Category: Pittsburgh City Paper

Pittsburgh City Paper

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet returns with three commissioned ballets to launch Pittsburgh Dance Council’s season

By Steve Sucato The last time Aspen Santa Fe Ballet performed in Pittsburgh, four years ago, the company was just becoming a staple on the U.S. touring circuit. Now, having built its stalwart reputation on new contemporary-dance works by world-class choreographers, the small troupe of 11 dancers makes its long-anticipated return to the Byham Theater to kick off Pittsburgh Dance Council’s new season. The Oct. … Continue reading Aspen Santa Fe Ballet returns with three commissioned ballets to launch Pittsburgh Dance Council’s season

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Moroccan choreographer Hind Benali takes a journey of self-discovery in ‘Identity’

By Steve Sucato Moroccan-based dancer/choreographer Hind Benali’s new work, Identity, began as a solo journey of self-discovery after the deaths of her two grandmothers in the same year. Both were of Algerian decent, and both lived with her. “All the traditional parts of my identity came from them,” Benali said recently by telephone from Washington, D.C., where the company was performing the work. “The question then … Continue reading Moroccan choreographer Hind Benali takes a journey of self-discovery in ‘Identity’

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Attack Theatre launches its 20th-anniversary season

By Steve Sucato It was 1994, and movies like Speed and Pulp Fiction were packing theaters; a Chicago law professor named Barack Obama had yet to run for state senate. And in Pittsburgh, two former Dance Alloy dancers formed a new company that would indelibly change Pittsburgh’s dance landscape. Combining athletic modern dance, original live music, multimedia and interdisciplinary art forms, Attack Theatre, led by co-artistic … Continue reading Attack Theatre launches its 20th-anniversary season

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Fine Texture

By Steve Sucato You could say the title of Texture Contemporary Ballet’s latest program, Synergy, also names what has made the three-year-old troupe a success. The combined efforts of artistic director Alan Obuzor, associate artistic director Kelsey Bartman and an array of energetic dancers and choreographers have consistently produced programs whose total effect has exceeded the sum of their individual contributions. This Sept. 26-28 program, mixing new and … Continue reading Fine Texture

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Seventh edition of LightLab performance series to focus on dance

By Steve Sucato The seventh edition of the LightLab performance series takes place Sept. 27 at Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery. The series, co-curated by musician David Bernabo and dancer/choreographer Taylor Knight, fosters what Bernabo calls “more progressive dance, music, film and performance art pieces.”This 45-minute all-dance edition, part of the 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial, includes dancer/choreographer Jil Stifel’s new work-in-progress solo “my dna,” from her upcoming evening-length … Continue reading Seventh edition of LightLab performance series to focus on dance

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Predation, victimization, art and rebirth in Mark Conway Thompson’s ‘Kimono’

By Steve Sucato Predation is a theme that movement artist Mark Conway Thompson says he has been returning to in his works since 2007. “That has a lot to do with what I think is wrong with the world today,” says Thompson. The domestic-violence case of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is just one example now in the headlines. Such episodes, along with … Continue reading Predation, victimization, art and rebirth in Mark Conway Thompson’s ‘Kimono’

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Legendary dancer Carmen De Lavallade visits with her one-woman show

By Steve Sucato Pittsburgh dance audiences are treated to a host of great performances annually from new and established artists, some with global renown. Rarer are visits by living legends. Dancer, choreographer and actress Carmen De Lavallade qualifies. De Lavallade brings her acclaimed new one-woman show, As I Remember It, to the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater for two shows this week. The Pittsburgh premiere of the intimate, hour-long … Continue reading Legendary dancer Carmen De Lavallade visits with her one-woman show

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Pittsburgh City Paper

Several Prominent Pittsburgh Dance Companies Mark Big Anniversaries As New Dance Season Begins

By Steve Sucato The new dance season features milestones for several local companies. Attack Theatre, CorningWorks, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Pillow Project all celebrate major anniversaries. They, along with a bevy of other artists, promise even more memorable moments. Here’s a sampling. Opening its fifth season, CorningWorks examines our growing disconnect with traditional interpersonal communication in Parallel Lives (Wed., Sept. 10-14), at the New Hazlett … Continue reading Several Prominent Pittsburgh Dance Companies Mark Big Anniversaries As New Dance Season Begins

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Pittsburgh City Paper

New York-based choreographer Marjani Forte offers a work about recovery

By Steve Sucato How do mental illness, poverty and addiction relate? That is the question choreographer Marjani Forte explores in being Here … /this time. It’s her reworking of being Here, which she premiered last year to critical acclaim at New York City’s Dancespace Project. Forte and company follow their week-long residency at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater’s Alloy Studios with a work-in-progress showing of the newly … Continue reading New York-based choreographer Marjani Forte offers a work about recovery

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