Carolena Nericcio Fuses Forms to Inspire New Generations of Belly Dancers

The sun never sets on American Tribal Style Belly Dance®. From Sydney to Stockholm, and Tel-Aviv to Taipei, one can find an American Tribal Style® (ATS®) class in more than […]

A View From the Trenches: Critical Losses

Art nourishes consciousness. It helps us identify who we are, what we value, and what we might become. “The function of criticism is the re-education of perception.” (Philosopher and educational […]

If They Don’t Give You a Seat at the Table, Make Your Own Table

(Photo by Steve Disenhof. ID: LINES Ballet Training Program students perform in Chuck Wilt’s “Mural” in a black box theater. The dancers stand leaning back on a bent leg with […]

In Practice: Encounters Over 60 with Margaret Jenkins

Merián Soto, Photo by Bill Hebert In October and November 2019, I saw the work of three remarkable New York-based artists: Adia Whitaker, Miguel Gutierrez, and Tere O’Connor. Although O’Connor […]

In Conversation: Maurya Kerr and Alaja Badalich

You are reading excerpts from Maurya Kerr and Alaja Badalich’s recorded conversation. Listen to the conversation. Transcript of the full conversation

Double Visions

This past June I attended two professional events that offered their shares of stimulation and stupefaction. This year’s Dance Critics Association conference, which I have attended for many years , […]

In Practice: Book Review: Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora by Joanna Dee Das

The first time I met dance historian Joanna Dee Das was either at an event she curated when she was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Dance Studies at Stanford or […]

A Promising New Partnership: José Manuel Carreño Takes the Lead at Ballet San Jose

Ballet partnerships are the stuff of legend: Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Mikhail Baryishnikov and Natalia Makarova, José Manuel Carreño and Susan Jaffe…and Julie Kent…and Gillian Murphy. Carreño, one of […]

Turning Point: Re-Defining Bay Area Ballet

BALLET IS DEAD, bemoans dance historian Jennifer Homans in her latest opus, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet. Homans grew up in the Balanchine era and now finds the contemporary […]

Margaret Jenkins’ Past Meets Present in “Times Bones:” A 40th Anniversary

YOU CAN’T MISS HER in the audience at dance shows around town, with that lion’s mane of red hair, that regal posture, that focused stare, intimidating until she offers a […]