183 stories by "LEIGH WITCHEL"
If you're going to use fake menstrual blood in a dance, your show had better be good. Suzana Stankovic put herself out there, but her downtown version of "Black Swan" -- a last-minute sub at…
'The wall is still in our heads." That remark, from a collage of inter views played dur ing Nejla Yatkin's "Wallstories," shows how, after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, its legacy persists. …
You know the guy who won't stop telling bad jokes because he thinks they're funny? That would be Mark Morris. His troupe opened its run Thursday at the Mostly Mozart Festival with Morris' ve…
'Cisne Negro" is Portuguese for "black swan," but Bra zil's contemporary dance company had the name long before Natalie Portman did the movie.
The troupe came to The Joyce this week to pe…
'A really elegant woman never wears black in the morning." This and other tidbits of advice from a 1963 book of fashion tips for women inspired San Francisco's ODC/Dance to warn against livi…
Sure, it's hot out there -- but the dancing's cool at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. This summer's edition features three headlining outdoor performances that range from avant-gar…
Pilobolus and the band OK Go are a per fect match -- they both thrive on gimmicks.
For its new season at the Joyce, the inventive physical troupe teamed with the YouTube faves -- they're …
We're getting Russian lessons this week. From St. Pe tersburg, the famed Mariinsky Ballet -- which in the Soviet era went by the Kirov Ballet, the name it still uses on tour -- is schooling …
It's not pretty to be stuck with the wrong role in "The Sleeping Beauty." On opening night Tuesday of American Ballet Theatre's season closer, the lead
role of Princess Aurora went to the s…
'Swan Lake" is one of ballet's great tearjerk ers; bring a hanky -- or two -- for the ending. But at American Ballet Theatre's opening night on Monday, the unemotional performances meant the…
THE dancing in Pavel Zustiak's "Amidst" isn't that memorable -- but the experience certainly is.
Part dance and part installation, the work plunges you into a disorienting world, much lik…
She gets her prince at the end, but Ameri can Ballet Theatre's "Cinderella" isn't very charming.
James Kudelka's version, which ABT's danced since 2006, seemed heavy on satire at Tuesday'…
THERE'S a mini-Russian spring happen ing at American Ballet Theatre, some of it by accident -- literally.
Bolshoi Ballet sensation Ivan Vasiliev wasn't supposed to dance with the company,…
Like a lady with a big, gorgeous nose, there's no point resenting what makes you special. The Royal Danish Ballet, in New York for the first time in more than 20 years, has that hang-up.
…
AMERICAN Ballet Theatre's latest full- length ballet is set on a Soviet collec tive farm in the 1930s, but the subject is straight from yesterday's headlines. Alexei Ratmansky's warm, funny …
Watching the Bal let Nacional de Cuba is a fascinat ing, strange expe rience, like being in rickety time machine that needs a whack to get started. On opening night Wednesday, some things fe…
TO find out just who's upcoming down town, try the Gotham Dance Festival. Through June 12, four downtown companies are presenting shows in rotation -- with three other emerging choreographer…
DIAMONDS may be a girl's best friend, but Balanchine makes them compete with emeralds and rubies. Each of the three plotless dances in his scintillating trilogy "Jewels" is costumed and name…
'GISELLE" is Ameri can Ballet The atre's best, most moving classical production be cause it doesn't fix what's not broken. This tale of betrayal, forgiveness and redemption is more than 150 …
New York City Ballet has a triple threat of musical com edy running through Sunday -- ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Susan Stroman, all of which celebrate the Great White W…
American Ballet Theatre took the plunge with three new ballets Tuesday night by three big names: Christopher Wheeldon, Alexie Ratmansky and Benjamin Millepied. The last drew Millepied's very…
Fresh casting at New York City Ballet made three classics seem born yesterday. Pale, ghostly Janie Taylor, who made her debut over the weekend in George Balanchine's "La Sonnambula," is such…
American Ballet The atre's glitzy opening- night gala Monday had royalty -- rock-star royalty, that is, with Prince in attendance. Echoing his sequined glamour, the gown crowd was out in for…
A Marxist parable performed at a black- tie event: Bertolt Brecht would ap prove of the irony. New York City Ballet's spring gala Wednesday night featured a new production of "The Seven Dead…
It may not be revolutionary, but Cuba's modern dance company is keeping up with the times. More than half a cen tury old, the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba is making its first visit to the US.…
