VIEWPOINTS – A recent crop of divergent solo performances fearlessly peer into the soul the artist

Solo performances, particularly autobiographical ones, can be sacred experiences for all concerned. The act of opening oneself up so that others can observe one’s deepest fears and sensitive vulnerabilities takes tremendous … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Phantom Limb Company’s eco-focused MEMORY RINGS at BAM is whimsical, hypnotic

Last night, I attended a performance of New York-based Phantom Limb Company’s Memory Rings, an offering at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. In many ways, this multi-disciplinary defies categorization. Memory Rings, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mikhail Baryshnikov fails to register as Nijinsky in Robert Wilson’s LETTER TO A MAN

What a shame. There was so much promise in the concept of having Mikhail Baryshnikov – one of the great movers of our time – play the legendary dancer Vaslav … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Company XIV’s PARIS! is one of its most riotously entertaining outings yet

I think of Company XIV shows in the same way I do of those Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas. Once you’ve seen one of them, viewings of subsequent shows start to … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s VORTEX TEMPORUM manifests the relationship between dancers and musicians at BAM

This past weekend, I returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to catch Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Vortex Temporum, a dance set to spectral composer Gérard Grisey’s shimmering, tension-filled score … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival admirably focuses on both emerging and established artists with Yoann Bourgeois’s MINUIT and Shen Wei’s NEITHER

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s expansive Next Wave Festival marches on, and what’s becoming evident is the festival’s dedication to giving exposure to both emerging (the use of the relatively … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Distilling classic texts: BATTLEFIELD and SONGS OF LEAR at BAM

BAM’s Next Wave Festival continues with two shows that showcase theater’s ability to distill narratives, particularly classic texts depicting troubled kings, to a few elegant strokes. With running times of … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Holy Body Tatto’s MONUMENTAL assaults the senses (and society) at BAM

Last night at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (as part of the Next Wave Festival), I attended a performance of monumental, courtesy of Canadian dance company The Holy Body … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mark Morris’s MOZART DANCES stirs the soul

One of the handful of my “aha!” moments in dance was when I first encountered Mark Morris’s dance set to Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. The humanity and … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – KANZE NOH THEATRE quietly mesmerizes, courtesy of this year’s Lincoln Center Festival

This past week, I had the great pleasure and privilege of immersing myself in Noh, a centuries-old form of Japanese music and dance theater – complete with elaborate masks and … Continue Reading →