LA Dance Review

The contemporary dance world is at a crossroads, grappling with globalism, hyper-interconnectedness, and informational access in a way that may be pushing the art form toward the obscure, the uncertain, the vague, the unknowable—as evidenced in the evening of dance last weekend at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, presented by ate9 and Jacob […]

Nostalgia is the word that comes to mind when reflecting on the performance of Home by Re:Born Dance Interactive and choreographer Boróka Nagy. A cast of nine performers (Jonathan Bahn, Jestoni Dagdag, Krissy Gullen, Simon Harrison, Kristy Hwang, Katie Marshall, Boróka Nagy, Hyoin Jun, and Katie Walsh) were clothed in dresses and slacks reminiscent of […]

The New Original Works (NOW) at REDCAT, in the heart of downtown LA, is a long-standing three-week festival that features a unique three-part bill each week. This year, the festival opened with a bang, hosting a surreal music experience by Eliza Bagg, Rohan Chander, and George R. Miller; a somatic storytelling ritual by Meena Murugesan; […]

Last weekend, the city of Ventura hosted its annual Artwalk on Main Street and the surrounding downtown plazas. The event included dozens of colorful artist booths of all sorts, live music, and a handful of dance performances, including Olivia Mia Orozco’s site-specific performance of Arból de la Vida. Orozco’s company, Performative Pop-ups, celebrates the unique […]

Led by choreographer and director Seda Aybay, a cast of six incredible Kybele Dance Theater members transformed Highways Performance Space into an alchemist’s laboratory in a show titled Simyaci (Alchemist). Turkish-born Aybay designed and led the immersive movement experience, which included a pre-show video, guided movement opportunities, spontaneous duets with audience members, and a culminating […]

The immersive event, entitled Our Dancer’s Project, produced by the socially progressive company, Bodies in Play, on April 13th at LA Dance Project, is one that a written description can never do proper justice to. Envisioned and directed by company founder and facilitator Andrew Pearson, the ensemble cast (Cristina Florez, Darby Epperson, Celine Kiner, Tiffany […]

Azuki Umeda’s dance work, how I became kinder, and kinder, closed the six-week dance series Dance at the Odyssey last weekend at the Odyssey Theater. The evening-length work developed her Master’s thesis work from CSU Long Beach as a debut concert work in the LA dance scene. The result of two years of research, the […]

Summation Dance/LA enjoyed its West Coast debut performance last weekend at Los Angeles Dance Project, presenting an evening-length work entitled on our way home, choreographed by company co-founder Taryn Vander Hoop. The hour-long work was presented alongside a new piece by LA-based dance maker Derion Loman, entitled dirty laundry. Presented in the lovely downtown, black […]

Wild Roots Dance presented an evocative night of dance last weekend at ARC Pasadena, titled “Dialogue + Sensations.” Co-directed by Kindra Windish and Vannia Ibarguen, Wild Roots Dance hosted this festival-style performance in which they invited an array of dance makers to enter a shared space with sensitivity and compassion. The result was an evening […]

Every year, the San Pedro Festival of the Arts–an event coordinated by Louise Reichlin/Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers–serves as a smorgasbord of Southern California Dance samplings, and this year was as delightful as ever. The event featured 19 pieces from a selection of companies who took the temporary stage at Peck Park under the welcoming […]