The SunBreak » modern

Getting In On the Ground Floor with zoe | juniper

Michael van Baker — Wed, 29 May 2013 00:28:22 +0000

Last Friday night, after a few Euros (shot of Fernet and a Radeberger) at St. John's, I was lying flat on my back trying to keep the people I saw from spinning. I was having no luck, though, because I was watching a dance performance (of sorts: It was also an experiment, research, and rehearsal). Zoe | juniper's "No one to witness and adjust, Study #4" took place in a small studio at Velocity Dance Center.

At Spectrum, Works from Wevers, Spaeth & Byrd

Michael van Baker — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:11:04 +0000

This weekend and next, Spectrum Dance Theater hosts in its Lake Washington studio fellow choreographers Olivier Wevers (founder of Whim W'Him) and Crispin Spaeth. The Fall Studio Series also includes a world premiere from Spectrum's Donald Byrd. Opening night is already sold out. The Stranger suggests you make time to see it. Actually, everyone does, including us.

Velocity’s SCUBA Brings Flour, Forks, and Transfiguration

Michael van Baker — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:10:51 +0000

Cut again to her stage left, dappling shoulders with gold, her face a mask. Once more she exits, dashes back into the space. To Ravel's "Bolero," she repeats a formally precise set of slicing movements, before simply turning to jump (Nijinsky-like, one imagines) on the drum beats, a feat that becomes climactic.

11 Minutes of Jumping & More at Catherine Cabeen’s Velocity Dance Show

Michael van Baker — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:11:51 +0000

The relationship of music and dance is a theme of the evening, of sorts, as Cabeen explained that one of the three world premieres that Catherine Cabine & Co. is presenting, "On the Way Out," is choreographed site specifically: Mathis performs on the kora, but he's "out of the pit" (as Cabeen puts it), situated up front while Lustbader's dancing is seen only through doorways at the end of room.

PNB’s ‘Contemporary 4′ are Morris, Goecke, Gibson & Ratmansky (Preview)

Michael van Baker — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:02:27 +0000

"Recently, I watched Marco Goecke craft phrases for Ezra Thomson, and it occurred to me that this moment of creation is perhaps the apex of our profession. It is also the constant, highlighting a connective chain of creation linking Ezra and Marco's work on Place a Chill to 1841, when ballerina Carlotta Grisi first entered a studio with choreographer Jules Perrot to begin work on a ballet called Giselle. We continue to create new work. We must. It is how our profession grows, advances, and thrives."