Email Author Deborah Jowitt

2003 Stories by Deborah Jowitt

• Tied Up in Knots

  published December 30, 2003

  It's not often that a fully funded dance company emerges out of the blue—much less one that's conceived as a profitable venture, provides... More >>

• When Feathers Fly

  published December 23, 2003

  From her choreographic beginnings as a soloist in 1978, Montreal's Marie Chouinard has defined herself as an explorer in the regions of the body... More >>

• Lit Up for Christmas

  published December 16, 2003

  Lord, they're gorgeous! Sleek, lithe, powerful. The Ailey dancers don't just take space, they devour it, inflame it. Every piece gets solid-... More >>

• The Imaginative East

  published December 9, 2003

  It's fitting that Estonia's Van Krahl Theatre's rampaging deconstruction of Swan Lake takes place in black-box theaters rather than on... More >>

• All Hail the Chief

  published December 2, 2003

  By the time you read this, the New York City Ballet will be in the throes of its Nutcracker, but the program that kicked off the company's... More >>

• You Go, Girls!

  published November 25, 2003

  I've heard people mention Riverdance when speaking of Dance Cuba. That's misleading. There are no misterioso moments when Lizt Alfonso's... More >>

• Breaking the Next Wave

  published November 18, 2003

  There's no "George Piper" in George Piper Dances, the five-person, took-London-by-storm company run by former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn... More >>

• What's the World Coming To?

  published November 11, 2003

  American Ballet Theatre might better have called its "Contemporary Works" program "Kinky Pleasures." In Jirí Kylián's 1991 Petite... More >>

• Polishing Up Old Treasures

  published November 4, 2003

  These days, ballet artists have to be chameleons, sensitive to diverse styles. A ballet master of the 19th century would be astonished by the... More >>

• Saying It Again. And Again.

  published October 28, 2003

  Susan Marshall has always used repetition enthrallingly. Her dancers recycle actions and phrases that tear at your soul. Often it's like watching... More >>

• The Fresh and the Stale

  published October 21, 2003

  Onstage at BAM, Mayor Bloomberg lauds the 50th anniversary of Merce Cunningham's company. Behind him, dancers warm up. Carolyn Brown, Robert... More >>

• In My End Is My Beginning

  published October 14, 2003

  As Akram Khan's Kaash begins, a man, his back to us, stands gazing at a suspended black rectangle; a woman walks in. Darkness falls. Then... More >>

• How Many Ways To Twist It?

  published October 7, 2003

  "A pack of bodies raging with alacrity, whipping razor-like in perilous weaves, in a hurt-ling intelligence," say the program notes for Ballett... More >>

• Desert Flash and Local Heroes

  published September 30, 2003

  "It doesn't stop you from thinking about your life," said my companion, 50 minutes into Momix's 2000 Opus Cactus. Indeed it doesn't. Each... More >>

• Today's Star, Tomorrow's Trash

  published September 23, 2003

  Here's what I learned this morning on the Web: For $14.95 I can get a swatch from an article of clothing Britney Spears has worn, attached to a... More >>

• Rendezvous With Nimble Ghosts

  published September 16, 2003

  I first saw Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane in 1981 in the old Kitchen on Wooster Street. This year, beginning at the "new" Kitchen, the Bill T.... More >>

• Taking It Lying Down And Loving It

  published September 9, 2003

  "'Societal game' is too superficial," Berlin-based choreographer Felix Ruckert told Arnd Wesemann in a Ballett International interview. "I... More >>

• When Not-A-Dance Becomes Dance

  published August 19, 2003

  Eight horses and their maroon-vested riders trace curlicues on a green lawn at the Shelburne Museum's 45 acres of historic buildings, gardens, and... More >>

• Tapping Into History

  published August 12, 2003

  When Gregory Hines died August 9 in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, the shock reverberated through a number of worlds. He had shone in so... More >>

• Northern Lights, Black Visions

  published August 12, 2003

  Kitt Johnson and Jo Strømgren would appear to have little in common, except that they're both Nordic—Johnson a Dane working in... More >>

• Buy Yourself a Cold Beer and Watch Those Dancers Swing From Trapezes

  published August 12, 2003

  Inotice that the four people sitting at a ringside table are barefoot while I'm watching the five dancers of Incidents Physical Theater bounce off... More >>

• City, Country, Park

  published August 5, 2003

  The seven champion dancers in Twyla Tharp's little company have deepened their understanding of her choreographic language just since this past... More >>

• Landscape Painting

  published July 29, 2003

  Even if you missed the large paintings hanging in the theater lobby, you'd guess that Chinese-born Shen Wei is a visual artist as well as a... More >>

• Feet on the ground

  published July 22, 2003

  Butoh began in Japan at the end of the 1950s as outsider art; "Dance of Darkness," its creator Tatsumi Hijikata called it. His transgressive... More >>

• Heat Wave

  published July 15, 2003

  The ladies and gentlemen of Dance Theatre of Harlem are up for just about anything. Follow a dazzle of échappés,... More >>