Dance

Ragamala Paints “Canvas Of Emotion”

by | Jun 23, 2015 10:36 am | Comments (0)

Judy Sirota Rosenthal Photo

Lit in low yellows and oranges on the spacious stage of the University Theater, Aparna Ramaswamy was extending her arms to the audience, inviting the deities — deities of her own interpretation, she would later clarify — to join her on stage. Just to her right, Ranee Ramaswamy raised her arms methodically and, as if reaching through another dimension, opened the curtains to an emotion the audience members didn’t know was sitting in them. Beside them, Rudresh Mahanthappa wailed away on his alto saxophone, a low, wolf-like cry escaping from its throat.

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Mark Morris’ “Acis and Galatea” Is Made For Loving

by | Jun 19, 2015 12:18 pm | Comments (0)

The International Festival of Arts and iIdeas is intentionally scheduled to provide a smooth transition from the end of the school year into the summer entertainment season. Usually, that just means providing stuff to do during an otherwise lackluster period at the end of June.

But this year, Arts & Ideas is actually providing a seasonal transition as well. Two dance pieces this week — Mark Morris’s Acis and Galatea and a piece by the Ragmala Dance Company (stay tuned for Lucy Gellman’s review) both boasted a spring in their step, ushering in a bright breezy summer.

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Ode To Daggett Street

by | Mar 27, 2015 12:00 pm | Comments (5)

Fake Babies Photo

Unit G-2, aka “The Submarine,” before last week’s raid.

When I first came to Daggett Street Square in 2007, I was taken by its rambling hallways, its pulley-operated elevator. The building may not have been insulated, but it was insular. By that time, few live-work spaces remained in New Haven. There had been others — on River Street; in the Munniemaker cigar factory on State Street; at Chapel and Church, above what is now Gotham Citi — all now shut down.

Now we can add Daggett Street Square to the list: Last week officials ordered it cleared out.

David Lasala Photo

David Lasala.

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With “Almost Porcelain,” Elm City Dance Goes Strong

by | Jan 30, 2015 12:00 pm | Comments (0)

Lucy Gellman Photo

Ten minutes into a run-through of Almost Porcelain, her feet moving frenetically across the floor, Kellie Ann Lynch looked over to the right side of the large, spare room, locking eyes with a few audience members for a single moment.

Can you pause it?” she asked fellow dancer Alicia White, whose body had stilled for a moment by a large speaker, out of which strains of staccato, minimalist music and operatic interludes had come flying minutes earlier.

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Just Dance

by | Sep 12, 2014 12:09 pm | Comments (0)

Lucy Gellman Photo

All was quiet on Yale’s Cross Campus. A student worked on her laptop, taking advantage of the last whispers of summer still in the air as she typed out one of her first papers. A group of runners passed, urging each other on once or twice as they scaled the stairs by Sterling Library. Someone’s phone went off on one of the benches that surround the area, sending a quick pulse of light into the air.

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Arnott’s Arts & Ideas Diary: Installment Eight

by | Jun 26, 2014 6:00 pm | Comments (0)

The Events—one of the key, ahem, events of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas 2014 — might strike you, if you just read a description of it — as horrifically despressing. It’s not, even though it is indeed about the psychological motives of mass murderers.
Since it involves two actors, a pianist and a choir, you might peg The Events, sight unseen, as abstract. It’s not. It has characters, dialogue that goes somewhere, and a neat ending.

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Freddie Fixer Steps Out & Up

by | May 19, 2014 12:43 pm | Comments (0)

Allan Appel Photo

Floyd LeSane (foreground) showed that it wasn’t only energetic youngsters in drill teams who could go high-steppin’.

In white gloves and tassled fezzes, LeSane and his colleagues from New Haven Shriners’ Arabic Temple No. 40 were one of the crowd stoppers Sunday afternoon among more than 30 teams, bands, small businesses, and organizations participating in the 52nd annual Freddie Fixer Parade.

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West Meets East As Sabbath Sun Sets

by | Apr 4, 2014 1:11 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas MacMillan Photo

Rabbi Tasman, who’s leading a 3-week yoga-havdalah series.

Back in the ancient old days Jewish high priests prostrated themselves, only once or so a year. At a newly organized religious service in town, combining yoga and Jewish practice, everyone, Jew and gentile alike, not only hugged the ground frequently in the pigeon and other demanding poses. They also did the downward facing dog and then arced upward toward heaven in the peaceful warrior.

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