Dance
Complexions Dancers Shine
CHARLESTON CONCERT ASSOCIATION presented the second dance offering of their season on Saturday night at the Gaillard with the dynamic Complexions Contemporary Ballet, perhaps in a bold effort to appeal to a younger audience. However, a less than half full theatre was an unfortunate reminder of how hard it is to get people to the... Read »
Cunningham’s Last Stand
A FEW WEEKS AGO I made a pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to see the second to last performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Like me, many of you might think traveling to Brooklyn is on the same adventure level as traveling to Tasmania, but it can be easily reached... Read »
Charleston Arts’ Sad Loss
THE LOWCOUNTRY LOST one of its brightest stars on July 15th when Robert Ivey passed away leaving behind a long lineage of actors, singers, dancers, and fans who had been inspired, mentored, and directed by the legendary man for more than 30 years. I first met Mr. Ivey 20 years ago when I sent... Read »
Final Dance at Noon by Annex Dance Company
THE FINAL DANCE AT NOON—before Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto slip through our fingers—was performed by Charleston’s newest modern dance company, Annex Dance Company, in a concert entitled Encounter which used 9 dancers and a collection of music as well as spoken poetry in a well balanced and intriguing hour-long work. The theme of the... Read »
Artistic Collaborations
THE WORD DANCE THEATRE’s original production of Preludes: Duncan, Sand & Chopin is based on the love affair between one of the leading French Romantic female writers and the French composer, Frederic Chopin. The other part of the story is how Chopin’s 24 Preludes were interpreted by Isadora Duncan, the mother of modern dance... Read »
Ivey’s Dance at Noon
OVER THE PAST MANY YEARS, whenever I see the Robert Ivey Ballet Theatre perform, I am always struck by the vibrant young dancers with commitment in their eyes and love for their art form apparent in their energy-fueled dancing. At the end of the Dance at Noon concert performed on Friday at the Footlight... Read »
A Dancer’s Story
“IT IS WHEN MOVEMENT starts to be awkward that it becomes interesting.” This is how Cédric Andrieux explains his experience with Merce Cunningham whose company he was with for eight years. The statement could also describe Andrieux’s one-man and self-titled show at the Emmett Robinson Theatre where, for a little over an hour, the... Read »
Circa Exceeds Extraordinary
THE OPENING of “Circa” Tuesday night at Memminger Auditorium, the packed house discovered that there are no elephants, lions, tigers, or bears, oh my. You will not see any scantily clad ladies riding bareback. No popcorn, no sawdust… So how can this be a circus? It isn’t, at least not in the traditional sense.... Read »
Young Culture Vultures
AS I SAT BESIDE my eight-year-old daughter and watched the Charleston Ballet Theatre’s production of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, I thought, thank goodness there is something besides the Nutcracker geared towards her age group. This is a wonderful production that uses the spoken story and songs recorded from the original and updated... Read »
Shen’s Way
ART IS AT ITS BEST when it transports the viewer to another place, and in the case of Shen Wei Dance Arts’ performance, it is specifically the places of Tibet, Cambodia, and China that the dance takes us to. In Re- (Parts I, II, and III), choreographer Shen Wei created a three-part evening length... Read »
The churches of Charleston
are unique in their variety, grandeur, and architecture. We give you an in-depth view.~> Read more