David Need Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. The Regulator, 720 9th St., Durham 919-286-2700 www.regulatorbookshop.com The voluptuous shape and velvety petals of roses are so familiar that we hardly appreciate these living clichés. So it’s apt that they give their name to one of the least-read works by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). This […]
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Posted inArt
Urban Bush Women take Durham
The scene: A Duke University dance studio on a frigid Thursday evening. The weather has cut into a two-week residency by Urban Bush Women (UBW), but drums resounding in cold air prove this master class is still on. Two alums from the venerable New York-based dance company, Paloma McGregor and Bennalldra Williams, throw Afro-modern moves […]
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Review: Love’s Infrastructure, a striking theatrical collaboration of Torry Bend and Bombadil
Love’s Infrastructure Duke Performances @ PSI Theatre, Durham Arts Council Closed Jan. 26 Let’s start with the most striking thing about Love’s Infrastructure, the new collaboration between puppeteer Torry Bend and pop-folk trio Bombadil: how the show works. Imagine watching The Muppet Show while simultaneously seeing all the hubbub behind the scenes. While Bombadil plays […]
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Emerging artist Christiana Barnett-Murphy transforms trauma into dance
Christiana Barnett-Murphy’s Burning Durham Arts Council Oct. 12 I arrived at Christiana Barnett-Murphy’s Burning to find myself in an “installation”: a scatter of seating areas each adorned with a cluster of balloons bearing questions I was to discuss with a stranger, another dance-goer. I was late; my newfound partner had “to pee”; so we rushed […]
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Gaspard Louis unveils new work and old in two shows at Duke’s Reynolds Theater
Gaspard&Dancers Reynolds Industries Theater Oct. 18–19 A shaft of light breaks through darkness and smoke, illuminating a heap of bodies. Still for a moment, soon they shift and roll over each other, roiling like the vanishing smoke. They help each other up, weighted bodies rising smoothly as if on a film wound in reverse, and […]
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Carolina Ballet opens season with Balanchine program
Carolina Ballet Balanchine’s Rubies Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh Through Oct. 27 $28–$78 Carolina Ballet opened its 16th season last weekend with a program featuring the most influential ballet choreographer of the 20th century, George Balanchine. Born in imperial Russia in 1904, Balanchine came to America in the 1930s, founded the still pre-eminent New York City […]
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Israeli dance company L-E-V, Eyal and Behar bring the Gaga to the House
L-E-V WITH SHARON EYAL AND GAI BEHAR – HOUSE Memorial Hall, UNC Campus Oct. 9, 2013 The curtain opens on a dusky cloud—one writhing figure showing only from the shimmer on her black leatherette body. Now liquid, now lurching, she winds through twilight towards us, clawing and morphing. With her oil-slick catsuit and her angular, […]
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North Carolina Dance Festival spotlights dancers rather than the dance
The North Carolina Dance Festival opened its 23rd season this past Friday and Saturday at Meredith College. NCDF presents itself as a celebration of and introduction to the state’s companies and dance-makers, but this year, the festival highlighted dancers more than dances. In particular, NCDF was awash in modern movers, dancers smooth and powerful as […]
