NEWS & REVIEWS
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Dance Theatre of Harlem Returns, A Legacy Continues by Lisa Traiger
“Everybody in, nobody out” was WPAS’s mantra when founded in 1966 by the venerable one-time actor turned classical music impresario Patrick Hayes. As a press and marketing intern at WPAS in the 1980s, I saw Mr. Hayes, as almost everyone called him, nearly every day; though he had retired, he still came into the office…
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Love Letters of WWII by Mélange Dance Theatre at the Library of Congress by Blythe
“Only love can console this poor world. Only love can set us free,” intones the narrator of “Love Letters of WWII” at the Library of Congress by New Orleans’ Mélange Dance Theatre. Played by Emily Thibodeaux, our narrator will be with us for the entire performance, patiently sitting upstage left against the wall, a box…
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Angel Ramirez’s Vamos a bailar? at Atlas by Luisa Lynch
A dancer in the spotlight, suspending, pushing, moving with control that cuts through space with intention as cloudy as grief yet as clear as glimmering water. An amorphous group of bodies becoming liquid, fluidly melting into each other like beads of sweat dripping down your back when dancing to your favorite song under club lights..
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Brendan Drake’s CEREMONIALS at Dance Place by Juliana Pironti
Glitter bombs, paper airplanes, milk, OH MY! Ceremonials, choreographed by Brendan Drake and co-hosted by the DC Dance Network and Dance Place, was truly full of a mystical world of dance that I, personally, have never seen in DC.
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Chitra Subramanian’s Village Stories at Dance Place by Juliana Pironti
I watched, intrigued, as children were given freedom rather than being encouraged to remain quietly in their seats. This opening act christened the space with a sense of curiosity and play that felt critical to the core of the work that followed.
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Chamber Dance Project at Woolly Mammoth by Lisa Traiger
When major and regional ballet companies go on hiatus for the summer, choreographer Diane Coburn Bruning turns the lights on and gets a selected few of those dancers back in rehearsal. Her Washington, D.C.-based Chamber Dance Project lives its name, producing one or two full dance concerts annually while the rest of the U.S. ballet…
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On Cats, Corpses and Community Care: Amber Lucia Chabus at The Yellow Room by Luisa Lynch
There are few people I know personally who could effectively pull off creating not one, but two professional dance pieces about a very specific animal while making it funny, tasteful, and only a little bit weird. The interesting thing is, both of these pieces could not be more different from each other.
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Mosaic Theater Company’s Precarious by Audrey Brown
In the aftermath of the pandemic years, when the reality was the reverse for many young twenty- and thirty-somes, playwright Steph Del Rosso flips the script, forcing climate warrior Vi into her daughter Tillie’s one-bedroom New York apartment that she shares with partner Drew. Chaos and comedy ensue—or rather, a series of chaotic, comedic scenarios…
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George Washington University 2026 Spring Dance Concert by Juliana Pironti
Sweaty, sticky, and now a little out of breath, I walked into the theater to find dancers spread throughout the stage in a calculated manner, breaking in and out of unison material. I was immediately thrust into the world of SEAM SPLIT, created by guest artist slowdanger.
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God Is a Woman. Argue with Your Father. TEXTURES Dance Theatre at Atlas INTERSECTIONS by Ashayla Byrd
I suppose the “He” in question would be God. As a preacher’s kid, I was raised to believe that I was made in the image of God. Though I’m not religious anymore, that now leads me to believe that God is a queer, Black woman. I can get down with that.
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Some Silks, Straps, a Hoop, a Trapeze, and a 12-Foot Spiral Walk Into a Theater…
After seeing Aerial Ignition’s performance, ETHEReality, at the 2026 INTERSECTIONS Festival hosted by the Atlas Performing Arts Center, my curiosity about the aerial arts has skyrocketed! The program notes, “Each performer from Aerial Ignition draws from lived experience to share stories of being ‘othered,’ silenced, or separated, ultimately finding voice, movement, and freedom in the…
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Chez Joey at Arena Stage by Audrey Brown
Any modern-written show that includes a full-blown Golden Age dream ballet is a winner in my book. Such was the fact in Chez Joey, currently playing at Arena Stage in Washington, which deems itself a “revisal” of the 1940 musical Pal Joey.