Director and choreographer Reginald Ray-Savage has long been candid in his admiration of Balanchine. But though he slips in a few choreographic quotations from the original for the fans - Alison Hurley's pinwheeling arms reflect the pinwheeling legs of Balanchine's original, and cascading canons for Genna Beattie and Melissa Schumann recall his playful gaillard dance - he heads in his own direction here, with mixed results...
Monday, January 25, 2010
Dance review: Savage Jazz Dance's jazzy 'Agon'
It's always tricky when you mess with a ballet that many consider iconic, and it takes a steady hand to tackle the complexities of Igor Stravinsky, as the Savage Jazz Dance Company did with its premiere of 'Agon,' in the Laney College Theater on Thursday night.
Director and choreographer Reginald Ray-Savage has long been candid in his admiration of Balanchine. But though he slips in a few choreographic quotations from the original for the fans - Alison Hurley's pinwheeling arms reflect the pinwheeling legs of Balanchine's original, and cascading canons for Genna Beattie and Melissa Schumann recall his playful gaillard dance - he heads in his own direction here, with mixed results...
Director and choreographer Reginald Ray-Savage has long been candid in his admiration of Balanchine. But though he slips in a few choreographic quotations from the original for the fans - Alison Hurley's pinwheeling arms reflect the pinwheeling legs of Balanchine's original, and cascading canons for Genna Beattie and Melissa Schumann recall his playful gaillard dance - he heads in his own direction here, with mixed results...
World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum
"In Zimbabwe, music and dance are a part of everyday life.
On Saturday, the Chinyakare Ensemble of Oakland will bring the infectious enthusiasm that comes with traditional dance, music and storytelling from the southern African country to new audiences at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, part of the museum's World on Stage ethnic performance series."
Read more of World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum
On Saturday, the Chinyakare Ensemble of Oakland will bring the infectious enthusiasm that comes with traditional dance, music and storytelling from the southern African country to new audiences at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, part of the museum's World on Stage ethnic performance series."
Read more of World on Stage: Zimbabwe troupe at museum
Friday, January 8, 2010
Santa Cruz Fungus Fair: Mushroom fun
Santa Cruz Fungus Fair: Mushroom fun:
Glistening with an olive-gold allure, the Amanita phalloides has a disturbing appeal when viewed close up. Not isolated under glass or plastic - so close you could put your nose right on it accidentally, the death cap, as it is more commonly known, nestles innocently enough in its basket, surrounded by baskets of other poisonous cousins - none of them quite as alluring as this most deadly of toadstools.
But that whiff of danger is just one of the things that makes a visit to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - now in its 36th year - not only educational but also entertaining.
Glistening with an olive-gold allure, the Amanita phalloides has a disturbing appeal when viewed close up. Not isolated under glass or plastic - so close you could put your nose right on it accidentally, the death cap, as it is more commonly known, nestles innocently enough in its basket, surrounded by baskets of other poisonous cousins - none of them quite as alluring as this most deadly of toadstools.
But that whiff of danger is just one of the things that makes a visit to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair - now in its 36th year - not only educational but also entertaining.
'Bright River': Barsky revisits 2004 musical
'Bright River': Barsky revisits 2004 musical:
Love. Death. War. Life. Transit. That's how Tim Barsky describes his underground beat-boxing musical hit, 'The Bright River.'
It's been more than five years since "The Bright River" made its debut on the Ashby Stage in the East Bay. But since the beat-boxing flutist presented his initial run in Berkeley, and then later at the Traveling Jewish Theatre in December 2004, this mystical journey through the land of the dead has gathered a grassroots momentum and now returns for a monthlong run at the Brava Theater Center with a fresh staging and new sets and costume designs.
Love. Death. War. Life. Transit. That's how Tim Barsky describes his underground beat-boxing musical hit, 'The Bright River.'
It's been more than five years since "The Bright River" made its debut on the Ashby Stage in the East Bay. But since the beat-boxing flutist presented his initial run in Berkeley, and then later at the Traveling Jewish Theatre in December 2004, this mystical journey through the land of the dead has gathered a grassroots momentum and now returns for a monthlong run at the Brava Theater Center with a fresh staging and new sets and costume designs.
