Tag archives: dance
Imagine West Side Story without the West Side. Or the story. Any story. That’s the premise taken on by choreographer Doug Varone, a longtime favorite of SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara/Santa Barbara DANCEworks, long-running annual residency series at the Lobero that comes to a close this week after two decades with this weekend’s debut performances of Somewhere. […]
brooke smiley (lowercase is intentional) was born and raised in Los Olivos but has spent the better part of the last decade overseas as a professional dancer and researcher. smiley has danced with the “rebellious” Michael Clark Company in London as well as with Fabulous Beast in Ireland, where she helped reimagine “Rites of Spring” […]
The Granada was full of Eastern promise when UCSB’s 6th annual Dhadkan Nachle Deewane dance competition, run by founders Soham Tikekar and Nishu Viswanathan, filled the stage with 20 dancers and 24 a cappella artists. The colorful and energized sold-out show included Hindi-film Fusion and Bhangra dance teams representing a host of colleges, including USC, […]
Pianist Jeremy Denk isn’t the only MacArthur Fellow returning to town under the auspices of Arts & Lectures this week. Michelle Dorrance, the founder of the New York City-based dance company that bears her name, won the prestigious prize back in 2015. ETM: Double Down is the title for her latest evening-length work that merges […]
The venerable Granada was the place to be when UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted the world premiere of the multi-talented 15-strong Silkroad Ensemble’s Heroes Take Their Stands with a 90-minute, five-piece concert, making ample use of the theater’s state of the art movie screen. Of particular note was Bharatanatyam dancer Aparna Ramaswamy, who added an […]
Multi-talented Scottish actor and performer Alan Cumming brought his highly entertaining show Legal Immigrant to the sold-out Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. The almost two-hour intermission-free performance, with a four-member backup band, was a meditation on his ten years as an American citizen and the experiences and change has witnessed […]
If you’re looking for the Wow! factor, look no further than Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner‘s totally made-over Montecito Country Club, which threw an opening bash for 400 guests to mark the completion of a three-and-a-half-year $75 million renovation. Now renamed the Montecito Club, the 125-year-old establishment which closed in January, 2016, moved to its […]
Derrick Curtis is justifiably proud of his two decades of producing BASSH, the locals-only teachers and dancers social dance showcase that marks its 19th year on the stage this weekend. Nearly left for dead after his producing partner Santa Barbara Dance Alliance dissolved and leaving the Lobero almost a decade ago, Curtis more or less […]
As part of their Advanced Placement English studies, the students in Laguna Blanca English teacher Charles Donelan‘s class integrate the art of dance into their study of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in an annual program titled, Library Dances. The students study with the State Street Ballet, various musicians, and newly added this year, artist-practitioner from Shakespeare’s […]
Something about the original score by Czech composer and conductor Milan Svoboda for a theatrical production of The Jungle Book drew State Street Ballet Artistic Director Rodney Gustafson’s attention when it arrived unsolicited more than a decade ago with a proposal to use it to create an original full-length work based on the beloved Rudyard […]
Local dance lovers are in for a treat this week when the Joffrey Ballet, the veteran company considered among America’s elite, returns to the Granada for the first time in more than half a decade for two different programs spanning seven works. That’s a tall order even for one of the country’s most revered troupe […]
Los Arroyos, the popular Mexican eatery on Coast Village Road, is celebrating 20 years in business. Owner Tony Arroyo opened his first location in downtown Santa Barbara on West Figueroa Street in 1999 and launched his outlet in our rarefied enclave in 2004. The chain now has branches in Camarillo and Goleta, with a nosheteria […]
It was a delightful night of high camp when Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo performed a hilarious program at the packed Granada, part of the of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. Music by Chopin, Verdi, Glazunov accompanied the balletic high jinx. Having seen the 45-year-old company a number of times in New […]
State Street Ballet hosted its annual Evenings event at the Gail Towbes Center for Dance giving the company’s talented dancers the opportunity to create their own dance works and experiment with new movement, themes, music, and styles. This year’s event featured eight short world premieres performed in the rehearsal space followed by a question and […]
The Hendricks Institute – the Ojai-based center founded by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, the prolific authors (more than 35 books, including the best-seller Conscious Loving) and workshop leaders who are former Montecito residents – fires up its annual Winter Training series beginning this Friday, February 1, at the new Sane Center in downtown Ojai. “Evolutionary […]
Dadiana Salon owner and professional ballroom dancer Diane Meehan has opened a dance studio, California Gold Ballroom Dance Studio, on Carpinteria Avenue, just months after Montecito’s Dance Fever Studio closed its doors in Coast Village Walk. Dance Fever owner Vasily Golovin, who has been dancing with Meehan for years, is now the master instructor at […]
Last year, Isabel “Izzy” Fuentes achieved what is just about every teenage ballerina’s dream – getting cast as Clara, the girl who gets to go on a fairy tale journey with the come-to-life title character of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s famed Christmastime ballet, danced every December by Santa Barbara’s State Street Ballet. Then came the Thomas […]
Man and his machines form the basic elements of Cirque Mechanics, the modern company founded 14 years ago by former BMX bike champion Chris Lashua, who began by creating an innovative aerial apparatus. In his and his team’s vision, circus certainly has acrobatics and clowning around, but also is rooted in realism achieved by the […]
It was all tu-tu much when the State Street Ballet threw its 24th anniversary gala for a record 184 guests in the Biltmore’s Loggia Ballroom, raising around $140,000 for the popular local dance company. The fab fete, which honored avid supporter Arlyn Goldsby, longtime board member and patron, was emceed by Jonatha King, with dance […]
New York choreographer Doug Elkins, after a month-long residency at the Lobero as part of DANCEworks 10th anniversary, put on a fan-tastic 40 minute performance Kintsugi as the culmination of his creative stay in our Eden by the Beach. The 10-year-old company’s six talented dancers – Carolyn Cryer, Alexander Does, Cori Marquis, Donnell Oakley, Eric […]
