey J" Asante, Creative Direction and Music 
Kenrick "H2O" Sandy, Choreography
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College 
Lincoln Center White Light Festival 
November 16, 2018

Members of Boy Blue held a post-performance chat last night after the US premiere of "Blak Whyte Gray," and it was a shock to hear their British accents. Their intense and acrobatic hip-hop dancing was straight from the streets of New York

"Anna Karenina"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 10, 2018

The National Ballet of Canada has taken a liking to John Neumeier's full-length dance dramas over the past decade with performances of "The Seagull", "Nijinsky", and "A Streetcar Named Desire". His latest work to enter the repertoire, "Anna Karenina", is a new commission and a joint effort between the NBoC, Hamburg Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet. Leo Tolstoy's epic

“Scotch Symphony,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Divertissement Pas de Deux from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” “The Four Temperaments”
San Francisco Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet
Balanchine, The City Center Years
New York City Center
November 2, 2018

City Center’s 75th anniversary celebration of Balanchine ballets was a rare example in today’s arts world – routinely long on hype and short on substance – of a festival that focused on a worthy subject and actually delivered.

"Don Quixote" 
Hungarian National Ballet 
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY 
November 9, 2018 

Michael Messerer's version of "Don Quixote" was last seen in New York in 2014 danced by the Mihailovsky ballet with supernova superstars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in the leading roles. Four years later, Hungarian National Ballet couldn't field as brilliant a pair of leads -- few companies could -- but other, quieter virtues became apparent this time around.

The curtain

"Apparatus Hominus"
Tom Gold Dance
Florence Gould Hall
New York, New York
November 9, 2018

Tom Gold, the former New York City Ballet soloist who now has a small company of semi-regular dancers, many of whom also work for other companies, presented what was billed as his inaugural fall season with an hour-long work originally choreographed for the TurnPark Art Space, an outdoor sculpture garden in the Berkshires.  The printed program included pictures of some of the