LA Dance Review

Clairobscur is an excellent example of high quality, classically based concert dance that is right here in the Los Angeles indie dance scene. The dancers must be recognized for their excellence both in technical skill and performance technique. Sefton has created a company that is mature and convincing. Saturday’s performance at Diavolo Dance Space highlighted […]

Leslie Scott founded her company BodyArt in New York in 2005, and is now pursuing her graduate degree in dance at California Institute of the Arts. This evening’s work was conceptually outside the box, and physically inside the box as it was an installation piece set in a courtyard on the Cal Arts campus. Collaborating […]

The first in a series of three coffee shop locations, the Santa Monica café Unurban was a quirky and dynamic location for a dance performance. I attended Keith Glassman’s Coffeehouse Dances last year and enjoyed the diversity, the mixed media, and the hip feel of seeing dance in public, amidst the locals and passersby. This […]

You know you are at a well-produced dance concert when you see five trees of side lighting, each with four instruments on both sides of a small black box style theater. And, this was just the beginning of an evening of design eye candy. Sophia Stoller is an MFA candidate at CalArts and her thesis […]

Occasionally I go to a dance show in which everything fits– the essence of the performance space, the energy of the dancers, and the vision of the choreographer. Everything seems to jive in such a way that allows me, as an audience member, to enter an alternate universe for just a fleeting moment. The bicoastal, […]

The Rogue Festival in Fresno is one of the largest and most successful Fringe-style festival west of the Mississippi! It includes a blend of performing artists with an indie edge that makes for an exciting 10 days of new theater, music and dance. I have seen over 11 shows with two days two go. Most […]

One of my favorite aspects about dance is the blurry line between “dance” and “theater.” I use these terms in quotes because at times we can easily define them as separate entities, but it is shows like CHAOS that disprove our limited definitions. Greg Langner’s original production at the Mosaic Lizard Theater in Alhambra was […]

Some might call SoleVita and RhetOracle a creative match made in heaven. These contemporary jazz dance companies both thrive on athleticism, entertaining narratives, and showstopper appeal. This past weekend’s show, The Great American Mixtape, featured a full, two hours of nonstop, high-energy dance. Here is an account of my favorites of the night. SoleVita’s Stealing […]

The Union Project Dance Company arrived on the LA scene just two years ago, and has participated in a number of festivals around the LA area, quickly gaining exposure within the community. Tonight’s fundraiser was held to raise money for their first self-produced, evening-length performance to be held in August of this year as a […]

Pat Taylor’s JazzAntiqua dance and music ensemble performed its latest work, Song in a Strange Land, Saturday night at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. What an infectious blend of rhythm and storytelling! The show charmed a full house, which responded with lively applause, hooping and hollering and a final standing ovation. JazzAntiqua is an […]