“I feel we have gone amok in this information age.” Continue reading CorningWorks’ new dance-theater piece ‘Parallel Lives’ addresses our digital disconnections
By Steve Sucato Flamenco dance, the most famous export of Spain’s Andalusia region, will take center stage Thu., Jan. 23, at North Side’s New Hazlett Theater — the latest, and largest, celebration of Flamenco Pittsburgh’s bi-annual Fiesta Flamenca. The all-ages program will have a different vibe this time, says Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Flamenco Pittsburgh’s co-founder and director. What started five years ago as a student showcase held at … Continue reading Fiesta Flamenca takes a big step forward
By Steve Sucato While life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, the wisdom of those who have come before us is supposed to offer guidance. But what if some of that wisdom — those recipes for happiness, success and fulfillment — turn out to be nothing more than clichés passed from generation to generation? In CorningWorks’ latest Glue Factory Project, Recipes Our Mothers Gave Us, three veteran dancers with … Continue reading CorningWorks’ ‘Recipes Our Mothers Gave Us’ works a cooking metaphor for life
By Steve Sucato In a year filled with great dance programs in Pittsburgh, here are seven that transported audiences from their seats to worlds away. Soap Opera (Attack Theatre, Feb. 2-10). Soap Opera mixed dance, mythology and opera music to tell the fictitious story of a terminally ill concert pianist — and his opera-singer lover’s bedside efforts to keep him alive by reading colorful stories aloud. The work … Continue reading 2013’s Seven Most Transportive Dance Programs in Pittsburgh
By Steve Sucato When Nicolas Petrov assumed the directorship of the Pittsburgh Playhouse‘s ballet school, in 1967, no one could have foreseen that within a few years, the Yugoslavian-born dancer and choreographer would forever alter the Pittsburgh dance landscape by founding two of its major institutions: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Point Park University‘s renowned dance department. Now, on the eve of Professor Petrov’s retirement from Point … Continue reading Pittsburgh’s father of professional ballet and Point Park’s dance program retires — Conservatory Dance Company honors longtime teacher by staging his ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Reviewed by Steve Sucato One thing I have learned over a decade of reviewing Point Park University‘s Conservatory Dance Company’s shows is that they rarely contain a dull moment. The 2013 version of CDC’s annual Contemporary Choreographers program, this past Saturday, was no different. Fate brought former Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre soloist Terence Marling back to Pittsburgh — or at least the subject did. Of his new work … Continue reading Another strong outing for Point Park’s ‘Contemporary Choreographers’ showcase
Reviewed by Steve Sucato Apparently it wasn’t case closed for Attack Theatre choreographers and artistic directors Peter Kope and Michele De La Reza after their 2011 crime-drama-inspired What?…This is What. Their latest production, The Chalk Line, re-envisions that 2011 dance-theater work. In the Nov. 2 performance, dancer Dane Toney opened the show by running onto the stage to a back wall, where he wrote in chalk, “Season 2 … Continue reading Attack Theatre returns to the scene of the crime in ‘The Chalk Line’
By Steve Sucato Martin Zimmermann and Dimitri de Perrot say of their works, “We do everything very seriously, but take nothing seriously.” The award-winning duo’s Zurich-based Zimmermann & de Perrot combines circus arts, dance, theater and a whole lot of wackiness. The troupe makes its Pittsburgh debut with the U.S. premiere of Hans was Heiri, in three Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts shows at the August Wilson Center. On its website, the company describes … Continue reading Zurich’s Zimmermann & de Perrot’s ‘Hans was Heiri’ makes U.S. premiere at Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts
By Steve Sucato In April, Ellen Deutsch’s Geeksdanz interpreted the high-tech world of video gaming. Now her fledgling troupe explores a much older, low-tech form of entertainment: ghost stories. Manifestations ─ at Shadyside’s intimate Steel City Improv Theater ─ seeks to tingle spines and chill blood. Four dancers will perform to six stories by award-winning storyteller Alan Irvine, drawn from legends, folk tales and literary classics including Bram Stoker‘s “The Judge’s House”. The interpretations range … Continue reading Airings: Geeksdanz offers up chills and thrills in ‘Manifestations’
By Steve Sucato Call it site-specific dance on a gargantuan scale. The Pillow Project takes its improvisational “Postjazz” movement style and video wizardry to a whole new level when it invades the Carrie Blast Furnaces, in Rankin, on Oct. 12, for a daylong extravaganza titled The Jazz Furnace. Built in 1907, the Carrie Furnaces number 6 and 7 tower 92 feet over the Monongahela River. Until 1978, … Continue reading Pittsburgh’s Pillow Project to create art amidst ash in ‘The Jazz Furnace’
artsair.art 