Dance
A New Season for Dance
COME SEPTEMBER, a promise of something new returns, including a tap on the cultural reset button after a hot lazy summer. Although arts organizations still struggle with depleted budgets, staff, and incentive, our commitment to supporting them must not waver as they are the essential lifeline not only for our society, but for the... Read »
Turning Movement into Words
RECENTLY I have been writing about dance more than actively dancing, and since this blog is a platform on which to bounce my opinion to the small readership I have, I thought to take the first long day of summer to do so. This was the first Spoleto where my fellow dancers in Anonymity... Read »
Oyster and Giselle
SPOLETO’S LAST ACT. The final two dance offerings for Spoleto Festival USA were about as different as they could be, showing the wonderful contrast that the festival organizers are so adept at presenting, as well as the range that dance covers, from a 200-year-old classic to something completely new. In Oyster, the talents of... Read »
Expression Sung and Danced
I HAVE ALWAYS meant to attend the Westminster Choir’s annual Spoleto performance, but have not gotten to it until this year. In the beautiful and acoustically brilliant setting of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke & St. Paul, this group of young singers from Rider University in Princeton New Jersey delivered beyond my expectations.... Read »
Dance: Noon and Night
ONE LAYER of Lucinda Childs’ DANCE is the eleven dancers who spill across the stage with movement that is like a live feed of entrances and exits in head-spinning sequences that are contained in constant parameters, and propelled by the pulsating flurry of the Philip Glass score which is experienced behind the final layer... Read »
Gallim Dance: What’s Modern Today?
TODAY’S MODERN DANCERS are not dealing with the emotional palate of yesterday. Their responses to the world deal with an ever-changing sense of psychology, technology, and culture. The form of modern dance is at its best when the perspective is fresh, the movement is original, and the performers are invested—which was true of the... Read »
On Stage with George Gershwin
ROBERT IVEY first came to Charleston in 1976 when Gian Carlo Menotti asked him to choreograph an opera for the first Spoleto Festival in 1976. “I was in Italy performing with the Ballet of Sweden and was one of the only Americans at the Festival,” says Ivey, who today is the charismatic director of... Read »
Challenges of Choreography
THE MUSIC of standard (classical) ballet is instrumental. And because there are no words to get in the way—of the choreographer, the dancers, or the audience—expression through movement, and its interpretation, are free to span a wide spectrum, and to take their time doing it. Things get tougher for everyone, though, when there are... Read »
The Magic of Dance
THIS WEEKEND don’t miss The Little Mermaid presented by the Charleston Ballet at the Black Box Theatre on King Street. It’s part of their Children Series and kids will love it. There’s also a special twist to this production. The familiar musical numbers of “Kiss the Girl” and “Under the Sea” will be brought... Read »
A Trock of Our Own
SOME OF YOU may remember watching a young African American dynamo dancing with the Robert Ivey Ballet 20 years ago. His technique was nearing perfection for a teenage boy, his stage presence was assured, and his energy was unstoppable. His name was Bobby Carter and he is returning home as one of the headliners... Read »
