Debra Cash
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.
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. “Small Dances about Big Ideas” by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Company. By Debra Cash It was counterintuitive, to say the least, when Professor Martha Minow asked…
Given that gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Jacob’s Pillow may be a particularly apt site for both dance lovers and gay couples to tie the knot.
Boston Ballet’s staging of James Kudelka’s version of “Cinderella” is not just another exercise in transforming a sad drudge into an airbrushed tootsie.
By Debra Cash Blame Alicia Alonso for reinforcing her own senseless Cuban embargo. The famed (and literally blind) dramatic ballerina who is the fountainhead of Cuban ballet and an official Friend of Fidel seems to have felt that although she made her own performing career in the United States the Cuban “dance drain” of ballet…
By Debra Cash Ella Baff, executive director of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, recently shared the revision of an article she wrote for Arts Manager International Magazine last year. Her first tip for audience members: “Relax. Remember that when you travel to a foreign country, you may not know the language, but this does not…
The critically acclaimed documentary “Rize” claims to be about a new form of hip hop dancing, called “krumping,” that transcends commercialism. By Debra Cash The commercial calculation of MTV, smoggy and as near at hand as central LA, lurks in the margins of the new critically admired hip hop dance documentary, “Rize.” The film examines…
A festival dedicated to 19th century choreographer August Bournonville packed a wallop.
By Debra Cash Tap superstar Savion Glover effortlessly bridges the jazz and rap generations. Improvography is a word coined by the late Gregory Hines. Neologisms are about grabbing the power to make definitions; they assert that language is not specific or expressive enough to make your meaning clear. When tap dancer Savion Glover uses “Improvography”…
Book Appreciation: “Gulliver’s Travels” at 300 — Small Men, Tech Bro Delusions