New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay is on solid ground when he critiques the shape of the dancers, but why his insulting tone? How do we, as readers, judge a critic who describes a dancer’s body in a demeaning [...]
Black Swan isn’t about surpassing ordinary limits. It’s a film about a masochist seen through the eyes of a sadist. The film could be a textbook demonstration of what academics refer to as the male gaze—with a pretty young thing [...]
Ultimately, Basil Twist’s Petrushka is a meditation on the tension between the animate and inanimate, a story that lets a puppet explain what it’s like to be a puppet, a fable that argues that to be alive is to recognize [...]
Boston’s pop music scene in November has an international flair. Multiple groups from the UK who specialize in folk and electropop join bands from Spain and Ireland in coming to Boston this fall. While the picks for this month all [...]
Sep 252010
Screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on October 2nd, the Bolshoi’s Bolt is a curiosity worth exploring, a meditation on the Russian past that could only be produced after the nightfall of Stalinism. After all, in some eyes composer Dimitri [...]
What is a Judicial Review? It is a fresh approach to creating a conversational, critical space about the arts. The aim is to combine editorial integrity with the community—making power of interactivity. This is our second session. Hear Ye! Hear [...]
In Serenade/The Proposition, the first of Bill T. Jones’ investigations into the myth and legacy of Abraham Lincoln, the choreographer looks at history and history looks back. By Debra Cash Cash was the professional critic on the Judicial Review panel [...]
Whether you’re a Jungian or a Freudian, think Jung was a genius or charlatan, or even if you’re someone who’s never given much thought to psychotherapy, the exhibition on the “The Red Book” at New York City’s Rubin Museum of [...]
By Helen Epstein Of the 100 or so events scheduled for Essex County’s Eighth Annual Trails and Sails Festival the last weekend of September, culture vultures should not miss Gloucester’s Committee for the Arts tours of Gloucester City Hall’s wall [...]
Jun 032009
By Caldwell Titcomb Starting in 1769 serious questions have been raised as to whether William Shakespeare (1564–1616) of Stratford-upon-Avon actually wrote the plays and poems attributed to him. For some years the true author was claimed to be Sir Francis [...]
Jul 262006
Karole Armitage, once known as a “punk ballerina,” brings her dance troupe to the Berkshires.
Jun 162006
The time is right for the revival of ballet about a country mouse who becomes a Parisian courtesan.
Apr 252006
By Debra Cash From the hype, you’d think that ten years ago British choreographer/director Matthew Bourne was the first person to develop a post-Freudian “Swan Lake” or cross-dress a ballet production, and you’d be wrong. You’d be right, however, to [...]
Mar 202006
A Mark Morris world premiere is turning the attention of the national press to the state of the Boston Ballet Company under new director Mikko Nissinen.
Jan 262006
By Debra Cash Rusty Frank sent this note last night… Our friend, our legend, our hero, our idol, our humanitarian Fayard Nicholas passed away peacefully at home tonight at 8:30pm, January 24, 2006. He was surrounded by friends [...]
Jan 062006
By Debra Cash Only medical skill, the support of friends and family and perhaps the prayers of his fans can help Fayard Nicholas recover from the stroke the gentlemanly 91-year old African-American dancer suffered on November 22, 2005. But those [...]
Dec 142005
Years of bitter and expensive litigation as well as the challenging nature of her work have put the artistic legacy of dance giant Martha Graham in crisis.
I enjoyed the movie —- critics from outside the dance world have found Ballet Russes charming, too — but the filmmakers’ real gifts are the oral histories that they collected from these dancers just before it was too late.
Nov 152005
Audacious as it sounds, a new dance work by an innovative choreographer explores how human beings have expanded our ability to articulate the nature of crimes against humanity.
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