News Ticker

Shen Wei

Dongpo: Life in Poems

March 25, 2024

Dongpo’s travels through life is set forth in the lovely poems—projected in Chinese script and in English—full of observations of nature, sad inner monologues and thoughts intimating the end of a long life. They helped set the tone of "Life in Poems," including some humorous trips to the twenty-first century wittily added to the next-to-the-last act:  dancers on skateboards, scooters and other unabashedly modern modes. Divided into six short acts, each defined by a Dongpo poem projected onto several large scrims, the ballet slowly builds to an eye-popping full cast finale. [more]

Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance 2015

April 4, 2015

What became clear over the course of the four performances under review attended were the subtle changes in Mr. Taylor’s work over the years, how his works have become less deep and more oddball. This was a terrific way to see everything from his delightfully lovely “white” ballet, “Aureole” (1962), to his most recent opus, “Death and the Damsel,” a dark, distorted—sadistic, even—view of female sexuality. No matter what period the works come from, and no matter what one thinks of them, they are always models of craftsmanship, design and musicality. [more]