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. By Debra Cash Choreographer Mark Morris once said something to the effect that after George Balanchine died, people started to believe that every work Balanchine had ever choreographed was […]
Dance
The Passing of Fayard Nicholas
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 and his loving wife, Katherine Hopkins Nicholas.
Dance Feature: Helping Fayard Nicholas
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 of us who thrilled to the virtuoso tap dancing of the Nicholas Brothers in the […]
Dance Commentary: Dance Giant Martha Graham — Genius at Risk
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. By Debra Cash Imagine, for a moment, that the only people who could experience Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings were those who had lived during his lifetime. Future generations […]
Dance/Movie Review: Heart Throbs — “Ballet Russes”
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.
Dance Review: Dance Against Atrocity
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 […]
Dance Commentary: Holy Matrimony!
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.
Dance Review: Boston Ballet’s “Cinderella” Gets an Extreme Makeover
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.
Fuse Dance Feature: Instants of Combustion
Dance photography was born in the search to chronicle the dancer’s ephemeral art. It has grown up to offer a different, wholly independent, form of permanent performance
Cuban Dancers, Si
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 […]