Author: Sophie Myrtil-McCourty
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Critical Dance review: ‘Bereishit Dance Company: Judo; Balance & Imbalance’
‘Powerful dancing built to the sound of the drumbeats. The dancers’ bodies hypnotically shook like teens at a rock concert. Bereishit Dance Company’s dancers are impressive as both athletes and artists.’ Read the full review here.
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Appalachian Connections: ‘A.I.M Hits the Mark with App State Students’
“Kyle is a black man,” says A.I.M dancer Catherine Ellis Kirk. “He speaks to and for a community.” Kirk, now in her eighth year with the company, was speaking with nearly 20 members of App State’s Black Student Association about MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant award winner Kyle Abraham, a Pittsburgh-born choreographer whose acclaimed dance company A.I.M…
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San Diego Story review: ‘A.I.M Offers a Bonus: A Performance by Kyle Abraham’
There’s plenty of assertiveness in the high-octane “Drive”—and plenty of sound. To urgent percussion and an insistent voice repeating, “Where’s your drive?” (Theo Parrish’s “Drive”), eight dancers scramble with powerhouse leg swings, sharp isolations, slashing arms. One minute, they’re doing unison pirouettes, the next owning the stage in dance-battle solos.’ Read the full review here.
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Boston Globe Review: ‘Bereishit Creates Its Own Worlds’
“Bereishit,” meaning “In the beginning,” is the first word of the Book of Genesis. It’s also the name of the Korean dance company that Soonho Park founded in 2011. “Creation of a piece is like the creation of a world,” Park has explained, and indeed the two 25-minute pieces that Bereishit is presenting at New…
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CONTRA-TIEMPO WALLIS PERFORMANCES/LA DANCE CHRONICLE REVIEW: ‘CONTRA-TIEMPO MELDS AND MOVES TIME’
‘The stories clearly reveal a people’s ability to rise up and vanquish personal and physical challenges when “you and I become us.”There are many moments of brilliance from the supple undulating musicality of Jannet Galdamez, who lit up and covered the stage with her unique spirit and compelling movements. Diana Toledo’s guttural emotional song, Stanley…
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Arts Meme preview: ‘A minute + five years: ‘A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham’ to Long Beach’
‘Abraham readily admits the origins of his dance career: the club world of his teen years growing up in Pittsburgh. (He is perhaps the art world’s most prominent Pittsburgher since Andy Warhol.) Many dancers pursue their passion in rebellion. But for Abraham, it was different. “My parents were super supportive. My mother even got me…
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Broadway World: ‘Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Presents CONTRA-TIEMPO: JOYUS JUSTUS’
‘CONTRA-TIEMPO, says Alvarez, “exists in the in-between space of leader/follower, immigrant/American, English/Spanish, performer/listener.” Many of the company’s professional dancers and performers, who are trained in a variety of dance styles, are immigrants or first generation North Americans, living within the varied and infinitely complex political and personal landscapes that CONTRA-TIEMPO addresses in its work.’ Read…
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Dance International: ‘Presenter’s Point of View: Kyle Abraham in Motion’
‘One of the great joys of my work as a dance producer is the time I spend talking with artists about their creative aspirations. It’s not always obvious how these discussions translate into presentations, nor is it always possible to make that happen, but the conversations are invariably insightful. I feel fortunate to have had…
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The Iowa Source preview: ‘CONTRA-TIEMPO & Las Cafeteras Bring a Rebellious Joy to Hancher’
‘Hardship doesn’t preclude joy. In fact, a wellspring of joy is a powerful weapon of resistance in the face of injustice. The urban Latin dancers of CONTRA-TIEMPO and the musicians of Las Cafeteras—all grounded in the communities of color in South Los Angeles—celebrate this fact in an evening-length work based in social dance and live…