By Steve Sucato It’s no ordinary dance competition. The Belly-Off 2012, at the Pittsburgh Dance Center, pits belly-dancers against one another in an impromptu skills improvisation to live music by Pittsburgh vintage belly-dance bandIshtar. As organized by local belly-dance queen Janim (pictured) and last year’s winner, Mehira, the second annual competition and show also features demonstrations in belly-dancing, aerial silks and tango. Upward of 20 local and regional … Continue reading Hips Don’t Lie

By Steve Sucato In ancient civilizations they were called “keepers of the flame”: those entrusted with tending the sacred fires. In a sense, August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble artistic director Greer Reed has taken up that mantle when it comes to black dance in Pittsburgh. Reed is organizing the August Wilson Center for African American Culture’s second annual Black Dance Festival, held Nov. 2-4. “Like the … Continue reading A Celebration of Black Dance

By Steve Sucato Modern office life has been a source of humor and consternation for decades, featured in everything from novels like Sloan Wilson’s TheMan in the Gray Flannel Suit and Joseph Heller’s Something Happenedto TV series like The Office and the comic strip Dilbert. Award-winning Japanese writer-director Toshiki Okada gives us his take on the subject in the movement-theater work Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech. The show is … Continue reading Japan’s chelfitsch Theater Company sends up office life

By Steve Sucato Elizabeth Streb is a mad scientist. How else would you describe a woman who devises diabolically dangerous-looking scenarios for her group of “action heroes” (a.k.a. “action engineers”), who dodge swinging cinder blocks, fall flat to the ground from multiple-story heights and run for their lives inside a monster-sized hamster wheel — all in the name of entertainment? In truth, Streb is an … Continue reading STREB: Forces is part dance, part circus, part stunt show

By Steve Sucato In the past few years, Pittsburgh audiences have been introduced to award-winning dancer/choreographer Camille A. Brown and her work. In 2010, she performed at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater’s newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival; this past March, the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble performed an excerpt from her 2006 work New Second Line. This weekend, audiences can watch Brown’s New York-based dance troupe, Camille A. … Continue reading Acclaimed choreographer’s new work explores the history of African-American humor