A scene from Monger, by Barak Marshall.(Photo by Gadi Dagon)By Tara Mitton CataoWhat resonates in your mind’s eye after watching Monger, the evening-length work by choreographer Barak Marshall, is the astonishingly original movement.With the fusion of highly arresting visual images, an extremely diverse music score and such powerfully athletic and gestural … [Read more...]
Dance review: Trey McIntyre Project spectacular at Duncan
The Trey McIntyre Project in Ma Maison.By Tara Mitton CataoThe Trey McIntyre Project reinvented itself Friday night with an evening of fabulous dancing to the music of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Roy Orbison.What made the high-speed and energetic dancing in Friday’s performance at the Duncan Theatre in Lake Worth so engaging is something subtle and quiet. … [Read more...]
Music roundup: A fine young violist, two admirable quartets
Peijun Xu.(Photo by Greg Stepanich)Peijun Xu (Feb. 10, Steinway Gallery, Boca Raton)If the concertgoing world doesn’t fully appreciate the variety that a viola can bring to a recital, that won’t be the fault of Peijun Xu.The Shanghai-born musician performed two local recitals this week for the Kronberg Academy, an organization based in that German town near … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 7-9
A section from Idiotheim (2010), by Chris Vicini.Art: Elwa Productions, a New York-based contemporary art company with roots in West Palm Beach, returns to the city tonight to open A Connection That Binds, a show featuring work by Swedish sculptor Chris Vicini and American painter Devin Powers, at Elayne and Marvin Mordes’ Whitespace gallery on Australian … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in dance
A scene from Barak Marshall’s Monger.By Sharon McDanielThere’s dance in a variety of styles, stars and stripes this season.The mix runs from modern dance to Irish, contemporary ballet to tango, flamenco to Philippine. A dance fan can catch a Russian ballet classic—featuring a cast of Russians to the ballet born—then make tracks for really rad, cutting-edge … [Read more...]
Music review: Pianist Ahn impressive in solo, duo recital
Pianist Hyojin Ahn.By Greg StepanichAlthough it was billed as a solo recital, pianist Hyojin Ahn’s concert Wednesday afternoon at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West also featured a violinist in a major modernist work from the 1920s, and that piece as much as anything else Ahn did helped make this musical event a memorable one.Ahn, 32, a South Korea-born musician … [Read more...]
Music review: Early Brahms sparkles under young pianist’s fingers
Pianist Ran Jia. By Greg Stepanich The piano sonatas of Johannes Brahms are all early, thickly scored, finger-busting works, and while they receive respect from the performers who study them, rare is the pianist who brings them along on recital. The young Chinese pianist Ran Jia was an exception to that rule last Wednesday at Stage West in the Duncan Theatre, ending her … [Read more...]
Music review: Spalding shows she’s a rising force in jazz
Esperanza Spalding. (Photo by Johann Sauty)By Greg StepanichNo one who attended Saturday night's show at the Duncan Theatre by the rising young jazz bassist and composer Esperanza Spalding could have any doubt about her talent.The Portland, Ore., native is a striking presence on the stage, slim and tallish, with a mountain of very cool hair that she had to tie up and get out of … [Read more...]
Dance feature: Ballet Florida standout Opdenaker launches new company tonight
Dancer Jerry Opdenaker.By Sharon McDanielIt was so hard to see him go.Dancer Jerry Opdenaker retired from Ballet Florida in 2006 after 14 years with West Palm Beach’s resident contemporary dance and ballet company. He showed so much personality, imagination, even mischief in his dancing -- especially, he confided, when he was unrecognizable; say, costumed as a Cinderella … [Read more...]
Music review: Violinist Numata shows power, wide range
Violinist Yuki Numata.By Greg StepanichIf eclecticism is the name of the game for today's younger virtuosi, then to be successful these days requires that you play all those different kinds of pieces equally well.It won't do, in other words, to have a middling Mozart but an incandescent Shostakovich. Too much is expected, but that doesn't mean you can't shine a little brighter … [Read more...]