Brendan Drake

Collaborations in Dance often operate on the following formula: Choreographer and designated visual, film and/or sound artist decide to collaborate. They meet, they discuss, they agree on a concept, they work independently for several months. The resulting piece is a dance with supported sound and visuals , and we don't see collaboration. It becomes just about the dance, not about crossing disciplines or being inspired by one another. This disconnect is symptomatic of an increasingly insular and bland dance community.

Friday at New York Live Arts reintroduced audiences to the virtuosity and individuality that sets Zvi Gotheiner's company apart from many of his contemporaries.

Wolf Heads, Ostrich Feathers and Ukelele strumming dancers invaded the cavernous Ellen Stewert Theater for Dublin based Junk Ensembles US premier of 'Dusk Ahead'

Last weekend New York Live Arts hosted the premier of Neil Greenberg's This, a full length work taking inspiration from Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation.

Friday night at New York Live Arts saw the premier of Bill T Jones' Story Time #36 Kathleen Chalfant - Amble or Career. The work paired the always enigmatic Jones with Tony nominated actress Kathleen Chalfant in 70 minutes of shared histories and dance.

Last weekend, The Brooklyn Academy of Music saw the return of the Lyon Opera Ballet and the American premier of Christian Rizzo's Ni Fleurs, Ni Ford-Mustang. While commissioning works by contemporary choreographers is now a staple with ballet companies (particularly in Europe), Lyon Opera Ballet has developed a bit of a vanguard reputation in championing "modern ballet." Since its inception in 1969, the Company has commissioned works by American choreographers Bill T Jones, Susan Marshall, William Forsythe, and Trisha Brown as well as avant-garde European artists Alain Buffard, Maguy Marin and Jerome Bell, just to name a few.

Beth Gill pays homage to and the landscape of the American Southwest and Trisha Brown's "Newark" (1987) for her newest creation "New Work for the Desert" which made its premiere this weekend at New York Live Arts.

The plight of the urban dweller appeared to be the theme of choice at the ITE Dance Festival's Friday night performance at Shetler Studios' Theatre 54.