Work for the Contra Costa Times

March 17, 2003, Diablo Ballet: Divertissement from La Bayadère, Pairs, Walk Before Talk "To celebrate its ninth anniversary, Diablo Ballet presented a program at the Dean Lesher Center for the Regional Arts in Walnut Creek on Friday and Saturday that showed that, while the dancers might be able to do 19th century works, the company is grounded in the 21st century."
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March 14, 2003, Diablo Ballet: Rescued Diablo Ballet survives, and shines "The dancers don't look too anxious. But then such wardrobe concerns are minor compared with the worries that plagued Diablo Ballet last September, when the troupe was literally fighting for its existence. Only a last-minute appeal and an outpouring of support from the community kept the company afloat. This weekend it returns to the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek to celebrate its ninth anniversary."
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February 24, 2003, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre: Prayers From the Edge, Black Milk, Treading, Revelations "For its current season in Berkeley, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater offers 16 works on four programs with two Bay Area premieres, but in reality, it almost doesn't matter which night you go see the company. With spirited dancing, honest and direct performances, vast pyrotechnical skills and a habit of flinging caution to the wind, this is a company that can make just about any piece of choreography look terrific."
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February 10, 2003, Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Suite for Five, MinEvent, Fluid Canvas "For some people, a performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company can be an adventure into the realm of purely distilled ideas about movement and time -- a kind of kinesthetic conceptual art -- while for others, it is a excruciating descent into pretension and boredom."
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February 8, 2003, San Francisco Ballet: Program 1: Ballo Della Regina, Chi-Lin, Dreams of Harmony; Program 2: Elite Syncopations and Dances at a Gathering "San Francisco Ballet opened its 70th season last week at the War Memorial Opera House with two programs of 20th century ballets that ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, but with a fine display of world-class dancing."
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January 30, 2003, Oakland's Artship: Gallery plans sinking quickly "The Oakland Port Commission has scuttled hopes for the Artship, an experiment that would have made the waterfront home to one of the Bay Area's most unique cultural spaces."
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January 20, 2003, Aeros: "The sheer physical excitement generated by 'Aeros,' a fantastical show comprised of 20 athletes from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, was enough to bring awe-inspired gasps from the crowd at UC-Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall Friday night."
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January 19, 2003, Magic Theater: Joe Goode's Body Familiar: "When you walk into the theater for a Joe Goode show, you’re just as likely to be confronted with a mesh of oozing intestines, up close and personal, as anything else. "
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January 17, 2003, Kim Epifano: Idea for 'Einstein's Daughters' fell from the sky "The work is a nonlinear swoop into the story of Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife and scientific collaborator. It is a mix of theater, dance, music and aerial work in which Epifano, Louise and 11-year-old Keefer trade off the roles of Maric and her daughter in a fluid interpretation of the former's inner life. The show continues at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason Center."
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January 1, 2003, Roundup: Nine things we're looking forward to in 2003 "After a 20-year hiatus, the Bay Area has a chance to see one of Europe's greatest dance companies, the 400-year-old Stuttgart Ballet, appearing this March both in Davis and in Berkeley, bringing two superb but very different programs."
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December 21, 2002, Smuin Ballet: The Christmas Ballet "Frazzled holiday frenzy victims take note: If you need a little cheering up, and the "Nutcracker" isn't going to do it for you, check out Smuin Ballet's 'The Christmas Ballet 2002,' which continues through Dec. 29 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco."
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December 17, 2002, Oakland Ballet: The Nutcracker "Although weak choreography, drab lighting and vaguely anemic accompaniment by the Oakland East Bay Symphony, under Michael Morgan, hampers this 'Nutcracker,'some fine dancing framed by Ron Steger's beautiful Victorian sets elevates the production to a higher level."
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December 1, 2002, Diablo Ballet: La Boutique Fantasque "Thanksgiving audiences of all ages warmed to Diablo Ballet's performances of 'The Magic Toy Store (La Boutique Fantasque)' at the Dean Lesher Center in Walnut Creek over the weekend. Even without the scene-stealing high-spirits of Kelly Teo, who retired this year, Diablo Ballet danced a solid show that was buoyed by lively performances from company stalwarts Viktor Kabaniev and Tina Kay Bohnstedt."
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November 11, 2002, Smuin Ballet: Stabat Mater, Bouquet, Come Dance Me a Song "It was an evening in which the Smuin Ballet's characteristic vividness seemed muted, with only sparks of their usual gusto appearing here and there. But then, the character of each of the three works on the bill was pensive in mood, even that of 'Come Dance Me a Song.'"
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October 14, 2002, LINES Contemporary Ballet: 20th Anniversary Celebration "Opinions about Alonzo King's LINES Ballet may always be polarized. If you are a devotee, then artistic director King is a visionary, creating works of affecting spirituality and choreographic power. If you're a detractor, King's ballets are twitchy, derivative and unnecessarily 'California woo-woo.' As with most things, the answer probably lies somewhere in between."
