I didn't find out about the Sandy Hook shootings until Friday at 3 pm, when I entered my class at FIT to find my students listening to President Obama's brief address on YouTube. I let them listen, then turned it off.  Later I wondered why I had been in such a rush (not that they minded, it turned out; they'd probably been "processing", as educators like to say about the un-process-able, … [Read more...]

I have misgivings about director Joe Wright's treatment of the novel in his new film--how he understands Tolstoy and Anna. But the way the filmmaker animates the drama, with the crucial help of Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, is absolutely exhilaratingly bold. For anyone wondering how pervasive choreography can be in a serious feature film, this movie is not to be … [Read more...]

Valentino's costumes for the fall gala (puffy and ridiculous mainly, making the beautiful women dancers look bulbous and encased and their fine, pointe-clad feet resemble hooves) may have generated the buzz for New York City Ballet this season, but the real excitement was, thankfully, the dances: three programs of pure Balanchine-Stravinsky, the last two of which continue until Sunday. … [Read more...]

With the Whitney Biennial's embrace of dance for the first time this spring, with commissions to choreographers Sarah Michelson and Michael Clark, and MoMA following suit next month with some sweet day, a curated series of postmodern premieres, it's fitting that fall began with works that also merged the disciplines. Here's a chunk of my review for the Financial Times of Jason Somma … [Read more...]

August's week-long, free, outdoor Downtown Dance Festival has closed every year for the last five with the Indo-American Arts Council's increasingly popular, adventurously curated Erasing Borders show, which combines classical Indian dance with an Indian hybrid-- this year, mid-century Bollywood by way of the Russian provinces. Here's a bit from my Financial Times review of a month ago: The … [Read more...]