Music & Dance

Arts

Festival Explores Interplay of Jewish and African-American Music

As every great American composer, from Gershwin to Duke Ellington to Leonard Bernstein, would have explained without missing a beat, Jewish and African-American music not only have a lot in common — they helped create the distinctly American art forms of jazz, blues, and popular music of yesterday and today. On

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Arts

David Dorfman: Dance to the Music

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: above, Kate Enman; below, Cherylynn TsushimaProphets of Funk, an evening-length work performed by David Dorfman Dance this week at Jacob’s Pillow, begins with the choreographer strutting his stuff diagonally across the stage on a path of light. He’s no longer

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Arts

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: Articulate Company

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Rosalie O'Connor A well-composed program of work by three European choreographers, in performance by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet this week at Jacob’s Pillow, shows off the many skills of this company’s ten talented dancers: speed, strength, grace, presence,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Arts

Lar Lubovitch Lets Loose at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Todd Rosenberg Lar Lubovitch is a master of shape in space. In his work, form and flow take precedence over narrative or message, and his dances are a joy to watch. In the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company's appearance at Jacob’

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