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October 13, 2002, Oakland Ballet: Dei Sogni Piacevoli, Three Virgins and a Devil, Opus 45, Glory Fugue "Oakland Ballet finally unleashed the kind of energy that its fans have been waiting for with the world premiere of 'Glory Fugue.' The company performed the piece Friday at Oakland's Paramount Theater as part of its second program this fall."
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October 5, 2002, Ballet Prejlocaj: Helikopter, The Rite of Spring "Love him or hate him, few can see the works of Angelin Preljocaj and not be provoked. The 45-year-old French choreographer, whose company, Ballet Preljocaj, appears tonight and Sunday as part of San Francisco Performances' season at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is known as much for his challenging intellectual layering as for his articulate and absorbing choreography."
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September 26, 2002, Gansu Dunhuang: The Heavenly Horse "The audience at the sold-out show was privileged to see the Gansu Dunhuang Art Academy's spectacular production of 'The Heavenly Horse' at the Calvin Simmons Theatre in Oakland Tuesday night. Like a lavishly operatic circus, the ballet was marked by an epic grandeur and monumental designs as well as several stellar performances."
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September 22, 2002, Company C: A Night in Tunisia, I Am, Hush, Aposiopesis "It may seem crazy to launch a new ballet company these days, when companies everywhere are barely surviving. But Charles Anderson's new endeavor, Company C, had a promising opening on Friday with a good-sized audience turning out to show their support at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco's Fort Mason Center."
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September 16, 2002, Oakland Ballet: A Night in Tunisia, Jinx, Bamboo "Oakland Ballet itself, though, seems still to be searching for its identity as a company. The newer members of the troupe that Brown has gathered are going to need more time, more coaching and more focused direction to match up to more seasoned performers such as Phaedra Jarrett, Erin Yarbrough and Mario Alonzo."
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September 9, 2002, Diablo Ballet: Diablo's dilemma inspires donor "Ron Huxley has a challenge for the Contra Costa community. He's donating $10,000 in matching funds to Diablo Ballet, which he hopes will help spur people to pitch in to help save the company."
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July 14, 2002, Carolina Lugo's Brisas de España: Entrádas "Entrádas means 'entrances,' as in the entrance of a dancer, but it can also mean 'beginnings.' Brisas de España uses the occasion of their fifth anniversary to present some of their most popular works of the past few years..."
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July 3, 2002, Moving Arts Dance: Hush, Psychedelic Six Pack, Temporal Landscapes "With a ballpark atmosphere of popcorn, pop music, families and fireworks, Moving Arts Dance gave the Fourth of July weekend an early boost with a lightweight sunset program Wednesday at the Chronicle Pavilion at Concord."
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June 1, 2002, White Oak Dance Company: Largo, Early Floating, The Experts, Chaconne "Audiences may have come to see one of ballet's bona-fide stars, but along the way they were treated to some fine performances by other members of White Oak Dance Project, all of whom remind us that classicism is not always a dirty word where modern dance is concerned."
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May 13, 2002, San Francisco Ballet: Giselle "It was less a sad occasion than a joyous celebration of a dancer at the height of her powers, where perhaps the most touching aspect of the evening was not Berman's own incandescent portrayal of the title role, but the way her fellow company members paid homage to her with their own dancing."
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May 6, 2002, Diablo Ballet: Incitations, White Light, Scriabin for Two, Who Cares? "The eight-year old ballet company, as always, showcased their impressively fleet, sure-footed dancers in works ranging from quirky modern to neoclassical ballet. Clearly, though, their current standout is Tina Kay Bohnstedt, whose duet with Lauren Jonas in Kabaniev's 'White Light' was a high point of the evening."
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April 29, 2002, Moving Arts Dance: Psychedelic Six Pack, SAPP, To Vernon, Aposiopesis "If Moving Arts Dance is thinking about moving to the next level, the company made a creditable start with Friday's performance at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek."
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April 26, 2002, Moving Arts Dance: Anderson brings experience to Moving Arts "Charlie Anderson wants to put even more 'moving'in Moving Arts Dance. 'I just really want beautifully moving dancers,' says Anderson, a former dancer with New York City Ballet and new artistic director of Moving Arts Dance, based in Walnut Creek and considered one of the East Bay's top modern dance companies. "
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April 22, 2002, LINES Contemporary Ballet: The Heart's Natural Inclination, Splash, Koto "Choreographer and artistic director Alonzo King has fallen lately into a kind of habitual approach to his works, but while 'Koto' exhibits a few of his formulaic characteristics, it also transcends them with fascinating imagery, tight musicality, and above all, concision."
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April 21, 2002, National Dance Week: A preview of free events around the Bay Area
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