Tag archives: dancing
Dance Theatre of Harlem, celebrating its half century, put on a most impressive display when the company performed at a sold-out show at the Granada. The two hour show, part of UCSB Arts & Lectures program, consisted of four works, starting with a classical amber alert, Orange, featuring six dancers and music by Vivaldi, beautifully […]
World Dance for Humanity was dead on time when the Ensemble Theatre Company hosted its 4th annual Ghost Light Night, starting at the venerable Santa Barbara Club and concluding at the New Vic two blocks away. The dancers, wonderfully made-up as zombies, kicked off their artfully crafted show with “Monster Mash,” the 1962 novelty song […]
Two of the Granada Theatre’s resident companies, the State Street Ballet, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the 72-year-old Santa Barbara Choral Society, combined their abundant talents in American Masters. The enticing program featured masterworks from Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Morten Lauridsen, and choreography ranging from neoclassical to the avant garde combined in an endeavor […]
The venerable Granada Theatre was the place to be when UCSB Arts & Lectures launched its latest season. Author and historian Tara Westover, 33, whose memoir Educated debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list, and was a finalist for myriad awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, spoke to a […]
At the Granada it was time for the tony triumvirate of violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis, and pianist Jeremy Denk to shine, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. The talented threesome were in glorious harmony playing works by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. A blockbuster show… Like Father, Like Daughter CAMA […]
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 […]
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 […]
Laura Botzong [Laura Leyl], a professional bellydancerin the Los Angeles area, and protégé of the legendary international dancer Alexandra King, returned to her alma mater, UCSB, on December 1, to perform with the Middle East Ensemble [MEE] Orchestra, un der the direction of Dr. Scott Marcus. No stranger to the stage, she performed in Ms […]
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 […]
“There is a thin semantic line separating weird and beautiful. And that line is covered in jellyfish.” So said choreographer Doug Elkins at the Lobero Theater a couple of weeks ago, perhaps answering a question posed by one of the members of the Friday Club. Or more than likely not. Elkins is the high-energy, self-described […]
DANCEworks, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary at the Lobero, wraps its month-long residency with New York choreographer Doug Elkins and a heavenly host of past alumni this weekend (September 7-8). Final rehearsals, open to the public, took place last week, part of the innovative collaboration between Dianne Vapnek‘s SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara and the Lobero […]
Santa Barbara native Carisa Carroll began her dance training with Montecito School of Ballet at the age of 7. She started her professional career with American Dance & Music’s Carrie Diamond, and trained with State Street Ballet, performing in every work in the company’s repertoire during the 2012-13 season, including tours, and appearing in the […]
Peace Sticks seems like a super-simple concept – participants toss a pair of sticks back and forth with a partner. And that’s exactly how it started with Shane and Evan Rilling, the Ojai-based brothers who created the practice. “It came to us on a hike more than a decade ago, when we picked up some […]
It would be sheer folly to expect a linear conversation when interviewing Nellie McKay. The British-American singer-songwriter and actress may be sharp as a tack in creating diverse albums that range from her brilliant 2004 debut Get Away from Me – a double-album from a 21-year-old that was full of clever and original pop songs […]
At first, Santa Barbara Centre for Aerial Dance founder-director Ninette Paloma was none too pleased when she discovered that several of her planned guest artists for this weekend’s Floor To Air Festival had been saddled with visa issues and weren’t going to be able to arrive in time to participate in the high-flying show’s fifth […]
UCSB Arts & Lectures debuted New York-based Mark Morris Dance Group’s colorful and energized Left Coast premiere of Sgt. Pepper at 50: Pepperland, which it had co-commissioned, at the Granada. The highly entertaining show is a collaboration with composer-arranger Ethan Iverson, who has taken six songs from the Beatles’ seminal 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts […]
State Street Ballet hosted its third annual showcase of contemporary choreography, Modern Masters, in the intimate setting of the New Vic. The highly entertaining show featured a diverse mix of dance movement featuring works by seven choreographers, including pieces by New York’s William Soleau, the new co-artistic director, Montreal’s Edgar Zendejas, Autumn Eckman from Tucson, […]
State Street Ballet (SSB) was just a little bit ahead of the curve when it premiered an evening of modern dance called Women’s Work just two years ago, shortly before the marches began following the presidential election and the revelations of rampant sexual harassment leading to the #MeToo movement. But by last year, it had […]
Just imagine “A world of ballroom dance creating a beautiful place in your mind, body and soul. ” Even after the fire, mudslide, earthquake, and multiple evacuations, five women (three from Montecito), and their dance instructor, Vasily Golovin, owner of Dance Fever Studio Montecito, found the time to attend the San Francisco Open Dancesport Competition. […]
