Arts

Arts

David Neumann and Jodi Melnick Join Forces at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: above, Julieta Cervantes; below, Cherylynn Tsushima Is it downtown week at Jacob’s Pillow? In the Ted Shawn Theatre, Trisha Brown, enduring icon of the Judson Church dance days, marks her company’s 40th anniversary in a program that travels through the

By Editor

Arts

Trisha Brown Dance Company Marks 40-Year Anniversary at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Julieta CervantesTrisha Brown is the Eileen Fisher of the dance world. Like Fisher’s clothing, Brown’s dances are loose, comfortable, fluid, and seemingly simple and unstructured while actually finely and smartly constructed with shrewd attention to detail. Like Fisher in the

By Editor

Arts

Word Up! Taylor Mali on Word X Word Festival 2011 and the Lives of the Poets

What’s the word? Find out this week in Pittsfield at the third annual Word X Word Festival from August 13 – 20. This celebration of words written, spoken and sung—created in 2009 by Jim Benson, proprietor of Mission Bar + Tapas—kicks off with its now-legendary rooftop party, one of

By Editor

Arts

Hudson Music Fest: It's Not Only Rock 'n' Roll, But You'll Like It

. by Betsy Miller Organizers of music festivals tend to follow the Woodstock model—one outdoor site, many acts scheduled over the course of several days.  This weekend, impresarios in the city of Hudson will test a different construct: 10 restaurants, 2 performance venues, 5 tents, 1 radio station, and 4

By Editor

Arts

Dia-fied: Blinky & Co. at Beacon and Bard

by Scott Baldinger “Art is not innocent (Oscar) Wilde says ... Violence can be done in its name. Indeed, the twentieth century brought forth many Dorian Grays: fiendishly pure spirits so wrapped up in aesthetics that they become heedless of humanity.” This quote, from a recent New Yorker article by Alex

By Editor

Arts

Jonah Bokaer: School at Jacob’s Pillow Alum Returns with Two U.S. Premieres

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos of Why Patterns by Artworks ©Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture Much has been made of the fact that Jonah Bokaer was, at age 18, the youngest dancer to join the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; that he takes an interdisciplinary approach to dance, collaborating with

By Editor

Arts

3e Étage (3rd Floor): First Rate, Seriously Playful Dance

Review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Steve Murez At the end of La Valse Infernale, a satisfying, virtuoso snippet of traditional ballet choreographed by Raul Zeummes—with long-limbed, bun-headed ballerinas spinning and posing on point and men bounding skyward—that builds into a frenzy of leaps, jumps, arabesques and

By Editor

Arts

Capitol Steps Puts the Mock Back in Democracy

Review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Whether the debt-ceiling wrangling in Washington has you gnashing your teeth or near tears, take a deep breath—and prepare to laugh it out. The Capitol Steps have returned to Cranwell Resort for their fifth-consecutive summer residency, and our elected representatives have given them

By Editor

Arts

Big Dance Theater’s U.S. Debut of Supernatural Wife: Big Fun, Big Ideas

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Cherylynn Tsushima One thing you should know before seeing Supernatural Wife, Big Dance Theater’s take on Euripides' sort-of tragedy Alkestis  – and you should see it -- is that dance is probably the least element of this enchanting and intelligent multimedia

By Editor

Arts

LDP/Laboratory Dance Project Makes a Winning Pillow Debut

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Without a doubt, LDP/Laboratory Dance Project, an all-male, contemporary troupe based in Soeul, is the most winning company to perform at Jacob’s Pillow thus far this summer, a season that has already seen more than its share of superb performances. Forget

By Editor

Arts

Review: "Sylvia" at Berkshire Theatre Fest

When A.R. Gurney's play Sylvia debuted in 1995  at Manhattan Theatre Club with Chalres Kimbrough, Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker, the New York Times critic wrote:  "Not since Abie's Irish Rose has there been a play as critic-proof as Sylvia, at least for

By Editor

Arts

Jazz on Three Summer Days, a Chat with Vita Muir

Summer 2011 marks the 16th anniversary of the Litchfield Jazz Festival, of which jazz DJ Dave Hershorin of New Orleans WWOZ radio says, “It’s what other jazz festivals wish they could be.”   Litchfield Magazine recently named LJF founder Vita Muir one of the 50 most influential people in the

By Editor