Taylor Company Triple Bill A Triumph [REVIEW]

Paul Taylor Dance CompanyMimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse SquareCleveland, OhioSaturday, January 20, 2024 By Steve Sucato To kick off the celebrations of New York City-based Paul Taylor Dance Company’s 70th Anniversary, the company returned to Cleveland this past Saturday night with a triple bill of riveting dance works. The performance at Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre featured two of late choreographer Paul Taylor’s critically acclaimed … Continue reading Taylor Company Triple Bill A Triumph [REVIEW]

Grand Rapids Ballet’s ‘Virtual Program II: An Evening with Penny Saunders’ Shows the Beginnings of a Programming Way Forward |REVIEW

By Steve Sucato Welcome to dance’s new reality. The COVID-19 global pandemic has spawned many changes in our lives including how dance is being created, shown, viewed and now reviewed. It is in some ways as if the familiar dance-on-film genre had suddenly become the performance medium of choice for dancers and dancemakers to create and stage works and audiences to view it. For the … Continue reading Grand Rapids Ballet’s ‘Virtual Program II: An Evening with Penny Saunders’ Shows the Beginnings of a Programming Way Forward |REVIEW

‘Wild Sweet Love’ to usher in Sofranko-Era at Grand Rapids Ballet

By Steve Sucato For Grand Rapids Ballet’s season opening program, the first under new artistic director James Sofranko, the company will present Wild Sweet Love, October 19-21 at GRB’s ’ Peter Martin Wege Theatre. The diverse program including ballets by George Balanchine, Trey McIntyre, GRB resident choreographer Penny Saunders and a world premiere by Sofranko has audience-pleaser written all over it. The production will also … Continue reading ‘Wild Sweet Love’ to usher in Sofranko-Era at Grand Rapids Ballet

Dancing Wheels Brings Successful New York Program That Includes New David Dorfman Work Home to Cleveland

By Steve Sucato After a successful New York debut of their program Past, Present and Future of Integrated Dance at Ailey Citigroup Theater in October, Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels brings a modified version of it to The Breen Center for the Performing Arts at Saint Ignatius High School on Saturday, November 4. Hailed as “…remarkable …a company of first-rate trained dancers with and without disabilities” by New York dance critic … Continue reading Dancing Wheels Brings Successful New York Program That Includes New David Dorfman Work Home to Cleveland

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

AIRINGS: Mini Reviews of Conservatory Dance Company’s ‘The Jazz Nutcracker’, ‘A Son is Given: An Urban Ballet’ and Columbus Dance Theatre’s ‘Cleopatra’

By Steve Sucato Conservatory Dance Company – The Jazz Nutcracker Pittsburgh Playhouse Pittsburgh, PA December 9, 2012 Perhaps no ballet in history has seen more different incarnations than The Nutcracker. From traditional productions after Marius Petipa’s 1892 original to those far from traditional like Maurice Bejart’s pseudo-sexual 2000 production and Mark Morris’ The Hard Nut and everywhere in between, each holiday season brings with it … Continue reading AIRINGS: Mini Reviews of Conservatory Dance Company’s ‘The Jazz Nutcracker’, ‘A Son is Given: An Urban Ballet’ and Columbus Dance Theatre’s ‘Cleopatra’