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Miami’s Egyptia 2012 Festival: Celebrating the Art of Egyptian Dance in June

Egyptia 2012 is coming to town from June 1st to 3rd.  Here the authenticity of Arabic Dance will be celebrated through workshops and a final gala performance studded with stars of the genre.

Dance as Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt

We’ve seen depictions of Egyptian dance in ancient paintings and etchings on murals, tombs, and artifacts enough to realize how much a part of everyday life it figured in ancient Egyptian culture. …more…

Los Herederos “Para Los Dioses” at PAX, Miami

Los Herederos

Thursday night, May 25th, Los Herederos (The Inheritors) graced the stage of PAX, Miami Performing Arts Exchange in Little Havana. Founder and vocalist Philbert Armenteros eloquently says that the music of the ensemble is a way to channel messages from the gods of his African ancestors, putting listeners in another dimension that allows them to experience a cleansing, purity, and inner peace.

Cuban émigré Armenteros was born in Havana. …more…

Parsons Dance Gives a Mixed Program on June 6th

David Parsons Dance

On June 6th at 7 PM at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, David Parsons will be showing a mixed program of greatest hits plus his new work, Round My World. Known for his kinetic approach to dance married to a unique approach to lighting, Parsons will remind us again of his humor and his openness to a variety of musical inspirations.

Round My World, which made its …more…

Choreographers Davis Robertson and Helen Heineman Presenting Work: New York Live Arts May 23 and 24th

Davis Robertson, Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet School Performance Company and former soloist with the Nederlands Dans Company, Helen Heineman are presenting original choreography on the 23rd and 34th of May at New York Live Arts in New York.

Founded by Robert Joffrey in 1953, the Joffrey Ballet School has been an important training ground for dancers, with classes in classical ballet and contemporary dance styles. Robertson, who studied at …more…

Liss Fain Dance

Liss Fain Dance

Founded in Boston in 1988, Liss Fain Dance makes its home in San Francisco , with local performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Z Space. Besides proscenium work, the company also performs in on-site venues, as well as within installation creations that enhance the already evocative material that is signature to Ms. Fain’s vision.

Abstract, dynamic, emotional, fluid, and highly intelligent, LFD presents non-narrative …more…

Australian Ballet Coming to NYC in June

Dancers Tzu-Chao Chu and Lana Jones in Dyad

Presenting approximately 200 performances each year throughout Australia, this full-time ensemble company comes to New York in June with three varied programs on the roster:

Dyad, a ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor to Steve Reich’s Double Sextet is a tribute to the Ballet Russes. In black and white, this piece has been hailed as both complex and fascinating by the Australian press.

Warumuk …more…

Tango Conspiracy at PAX

Tango Conspiracy at PAX Miami

PAX, The Performing Arts Exchange in Miami, is a tucked away world of cultural expression right in downtown. Underneath I-95, this is a true underground hide-away that glows with good vibes and consciousness. In the words of its founders, PAX is dedicated to “fostering cultural diversity through the arts in hopes of human progress in a culture of peace.”  And that it seems to do.

As …more…

LINES Ballet – Before the Blues: Prince Credell

Prince Credell in Alonzo King's Before the Blues ~ photo by Marty Sohl

In my usual weekly search for inspiration, I was watching various videos on You Tube of one of my favorite choreographers, Alonso King, Artistic Director of LINES Ballet in San Francisco. King’s work always makes me cry as it reaches into the soul through the simplest of means: honesty. There is never a false moment, never an …more…

National Dance Week: Daniel Lewis Miami Dance Sampler

Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company: Keystone

In celebration of National Dance Week in Miami, Dance Now! Miami, the Florida Dance Association, and the Little Haiti Cultural Center generously presented two exciting evenings, showcasing the talents of nine local companies, with a special performance by members of New York’s Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company.

The Sampler was originally founded by South Florida dance pioneer, Daniel Lewis, who has had a long and illustrious career …more…

Helen Pickett: Choreographer, Dancer, Actress, Teacher, Writer

Born in San Diego, dancer, actress, choreographer, teacher, and writer Helen Pickett began her dance studies at the San Francisco Ballet School and went on to dance with the esteemed Ballet Frankfurt under the directorship of William Forsythe.  As an actress she also worked with Elizabeth Le Compte’s The Wooster Group for 6 yrs in the OBIE award-winning House/Lights and North Atlantic and then guested with the Royal Ballet of …more…

Brigid Baker and WholeProject Present: Wall Rapture and Comet Love Joy

WholeProject: Comet Love Joy

When Brigid Baker throws a party, it’s a party!

The April celebration at Baker’s 6th Studio in Little Havana, Miami began in the parking lot, with Broadway diva, Bertilla Baker, singing “Get the Party Started” as she rose in an open elevator to the back door platform of the studio.  Alongside on the building’s blank wall, we watched the “Wall Rapture” as a graffiti artist  contributed to …more…

Sohoyini Dance and Drum: Uniting Cultures in Seattle, Washington

Sohoyini Dance and Drum

In the language of the Dagomba people of Northern Ghana, “sohoyini” means ‘one heart’, which is the perfect emblem for the diverse group of artists coming together to form this joyous dance and drum company.

