Bear/Skin: A Review

ALTHOUGH KEITH HENNESSY’S Bear/Skin, presented at the Omni Commons January 30th and 31st, is a solo piece, the ideas it negotiates are meant to resonate on a community scale. Bear/Skin sits […]

BRIDGING THE GAPS: Challenges and Opportunities for US-China Cross-Cultural Exchange

WHEN I FIRST VISITED CHINA to perform in the Beijing Dance Festival in 2012, I arrived assuming that modern dance in China was a relatively new, underdeveloped phenomenon. I had no […]

THE LIVES OF A DANCE/DANCER: Keith Hennessy on his collaboration with Sara Shelton Mann

IN JANUARY, A REUNION took place at CounterPulse among eight former members of Contraband, the legendary radical dance troupe founded and directed by Sara Shelton Mann and active in San Francisco […]

My Love Affair with Carnaval

FACETED SEQUINS glimmering in the light, beads feverishly shaking, infectious mechanical rhythms keeping time, deep pounding heart beats, glistening bronzed skin. Thousands of synchronized arms and legs moving in unison. Dizzying […]

Notes from an Invited Spy: My RSVP to 95 Rituals

“…How am I even going to write about this emerging, unfolding thing?…” I wrote this after my first day observing theater and dance company inkBoat in rehearsal for 95 Rituals, […]

Dana Reitz: The Silent Innovator Comes to the Bay Area

Quick, name the top three dance performances you’ve ever seen. Mine come to mind easily. They are, in reverse order: 3. Rudolph Nureyev in Valery Panov’s The Idiot based on […]

November 2011

Welcome By Wayne Hazzard Gamelan Sekar Jaya: Practicing the Art of Community Engagement By Vivian T. Chu Freedom and Community: From The Wallflower Order to the Dance Brigade By Keith […]

Connecting the Dots: Catching a Moment with Raisa Punkki

When something strikes you–some intangible moment of artistic connection, energy, and kinetic charisma–often there aren’t words to describe its effect. Maybe it’s the color palette of a classic painting, or […]

AXIS’ Scope: What Lies Ahead

Three years ago I had the opportunity to dance with AXIS as a community dancer in David Dorfman’s Light Shelter. The experience was pivotal. Coming from a dance background steeped […]

Dance Film Review: Teenagers Asked to Take on Pina Bausch

Dancing Dreams documents the collaborative journey between forty non-dancing teenagers and Pina Bausch as they set forth to re-stage Bausch’s 1978 work, Kontakthof. One of Bausch’s final projects before her […]