Off Stage: Kyle's in Fine Company

Reblogged from CrossCurrents:

2012 JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE AWARD PRESENTED TO

KYLE ABRAHAM

CHOREOGRAPHER, DANCER, AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF ABRAHAM.IN.MOTION

 

AWARD CARRIES $25,000 CASH PRIZE

ABRAHAM WILL ACCEPT IN PERSON AT THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY GALA JUNE 16

 

June 1, 2012 (Becket, MA) – Jacob’s Pillow announces today that Executive and Artistic Director Ella Baff will present the sixth annual Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award to Kyle Abraham, an acclaimed contemporary dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Abraham.In.Motion. 

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[caption id="attachment_340" align="alignnone" width="529"] Kyle Abraham[/caption]

Passionate, stirring performances mark Neglia Ballet Artists’ tribute to Tchaikovsky

Neglia Ballet Artists perform a scene from Serenade, onstage at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, Friday, May 25, 2012. Photo by Charles Lewis/ Buffalo News

In one of the most breathtaking openings of a ballet ever created, the curtain rose on 17 female dancers arranged in two adjoining diamonds. The identically posed women in light blue with long tulle skirts stood feet parallel, heads tilted, with one arm lifted at a diagonal in front of them palm outward as if holding back something.

To read the full review click here

Contemporary take on Swan Lake ballet a bold step for Grand Rapids Ballet

Photo by Chris Clark

Save Tchaikovsky’s brilliant original score there was little choreographer Mario Radacovsky’s psychological ballet Black Swan White Swan had in common with traditional productions of Swan Lake. No feather-adorned tutus, no clack of pointe shoes hitting the stage floor and no love story of prince and a beautiful swan that transcends death.
To read the full review click here.

Now on DanceTabs – Lar Lubovich Dance Company Review

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in North Star. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

North Star’s shining moments came in two solos. The first featured a tense Elisa Clark ripping through abrupt, definitive and super-fast movements that one would expect to see if she were dancing in strobe light; the fact that she wasn’t made her manic performance all the more mesmerizing and brilliant. The second solo danced by Brown was reminiscent of the male solo from Paul Taylor’s Aureole. Brown’s dancing was smooth, masculine and a delight to watch.

To read the full review click here

Now in Pittsburgh City Paper: New dance works set to Bloom at fourth annual newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival

Bloom! Dance Collective – Photo by Gábor Dusa

In their inaugural U.S. tour, the five members of Bloom! will perform their 2010 Rudolf Laban Award-winning contemporary dance workCity on May 11 and 12. (City is ticketed separately from the festival’s other programs; you can save money by purchasing a festival pass.) The hour-long piece, set to music by Alberto Ruiz, contains nudity and adult language while exploring topics such as prejudice, power, fear and faith in a sometimes humorous, and often poignant, manner.

To read the full article click here

Now in Dance Studio Life magazine: The Chautauqua School of Dance

Patricia McBride teaches a group of summer students at Chautauqua.

Along Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State sits a picturesque 750-acre gated community known as The Chautauqua Institution. Founded in 1874, the Institution is a summer vacation playground and an arts and educational center that attracts visitors from all over the world. It’s also home to one of the nation’s most respected summer dance schools, The Chautauqua School of Dance.

To read the full article click here

Now in Dance Studio Life magazine: Chicago National Association of Dance Masters celebrates a century of dance education

Soon to be star Gene Kelly (upper right in white tux and black bow tie) breaks bread with fellow dance teachers at a 1935 CNADM banquet.

One hundred years ago, in 1912, 10 dance teachers met at Frank L. Oleson’s Academy of Dancing in Chicago to lay out plans for a new organization “dedicated to the elevation of the art of dancing and the promotion of the welfare of the profession.” The Chicago Association of Dancing Masters (CADM) as it was called then, sought to develop for its future members a guide to the fundamentals and correct methods of teaching dance. In addition, the organization also wanted to “promote good will and mutual help among its members.”

To read the full article click here

Now on DanceTabs: Review of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal (BJM Danse) in Les Chambres des Jacques & Night Box

It is rare when a highly-regarded dance company like Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (a.k.a. BJM Danse ) chooses to premiere a work someplace other than on its home turf or at another big city venue. So it was uniquely special for the audience at Mercyhurst University’s Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, when the Canadian contemporary dance company, now in its 40^th season, chose to unveil the world premiere of choreographer Wen Wei Wang’s Night Box in their small market city.

To read the full review click here

Now in Pittsburgh City Paper: Lar Lubovitch Dance Company makes a rare Pittsburgh appearance

Lar Lubovitch’s “North Star”. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Seven people are tumbling and spinning out of control as the van they are riding in topples over a cliff. That is the imagery that choreographer Lar Lubovitch had in his head when creating his latest contemporary-dance work, 2011′s “Crisis Variations.”
To read the full article click here.

Now on DanceTabs: Review of Jiri Kylian and Michael Schumacher’s Last Touch First

Photo by Robert Benschop

Six figures in 19th century garb sat or stood frozen as if posed for a photograph. Like something out of a Sci-Fi serial, the figures, like ghosts from the past, occupied what looked to be a long unused room of an old manor house whose antique furnishings and floor were covered by muslin drop cloths. To read the full review click here