The mission behind SD&D is to unite cultures through the celebration of the music and movement of traditional African rhythms.  With the U.S. company based in Seattle, Washington and a second company …more…

Heidi Latsky Dance: Breaking the Stereotype

Heidi Latsky: GIMP

Heidi Latsky has had a long, illustrious career, from her early days in Montreal to becoming principal dancer with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane to creating her own New York-based contemporary company, Heidi Latsky Dance.

With her dynamic physicality and her intelligent approach to moving the body through space, Latsky’s choreography can be simultaneously poetic, sensual, violent, and athletic, running the gamut of emotions through her impeccable …more…

Contemporary Dance Theater: Presenting Guest Company, Pilobolus

Pilobolus Dance Company

Contemporary Dance Theater, now in their 39th season is presenting the iconic dance company, Pilobolus on May 2nd and 3rd, 2012.  Inventive, collaborative, acrobatic, and unique, Pilobolus dancers use their bodies to create a new way of seeing and experiencing shapes, igniting imaginations wherever they perform.

In addition to performing on stages all over the world, Pilobolus has been featured in many automotive commercials, at the 2007 Academy …more…

La MaMa Moves Dance Festival

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

Once again in May, La MaMa Moves Dance Festival presents new work by both emerging and recognized choreographers in all three of La MaMa, E.T.C.’s venues.

May 9 – 12: Love Story, Palestine by Yoshiko Chuma and School of Hard Knocks
May 11- 13: – Chamber Works : An evening of work by various choreographers: Vicky Shick, Elena Demyanenko and Joe Poulson, Maura Donohue and Peggy Cheng, …more…

The Silky Moves of Lil Buck: Jookin with Style

Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma

With some of the smoothest and ephemeral moves known to the street dance genre, Lil Buck is something of a prodigy with his free-style interpretations known as Jookin.

Lil Buck started dancing at 13, imitating Jookers on the street as well as following the moves of Michael Jackson and other icons of urban dance.  With some classical training from the New Ballet Ensemble and School in …more…

The Seldoms: Contemporary Dance That’s Always Current

The Seldoms

One of Chicago’s most interesting dance companies, The Seldoms have a strong sense of physicality, flow, and mystery.  It is easy to see the intelligence behind their choreography as the work is not only driven by questions dealing with contemporary issues, but also a personal relationship to the environment.

Artistic director Carrie Hanson, named by Dance Magazine as one of 25 to watch in 2012, founded the company in …more…

Alexei Ratmansky’s “The Firebird” Ballet

The Firebird

The Firebird ballet has a long and exciting history ever since it was created by Michael Fokine in 1910 for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. Since then there have been several versions of The Firebird. George Balanchine’s 1949 version was created for his leading ballerina at the time, Maria Tallchief. Maurice Bejart juggled the imagery by using a revolutionary male figure to play the part of the Firebird, and …more…

Philadelphia Dance Projects presents “Tough Teaching” in April

Teaching kids to dance

During the year, PDP offers a variety of programs and workshops that help to stimulate audiences as well as the dance community, whether they are dance performances, Master Classes, educational opportunities, or artist forums.

As part of the Education Project Series, PDP is presenting a free artist forum on April 22, 2012 to discuss the difficult realities that dance teachers may face when working in educational settings.  …more…

The Washington Ballet’s Andile Ndlovu

Andile Ndlovu

Born in the rough Soweto township of Ladysmith, Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, Andile Ndlovu was drawn to dance as a little boy.  His family moved to Johannesburg when he was ten and it was then that he started ballroom dancing, shifting to ballet when he was fifteen.  After he was noticed dancing at a local outreach program by South African choreographer Martin Schonberg, he was offered a …more…

Dazzling Contemporary Dancer, Chaz Buzan

Even without an entire lifetime of dance under his belt, Chaz Buzan is a dancer’s dancer. With natural through-lines of energy that extend from his solar plexus outwards, and from heart to throat out to the top of his head, his dancing seems to be a birth right rather than something acquired. ...more...

Vail International Dance Festival 2012

Each summer, the Vail International Dance Festival appears to light up the community with two weeks of exceptional dance programming. Sponsored by the Vail Valley Foundation, which is responsible for bringing a wide variety of annual events, the festival is also in the hands of former ballet star and festival Art Director Damian Woetzel, who this year has lined up a brilliant roster of performances. ...more...

Choreographer William Forsythe to Receive Scripps/ADF Life Achievement Award

On Saturday, June 30th 2012, contemporary ballet choreographer and innovator William Forsythe will receive the prestigious Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Life Achievement in Modern Dance. The award will be presented by one of his former company dancers, Jill Johnson before Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s performance at the Durham Performance Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina, which will include Quintett, a piece created by Forsythe in 1993. Past recipients of this award have included Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Alwin Nikolais, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Anna Sokolow, Twyla Tharp –and the list goes on. ...more...

Choreographer Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez

Born in Korea, Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez grew up learning the traditional dances of her country. She moved to the United States in 1991, later graduating from North Carolina School of the Arts. As a dancer, she has performed nationally and internationally with many companies and choreographers, such as Mark Dendy, the Limon Dance Company, Sean Curran, and MIRO Dance Theatre. ...more...

Beth Gill: Spare and Symmetrical

Gill is a Brooklyn-based choreographer who graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2003. Gill represents a constantly emerging new breed in dance, creating work that is by motivated design pared down, bare bones, structured, and highly symmetrical. In fact, symmetry seems to be the fundamental theme in her work, with use of mirror images and a stage often divided in perfect halves by her six dancers. ...more...