Category: Dance in Review

Clarissa Rivera Dyas and ainlsey e. tharp. Photo by Hillary Goidell.   Barbeque Bacchanal: forever failing and the Perversion of AmericaBy Marlena Gittleman It started with hot dogs, grilled outside the performance venue and served for free. As the audience licked ketchup and mustard off their fingers, Clarissa Rivera Dyas and ainsley e. tharp came…

natalya janay shoaf. Photo by Brooke Anderson. A Bed of One’s Own in Flyaway Productions’ If I Give You My Sorrows By Garth Grimball Opposites attract. But opposition alone thwarts attraction. To attract, to synthesize into something unique and fecund demands an openness. Flyaway Productions’ If I Give You My Sorrows, performed Jan 31 –…

Left to right: SanSan Kwan, Chi Chi Chang, Johnny Cox, and Catalina O’Connor in "Convergence" by ChingChi Yu (March 2024). Image Description: Four dancers in a cluster in black costumes, looking upward with hands by their sternums. From Blog Director Jill Randall: Looking back at 2024, we covered 10 different projects on Life as a…

  Aviva Rose-Williams and Molly Rose-Williams. Photo by Hillary Goidell. Game Time Brings It By Sarah Genta Like boxers in their pre-match corner, Aviva and Molly Rose-Williams are commiserating and getting psyched. Aviva chops Molly’s shoulders, pats down her back, gluts, hips. They switch. It’s Aviva’s turn. Reciprocal psych. As folks trickle to their seats…

FACT/SF in "Extra." Photo by Robbie Sweeny. FACT/SF’s Summer Dance Festival Keeps The Conversation Going By Garth Grimball On the opening night of the second weekend of FACT/SF’s 5th annual Summer Dance Festival, artistic director Charles Slender-White spoke about the importance of dialogue as a mission for the festival. Dialogue between artists and artistic dialogue…

Josh Icban and Megan Lowe. Photo by Vita Hewett. Megan Lowe Dances Finds Partnership In Just A Shadow By Garth Grimball   Megan Lowe is prolific. In the past three years her company, Megan Lowe Dances, has produced or participated in 10 unique performances. On Friday night, Lowe and collaborators premiered Just A Shadow at…

Hollywood Texas. Photo by Sloane Kanter. Drag, Modern Dance, and REBIRTH By Garth Grimball “Since I don’t have any pee, will someone spit in my mouth instead?” performer Hollow Eve requested midway through REBIRTH: The Death of Drag. Fellow castmates obliged. On May 17-19 Oaklash celebrated its seventh year of bringing drag and queer performances…

ChingChi Yu and Carol Kueffer in "Veil of Water." Photo by Aileen Kim. From Blog Director Jill Randall:Both Melissa Hudson Bell and I got to experience the "Undercurrents" performance a few weeks ago, a shared weekend with choreographers ChingChi Yu and Carol Kueffer. Melissa reflects on the first half of the program, and I share…

Kayla Farrish (foreground) in "Put Away the Fire, dear." Photo by Elyse Mertz. Kayla Farrish directs film into dance By Garth Grimball Ours is a time of references. The average smartphone user consumes more content in an hour than our ancestors did in their whole lives. Text, images, videos, sounds, and media all swaddle us…

Rite on the ground(s) By Garth Grimball On Feb 16-18, Cal Performances brought to Zellerbach Hall a special production of Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring. For only the fourth time since the dance’s creation, it was performed by dancers outside of Pina Bausch’s home company Tanztheater Wuppertal. This production features dancers from 14 different African…