Category: Dance in Review

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…

"Touch of Red" (photo taken at MASS MoCA). Photographer credit: The Adeboye Brothers. Touch Of RED Touches Deeply By Garth Grimball On Saturday, January 13, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE presented Touch Of RED in a dance studio at NY Live Arts as part of the Live Artery festival; the festival is an opportunity for artists…

Molly Rose-Williams. Photo: Chani Bockwinkel.   Who’s your CRUSH? By Garth Grimball     Molly Rose-Williams has a crush on you.   CRUSH, an evening-length solo choreographed and performed by Rose-Williams, opened January 19 at NOHSpace. The work is an evolution of We Are All Friends that premiered in 2022. Both works are concerned with…

Photo by Camila Greenwell.   “Jungle Book Reimagined” is of the Headlines By Garth Grimball Akram Khan’s “Jungle Book Reimagined” begins in catastrophe. A voice-over announces a litany of contemporary headlines taken to extremes: London is unlivable due to sea level rising; rationing, displacement and economic collapse are the new reality. Presented at Stanford University’s…

Rogelio Lopez. Photo by Ryan Kwok. Rogelio Lopez Dreams Big By Garth Grimball Rogelio Lopez & Dancers remounted Entre Despierto y Dormido (premiere 2022) at the Joe Goode Annex, and thank goddess for it. The evening-length work is an excavation of Lopez’s subconscious and identity formation as a queer, Mexican immigrant via dreams. Unlike many…