This article originally appeared in the Summer 2006 issue (Vol. 15, No. 2) of Dance Now. Dance fans are forever complaining about dancing stars who refuse to recognise when the time has come to call it quits and retire from the stage. Two of the last century's ballet divinities, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, continued not merely for years but for decades past their prime, first adjusting their repertoire to diminishing physical capability, eventually creating a performance out of charisma alone. Among the incomparable artists still with … [Read more...]

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on January 18, 2007. Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- From every one of the 140 seats in the black-box theater at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, you're close enough to see the performers' muscles flexing, hear their footfalls, and feel in your own body the vibrations of the live music to which they move. While the Mark Morris Dance Group is at home in opera houses worldwide -- including the Broooklyn Academy of Music just across the street -- the choreographer chose … [Read more...]

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on January 15, 2007. Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- ``I love everything about the theater,'' Yoshiko Chuma says at a midday rehearsal of ``A Page Out of Order: M,'' which begins a five-day run tomorrow at Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea. Known for her maverick imagination and crazy-quilt multimedia work, the Japanese-born Chuma has been a fixture on New York's downtown scene for over a quarter- century. ``But it's a very expensive hobby,'' Chuma adds wryly. No doubt: The new … [Read more...]

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on January 4, 2007. Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Nikolaj Hubbe was not merely the most poetic player in last night's return of ``The Sleeping Beauty'' at the New York State Theater. He was, of all the Prince Desires I've seen, the most convincing. He made the situation of a young prince yearning for love completely believable, something that could really happen to a guy in the street or in a forest, now or long, long ago. A fairy shows him a vision of a princess who's been … [Read more...]