“I believe artists create a safe space for unsafe ideas in our world.”
Dance Review: Magic Afoot
Energizing, joyful, expert, close to sure-fire, Chasing Magic was a great choice to reopen A.R.T. after the long pandemic shutdown.
Dance News: Heartbreaking Loss at Jacob’s Pillow
With great sightlines from every one of its 216 seats, the Doris Duke Theatre space made for intimate, often enthralling encounters with movement.
Arts Commentary: “The Death of the Artist” — Culture Workers Unite!
The shared baseline of these conversations is that there are no good old days to go back to. If the cultural sector in the United States returns to the ways things were organized in February, 2020, with all the inequity and unsustainability that implies, we will have failed.
Dance Feature: Sara Juli’s “Burnt-Out Wife” — Scorched
In Burnt-Out Wife, Maine-based performance artist Sara Juli takes on the unarticulated rage lurking in a long-term marriage with a deft touch and the humor of a born stand-up comic.
Arts Commentary: Constraint in Quarantine
Our eyes may be quarantined, but our minds are not.
Arts Commentary: Helping Dance at a Time of Social Distancing
How, frankly, could I help people engage with their inherent creative powers and feel just a little bit better?
Theater Review: “She the People” — Part Protest Rally and Part Catharsis
As my second wave feminist companion said as we left the theater, “That was hilarious. And I am SO ANGRY.”
Book Review: The ‘Papa’ of Male Modern Dance, Ted Shawn — A Story of Changing Norms
In this new biography, Ted Shawn is on display in all his narcissism, paternalism, hypocrisy, originality, and the dedication to creative expression that set American modern dance on its way.
Book Interview: Susan Larson’s “The Murder of Figaro” — Mozart Goes Sleuthing
Susan Larson’s The Murder of Figaro is spiced with raunch, witticisms, and behind the scenes verisimilitude of rehearsal life.