Intentionally or otherwise, it was this season’s clearest example thus far of curation as critique: One dance work magnified the shortcomings in another simply by being placed next to it in a concert setting. The place: Page Auditorium last weekend, during the shared performance by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and the Aspen Santa Fe […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
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True West at Hot Summer Nights
True West Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy Progress Energy Center Through July 13 No doubt a toast is in order. Yes, that is an inside joke for Sam Shepard’s rough, dark filial comedy about two misfit brothers who get a little too curious about life on each other’s side of the fence. Still, it’s […]
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Mulling the final weeks of ADF
The 2008 American Dance Festival concludes with nods to the African-American modern dance tradition, postmodern performance, restagings of classics and a mini-festival featuring six Japanese companies spanning the last four nights of the season. (Unless otherwise indicated, curtain time for all performances is 8 p.m.) July 9, Reynolds Theater RONALD K. BROWN/ EVIDENCE: Walking Out […]
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The Independent Review: Paul Taylor’s “Changes” and Twyla Tharp’s “Sweet Fields”
“Intentionally or otherwise, it was this season’s clearest example thus far of curation as critiquein which one dance work magnified the shortcomings in another simply by being placed next to it in a concert setting.” Uh-oh. Who’s getting drubbed in critic Byron Woods’ review from this week’s print edition of The Independent Weekly? Read on, […]
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The Independent Season Preview (Part II): Who, by dance alone…
The other (pointe) shoe droppeth: In whose dance theatre piece do city kid games constitute their rehearsals for being adults? Whose overt orientalism is most likely to offend the artists now visiting from that part of the world? Whose character-driven dance appears to be channeling Raymond Carver? And who‘s likeliest to give the season’s next […]
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aKabi’s extreme demands on dancers and the audience
aKabi Aydin Teker and Dancers American Dance Festival June 24-25 Unlike most curmudgeons or writers of speculative fiction, Kurt Vonnegut amassed a truly impressive collection of dystopias over his career with, we sense, two abiding purposes in mind: to personally hold the problematic human line accountable and taut for as long as possible, and to […]
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Party Girl! Productions Common Ground Theatre Through July 12 Only time will tell if we’ve really hit upon the raison d’etre for Party Girl! Productions: to present its titled, er, archetypethe party girlin all of her varying aspects across theatrical literature. Until then, we have a production that Edward Albee […]
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So, danced any good jokes lately?
Right. So these two choreographers walk into a barre… You were there. You saw comedian Larry Keigwan plus company make with the waterworks, before flying on and off the handle. That was before Robert Battle‘s folks got mighty reel (time), after a Promenade through what looked like an over-caffeinated version of the psycho ward where […]
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The Independent Review: Aydin Teker’s aKabi
“While three choreographers lured us into their dystopias last week,” writes critic Byron Woods, “oneAydin Teker’s aKabiwas so overtly like [Kurt] Vonnegut[‘s work] that the title of a specific short story came to mind in the middle of the performance.” Could this possibly be a good sign? Read on to find out: the pre-publication of […]
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Battleworks World Premiere: Reel Time
Exclusive footage of the world premiere of Robert Battle‘s Reel Time, as performed by Battleworks Dance Company, this week at ADF.
