Author: artsair

International arts writer/critic for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Pittsburgh City Paper

Nora Chipaumire’s ‘Miriam’ an exploration of Icons and Identities

Nora Chipaumire in Miriam. Photo by Antoine Tempe. By Steve Sucato Nora Chipaumire’s Miriam is the third dance work in the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s current season to explore the idea of public versus private identities. But Miriam approaches the subject differently than did idiosynCrazy Productions’ Private Places and Kate Watson-Wallace/anonymous bodies’ Mash Up Body. Conceived, choreographed and performed by the award-winning Chipaumire, along with dancer Okwui Okpokwasili, Miriam makes its Pittsburgh premiere April 19 and … Continue reading Nora Chipaumire’s ‘Miriam’ an exploration of Icons and Identities

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Geeks and Gamers

Geeksdanz dancers in “Challenge Mode” – (L to R) Sophia Levine, Laura Herbert, Jamie Campbell, LaMar Williams, Ella Mason, and Patty Petronello. Photo by Ben Peoples. By Steve Sucato Pittsburgh’s newest dance troupe, Geeksdanz, “is on a mission is to introduce dance to audiences that would not normally be drawn to it,” says founder/artistic director Ellen Deutsch. For the group’s first full-length production, Challenge Mode, Deutsch and … Continue reading Geeks and Gamers

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Press Releases

Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival presents Ofer Ben-Amots’ ‘The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds’

Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival presents The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds, the classic tale of love and mystical possession in a new adaptation April 25 and 28 at 7:30pm at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square, Northside. A young woman, Leah, near-death, awakens to the whisper of a clarinet.  She slowly realizes the sound is the spirit of her dead lover Hannan.  As the rest of … Continue reading Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival presents Ofer Ben-Amots’ ‘The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds’

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Press Releases

Lucky Plush Productions Makes Cleveland Debut May 2-4

CLEVELAND –  Chicago-based Lucky Plush Productions will make its Cleveland debut May 2-4 at the Allen Theatre in PlayhouseSquare with an evening length production of The Better Half, a lively, witty spin on the film noir classic “Gaslight”. Tickets for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8 p.m. are available at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office, 216-241-6000 or online at http://www.playhousesquare.org. This highly entertaining, … Continue reading Lucky Plush Productions Makes Cleveland Debut May 2-4

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Pittsburgh City Paper

The August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble delves into tragedy with ‘Paving the Road of Survival’

By Steve Sucato The final program in the August Wilson Center’s series “Great Collaborations: The Alliance Between Blacks and Jews in the Twentieth Century” is the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble‘s Paving the Road of Survival. It features two moving works inspired by dark chapters in the human experience. The first, Christopher Huggins’ gripping, Holocaust-themed “The List,” was premiered by Dance Alloy Theater in 2010. The 20-minute work … Continue reading The August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble delves into tragedy with ‘Paving the Road of Survival’

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Airings

Airings: Choreographer David Shimotakahara talks about the community approach to his new ‘Rite of Spring’ production

By Steve Sucato This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of ballet and classical music’s most beloved and controversial masterworks, The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps). Both Igor Stravinsky’s brilliant and avant-garde score and Vaslav Nijinsky‘s modern ballet choreography redefined music and dance at the outset of the 20th-century. In the process The Rite, and its tale of a pagan human sacrifice … Continue reading Airings: Choreographer David Shimotakahara talks about the community approach to his new ‘Rite of Spring’ production

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Pittsburgh City Paper

‘Trocks’ of Fun

By Steve Sucato What happens when you cross RuPaul with Carol Burnett and classical ballet? You get the world’s most beloved ballet-parody drag company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Founded in 1974, the New York-based Russian-style troupe with the French name brings its award-winning humor to the Byham Theater for a Pittsburgh Dance Council show Friday, April 5. The Trocks have delighted audiences globally with their faithful renditions of … Continue reading ‘Trocks’ of Fun

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Pittsburgh City Paper

World Premiere of ‘Mash Up Body’ takes a sampling approach to dance

By Steve Sucato For her latest dance work, Mash Up Body, Philadelphia-based choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace took a page from the contemporary-music playbook. Watson-Wallace worked with the processes of sampling, remixing and layering ideas and materials to create a 45-minute multimedia performance installation. Her troupe, anonymous bodies, will premiere the show April 5 and 6 at the Alloy Studios. “It’s a meditation on identity and presentation,” says … Continue reading World Premiere of ‘Mash Up Body’ takes a sampling approach to dance

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Uncategorized

Denver Art Museum Discovers 18th Century Masterpiece Hidden In Storage

Curator Timothy Standring was conducting a routine inventory at the Denver Museum when he stumbled upon a discolored canvas coated in grime. The work, “The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco, Venice” was attributed to the studio of Italian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, a.k.a. Canaletto. The piece was assumed to be the work of a student in the studio and was left to collect dust in the museum basement, … Continue reading Denver Art Museum Discovers 18th Century Masterpiece Hidden In Storage

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