Here are some of my favorite articles.

May. 02, 2005:San Francisco Ballet's 'Romeo and Juliet' finally fulfills promise of greatness (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

Apr. 29, 2005: FOOTNOTES -- In ballet, choreographing light as key as choreographing legs (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

April 09, 2005: Jerome Robbins on two programs--S.F. Ballet dances a hit and a miss (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

March 25, 2005: Evelyn Cisneros' graceful spirit still shines. (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

March 14, 2005: Yuri Possokhov's premiere--S.F Ballet delivers superb performance (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

March 5, 2005: Daring ODC tackles penetrating theme (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

February 25, 2005: Behind icons' visits lurks the question of dance's future (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

February 21, 2005: SFB and St. Petersburg: Formidable Russian and S.F. companies provide a tale of two 'Giselles' (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

February 5, 2005: 'Mekka' a pilgrimage for dance Harris' latest a melding of methods of performance (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

November, 2004: Krissy Keefer's Spelling Test (In Dance) Text on this site.

October 31, 2004: Bolshoi Ballet -- Bolshoi shakes up classic, stirs up criticism  (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

October 15, 2004: Cullberg Ballet-- 'Out of Breath,' 'Solo for Two,' and 'A Sort Of' (Ballet-Dance Magazine)

October 1, 2004: Shen Wei Dance Theater -- 'Folding' (Ballet-Dance Magazine )  Link to Ballet-Dance

October 1, 2004: John Jasperse Company -- 'CALIFORNIA' (Ballet-Dance Magazine) Link to Ballet-Dance

October 1, 2004: Lyon Opera Ballet -- “twelvetwentyone”, “Second Detail,” “Un Ballo and “Jardi Tancat” (Ballet-Dance Magazine )  Link to Ballet-Dance

September 1, 2004: San Francisco Ballet -- Interview with Muriel Maffre (Ballet-Dance Magazine ) Link to Ballet-Dance

September 1, 2004: San Francisco Ballet -- Preview of San Francisco Ballet in London (Ballet-Dance Magazine) Link to Ballet-Dance

September 2004:  San Francisco Ballet -- Jorge Esquivel: Teacher's Wisdom (Dance Magazine) Link to Dance Magazine

June 30, 2004: American Ballet Theatre -- “Romeo & Juliet” Starry Afternoon  (Ballet-Dance Magazine ) Link to Ballet-Dance

June 26, 2004: American Ballet Theatre -- “Coppelia” Wanted: An old-fashioned star (Ballet-Dance Magazine) Link to Ballet-Dance

June 13, 2004: Mikhail Baryshnikov -- Ballet icon takes on an unusual “Christmas” (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

June 5, 2004: Ballett Frankfurt -- One Last Dance -- (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

May 13, 2004: Oakland Museum of Children's Art -- Shocked and Awed (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

May 3, 2004: San Francisco Ballet -- Mark Morris' Sylvia (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

May 1, 2004: Women Running the Show (Diablo Magazine) Link to Diablo Magazine

April 1, 2004: Batsheva Dance Company -- Deca Dance: The Ministry of Silly Dances (Ballet-Dance Magazine) Link to Ballet Dance

April 1, 2004: Sydney Dance Company -- Ellipse: Surreal with the Fringe on Top  (Ballet-Dance Magazine) Link to Ballet-Dance

April 1, 2004: Oakland Ballet -- Oakland Ballet Faces Struggle to Survive (Ballet-Dance Magazine )  Link to Ballet-Dance

March 27, 2004: Nederlands Dans Theatre I -- Nederlands Dans prods, provokes imagination (Contra Costa Times) Link to the Times

March 27, 2004: Nederlands Dans Theatre I -- Ahead of the Curve (Ballet-Dance Magazine ) Link to Ballet-Dance

April 26, 2003, Nederlands Dans Theatre II: Indigo Rose, Sad Case, Minus 16 "Wherever they go, the emphasis in both the advance and review materials has often been on the youth of this company of 17 to 22 year olds. They are duly noted to be a training ground, a feeder company for the "main" troupe (NDT1) But make no mistake, these are already polished performers that could easily be rising stars in any number of companies around the world. "
Clip on criticaldance.com

April 4 and 5, 2003, San Francisco Ballet: Program 5: The Waltz Project, Nanna's Lied, Connotations; Program 6: Jewels" In a way, this pair of programs typify the SFB season for me: filled with anticipation and high hopes, which were rewarded with some truly wonderful dancing, but at the core -- I fear there's no other way to say it -- to me, there was a lack of inspiration programmatically in No. 5 and a lack of inspiration stylistically in No. 6."
Link on criticaldance.com

February 15, 2003, Farruquito & Juana Amaya: Por Derecho "The flamenco term duende refers to the transportation that one experiences in the presence of performers who have released themselves completely to the music and the dance. If anyone attending this show had never experienced duende before, this was it."
Clip on criticaldance.com

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."
Clip on cctimes.com

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."
Clip on contracostatimes.com

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."
Clip on contracostatimes.com

October 23, 2002, Cullberg Ballet: Swan Lake "Reams and reams have already been written about the bald-headed swans of indeterminate gender, about the Manichean undertones and Freudian leanings of the revamped story, but less has been made of Ek's warm affection for the old classics of ballet."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

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."
Clip on cctimes.com • Full text on this site

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."
Clip on cctimes.com • Full text on this site