'Yes Sweet Can': Circus arts-based theater
'Yes Sweet Can': Circus arts-based theater:
Intimate, surprising and humorous, Sweet Can Productions offers more than the average circus - and 'Yes Sweet Can' promises not just to entertain, but also to help dispel the doom-and-gloom of modern life with some magical thinking.
Featuring a quartet of talented performers - Beth Clarke, Natasha Kaluza, Kerri Kresinski and Matt White - "Yes Sweet Can" takes inspiration from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan. Director Joanna Haigood, who founded the aerial Zaccho Dance Theater, says she's thrilled to be a part of it.
Intimate, surprising and humorous, Sweet Can Productions offers more than the average circus - and 'Yes Sweet Can' promises not just to entertain, but also to help dispel the doom-and-gloom of modern life with some magical thinking.
Featuring a quartet of talented performers - Beth Clarke, Natasha Kaluza, Kerri Kresinski and Matt White - "Yes Sweet Can" takes inspiration from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan. Director Joanna Haigood, who founded the aerial Zaccho Dance Theater, says she's thrilled to be a part of it.
Lorraine Hansberry's 'Black Nativity' uplifting
Lorraine Hansberry's 'Black Nativity' uplifting:
Around this time of year, it's easy to feel grumpy about the seasonal stress, especially as harried shoppers careen zombie-like against you on your way through Union Square, but if you can make it a few blocks up the hill to the Marines Memorial Theatre, a couple of hours with the gospel inspiration of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's annual 'Black Nativity,' directed by Stanley E. Williams, can not only warm, but even uplift.
Narrated with unbridled preacherly resonance by Michael Leroy Brown, the show comes in two parts - a Christmas pageant-style re-enactment of the Nativity story, and a second act set in a modern-day church and delivered with all the gusto of a Baptist revival. There's a lot that has to fit onstage and this year's setting - Jedd de Lucia's vaulted Gothic interior -manages to accommodate a choir, soloists, dancers, plus a three-man band - the superbly reliable Kenneth Little, James "Booyah" Richard and Omar Maxwell under the musical direction of Arvis Strickling Jones.
Around this time of year, it's easy to feel grumpy about the seasonal stress, especially as harried shoppers careen zombie-like against you on your way through Union Square, but if you can make it a few blocks up the hill to the Marines Memorial Theatre, a couple of hours with the gospel inspiration of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's annual 'Black Nativity,' directed by Stanley E. Williams, can not only warm, but even uplift.
Narrated with unbridled preacherly resonance by Michael Leroy Brown, the show comes in two parts - a Christmas pageant-style re-enactment of the Nativity story, and a second act set in a modern-day church and delivered with all the gusto of a Baptist revival. There's a lot that has to fit onstage and this year's setting - Jedd de Lucia's vaulted Gothic interior -manages to accommodate a choir, soloists, dancers, plus a three-man band - the superbly reliable Kenneth Little, James "Booyah" Richard and Omar Maxwell under the musical direction of Arvis Strickling Jones.
Two S.F. dancers to graduate from Bolshoi
Two S.F. dancers to graduate from Bolshoi:
In a roomful of gazelle-like young dancers in City Ballet School's South of Market studios, Jeraldine Mendoza has wedged herself in the narrow space between the ballet barre and the wall and is pushing one leg, extended against the wall, very nearly to her ear as she casually chats with Emma Powers, who stretches with offhanded ease on the floor.
Even more remarkable than this show of flexibility is that in April both Mendoza and Powers will graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow - the first American women so honored in the Bolshoi academy's more than 200-year history. Even over the holidays, as they visited their families in the Bay Area, the two girls couldn't resist the impulse to go back to City Ballet to take classes with Galina Alexandrova and Yuri Zhukov, the teachers who gave them their foundations in the Russian style of ballet.
In a roomful of gazelle-like young dancers in City Ballet School's South of Market studios, Jeraldine Mendoza has wedged herself in the narrow space between the ballet barre and the wall and is pushing one leg, extended against the wall, very nearly to her ear as she casually chats with Emma Powers, who stretches with offhanded ease on the floor.
Even more remarkable than this show of flexibility is that in April both Mendoza and Powers will graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow - the first American women so honored in the Bolshoi academy's more than 200-year history. Even over the holidays, as they visited their families in the Bay Area, the two girls couldn't resist the impulse to go back to City Ballet to take classes with Galina Alexandrova and Yuri Zhukov, the teachers who gave them their foundations in the Russian style of ballet.
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