“Signals,” “Wild Wild World,” “Hardness 10”
Stephen Petronio Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
March 20, 2018

It is all right there. Stephen Petronio is in the middle of a five-year project (maybe longer,) “Bloodlines,” in which he remounts and reflects on the influence of the great choreographers who have been his mentors and inspirations. In the current offering, the link is beautifully clear to the stunning genetic material that he gleaned from Merce Cunningham, whose “Signals” (1970) opened

"Menagerie", "Myriad", "The Outset"
The Washington Ballet
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
March 18, 2018 at 1:30 PM 

The surprise of this ambitious bill of three brand new ballets was the similarity of the dramatic theme which tantalized the 3 different, rather new choreographers. Clifton Brown, Gemma Bond and Marcelo Gomes addressed the relationship of the individual to that person's group. I suspect the similarity wasn't due to collusion but astonished the dance makers and also Julie

Dance Around Town
"Path of Miracles"
Grace Cathedral
Feb. 10, 2018
"What We Carry What We Keep
"News of the World"
March 15, 2018
Buena Vista Center for the Arts Theater
San Francisco, CA

For the last four decades, Brenda Way and KT Nelson have shared the stage during ODC Dance’s annual spring season; Nelson, at first as a superb dancer, today as a choreographer with her own distinct voice. This year the company changed its format. In a

Choreography by Michio Ito and Dana Burgess
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
March 17, 2018

The site of the performance was an oblong salon on the Portrait Gallery's second floor. Prominently on display in addition to the dancing was a large portrait of a female dancer by Ferdinand Hodler (1853 -1918), the Swiss German painter. Hodler shows both motion and pause in his subject's pose, and areas of geometric flattening and of

“Exploring Stillness”
Flamenco Festival
New York City Center
New York
March 9, 2018

Since at least the beginning of modernity, movement has been considered the essential element of western theater dance. Movement is what gives dance its autonomy as an independent art; stillness, accordingly, is the antithesis of dance, a void. Occasionally contemporary choreographers have looked at aspects of stillness and its relationship to dance, but it is rare. Consequently, it came as a surprise when this year’s Flamenco

“Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée,’” “Agon,” “Duo Concertant, “Symphony in three Movements”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York
March 4, 2018

New York City Ballet’s final performance of the winter season consisted almost exclusively of Balan- chine/ Stravinsky ballets, often called “black-and-white” for their use of practice clothing for costumes. The one exception, while still a Balanchine/  Stravinsky work, was very different, but not simply because of its costuming. The

Compañía Eva Yerbabuena
March 9, 2018
Ballet Flamenco Jesús Carmona
March 11, 2018
Flamenco Festival
New York City Center
New York

Each year the Flamenco Festival brings several of Spain’s major companies to New York. This year one of them was headed by a woman, Compañía Eva Yerbabuana, another by a man, Ballet Flamenco Jesús Carmona. The were very different, but less due to the gender of their directors than to their approach to the medium. Yerbabuena’s show,

In the Mood

"Poem", "Moods", "Sweet in the Morning", "Preludes", "Dreams"
Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble
The Mark O'Donnell Theater
Brooklyn, New York
March 8, 2018.

Anna Sokolow was a modern dance pioneer whose works, while abstract, are richly theatrical, dealing with both human emotions and broader social themes.  Her legacy has been valiantly carried on by Director Jim May and the recently appointed Artistic Director Samantha Géracht, both former Sokolow dancers.  The program, subtitled "Moods and Dreams"