October 4, 2002, Mark Morris Dance Group: Resurrection, A Lake, Something Lies beyond the Scene, Foursome, Lucky Charms "The program included the world premiere of 'Something Lies Beyond the Scene,' set to witty poems by Edith Sitwell; 'Resurrection,' with witty costumes by Isaac Mizrahi; 'Lucky Charms,' to witty music by Jacques Ibert; and 'Foursome,' a witty conception of…well, you get the point."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

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."
Clip on contracostatimes.com

August 25, 2002, Diablo Ballet under financial pressure"What is it worth to keep a critically acclaimed professional ballet company in a community? What is it worth to keep the regional arts alive here?
Diablo Ballet's current financial crisis brings these questions to the Contra Costa community at a time when most Americans are thinking about things besides the stability of our arts and nonprofit groups."
Clip on contracostatimes.com • Full text on this site

June 23, 2002, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival: A profile of tango dancers Marcelo & Valesa Solís "The couple on the floor is completely immersed, focused on each other and moving precisely, but with great pleasure in a meandering pattern through space. They're so close that in movies, it would be a clinch. This, however, is the embrace of tango, a dance of intimacy and refinement."
Clip on contracostatimes.com • Full text on this site

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."
Clip on cctimes.com • Full text on this site

June 1, 2002, Joe Goode Performance Group: What the Body Knows, Mythic Montana "Saturday's performance of 'Mythic, Montana' at the Yerba Buena Center shows us that, as the Joe Goode Performance Group (JGPG) marks its sixteenth anniversary, their new works have only deepened the company's ability to tell cogent and thoughtful stories by any means possible."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

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."
Clip on cctimes.com • Full text on this site

April 5, 2002, Compagnie Maguy Marin: Points de fuite "A bare stage, screaming guitars, flocking dancers, 'Don't talk to me about what you are saying. I'm not asking you what you are saying,' -- all without intermission. French post-modernist Maguy Marin frustrates."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

March 1, 2002 - San Francisco Ballet: Othello "It will be immortalized on television, with the controversially non-controversial choice of Desmond Richardson as the lead, and it carries the imprimatur of two major American dance companies, but is it any good?"
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

February 7, 9, 2002 San Francisco Ballet: Without Words, Angelo, Prism "Nacho Duato’s exquisite "Without Words" only becomes more beautiful with each viewing. The starkness of the figures moving through a dark space, with a shadowy echo of the dancers projected on a hanging curtain are only small, yet important details in a work that has been conceptualized with deep sensitivity from start to finish."
Link on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

February 5, 2002, Cal Performances: James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet "An Alphabet" is a sprawl of ideas juxtaposed into what could be a fascinating collage of thought. However, the very static and at times confusing direction of this "performed installation" served to smother rather than illuminate the proceedings and ended up producing a bewildering barrage of stimuli for the ears and hardly anything for the eye. A few audience members lasted only a bit longer than four minutes and thirty-three seconds into the piece before making their way quietly up the aisle."
Link on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

January 29, 2002 - Joe Goode Performance Group: Shut up and Dance "Saturday's performance of the Joe Goode Performance Group's program, 'Shut Up and Dance', offered an evening of eclectic works, old and new, some still rough at the edges, and others carefully finished, but all of them thought-provoking and engaging."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

November 24, 2001, ODC/SF: The Velveteen Rabbit "Okay, so I admit it. Despite a jaded San Francisco air, I can still be found sniffing away and holding back tears next to the six-year olds at a matinee of ODC/SF’s "The Velveteen Rabbit". No one is too old for KT Nelson’s clever adaptation, which was designed as family fare and is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a two-week run at the Yerba Buena Center this year. It was sweet entertainment all the way."
Link on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

November 6, 2001, Adventures in Motion Pictures: Car Man "It's a scandal; it's several scandals, in no particular order: sex, orgiastic mayhem, murder and gore. But secretly, isn't this tawdry story just the kind of thing you love to watch?"
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

October 23, 2001, LINES Contemporary Ballet: The People of the Forest "Despite some beautiful and evocative moments, a perplexing interpretation of its sociopolitical agenda kept Alonzo King's newest work, 'The People of the Forest' from making a serious impact. "
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

October 16, 2001, Company Joachim Schlömer: La Guerra d'Amore "But while there are many beautiful moments and a conceptually arresting melding of music with dance, ultimately 'La Guerra d'Amore' possesses more of tanztheater's long-windedness than emotional bite."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

October 12, 2001, Ballet Nacional de Cuba: Coppélia "Few companies in the world can render the great classic ballets as well as the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and last Friday's performance of Alicia Alonso's version of the storybook ballet, Coppélia demonstrated the sunny charm and style that is the hallmark of this company."
Clip on criticaldance.com • Full text on this site

July 20, 2001, La Scala Ballet: Giselle "Much attention has been given to the alterations that Guillem has made to the Romantic ballet, which she originally set for the National Ballet of Finland in 1999, and for many who are used to a particular aesthetic, La Scala's Giselle will indeed look vastly different. Nevertheless, in the end, it is not a deconstruction of the 19th century classic, but simply a new staging."
Full text on this site

April 30, May 1, 3, 2001, Paris Opera Ballet: La Bayadere "On Monday night, as I sat in the War Memorial Opera House I fantasized about what it would be like to have the Paris Opera Ballet as my "home" company. What if I were able to see them every week, to watch them in contemporary and in classical rep? To be able to track as this coryphée got their first shot at a particular role, or that sujet tried out a variation? It seems unfair to see them only as a taste. It seems unfair to see any company that way. What if the dancer was executing sloppy pirouettes that night? Is he a bad turner or is he having an "off" night? One wishes for the luxury of seeing them week after week, but just one week will have to suffice."
Full text on this site