The Los Angeles premiere of the feature length documentary Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance will take place at Zipper Concert Hall in The Colburn School this Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 8:00pm. This is the first film to chronicle how the legendary Joffrey Ballet revolutionized American ballet by daringly combining modern dance with traditional ballet and is directed by Bob Hercules. more ›

Labeled by Dance Magazine in 2009 as one of the 25 to Watch, Pittsburgh native and now New York rising star, choreographer Kyle Abraham brings his company, Abraham.In.Motion to REDCAT this week for five performances. more ›

Starting their 2011-12 Dance Series at Royce Hall with a bang, UCLA Live presents a return engagement of the Hofesh Shechter Company and the U.S. premiere of Political Mother, the highly acclaimed choreographer’s first full length work. Described in promotional materials as “part dance show, part heavy rock gig, part political statement . . . and an audio-visual marvel,” the evening length event for ten dancers and as many musicians (drums and electric guitars) promises to reveal a “raw physicality [and] gritty emotional complexity.” more ›

As part of the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series at Cal Arts' downtown theater, Congolese choreographer and director Faustin Linyekula returns to REDCAT this week to present his newest work, more more more... future. Performed by an all-male trio of dancers (including Linyekula), more more more... future addresses the decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the Congolese economy by celebrating hope for the unknown days ahead. more ›

The third and final weekend of the New Original Works Festival (NOW) at REDCAT unfolds tonight with uniquely different live theater and dance contributions created by three (really four) artists from our own backyard. more ›

The 8th annual New Original Works Festival at REDCAT continues this week, featuring work by L.A.-based interdisciplinary creators Robert Cucuzza and Rosanna Gamson. Both theater artists will pull from literary sources to produce dramatic combinations of movement, music, text and all sorts of bells and whistles to entice the audience and embolden the perception of live performance. more ›

An ex-New Yorker and now almost an institution in today's local concert dance scene, the creative mover and shaker Meg Wolfe whirls into the Roy and Edna Disney Cal Arts Theater on Thursday for a weekend of performances of her newest work, trembler.SHIFTER. more ›

This weekend, UCLA Live is presenting one of the classic postmodern dances choreographed by Judson Church movement pioneer Lucinda Childs at Royce Hall. Created in collaboration with visual artist Sol Lewitt and (at the time emerging) music composer, Phillip Glass, the full length work for eight dancers premiered in 1979 and was considered to be a “breakthrough” in dance by respected critic Alan Kriegsman of the Washington Post. more ›

Oft labeled a rising star in contemporary dance, Los Angeles-bred and European/Israeli infused choreographer Barak Marshall and UCLA Live bring a company of ten dancers to Royce Hall for two shows this weekend. Presenting the evening length physical theater work Monger, its sound score includes excerpts of Gypsy, Balkan, classical and rock music and a narrative drawn from sources such as artist/writer Bruno Shultz’ life and work, Jean Genet’sThe Maids and Robert Altman’s film Gosford Park. more ›

Pioneering Japanese movement theater masters Eiko and Koma are celebrating their 40th anniversary of making art with a national retrospective tour that will touch down here at REDCAT tonight through Sunday. Presenting work that spans their career and which they, themselves, will perform, the legendary duo will revisit ideas, images and terrain that have marked them as groundbreaking creator/performers from their inception in the 70s. more ›

Bringing international artists onto the Westwood campus, UCLA Live is presenting Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite this weekend at Royce Hall. With her company Kidd Pivot Frankfort RM, the artist continues her investigation into the metaphoric implications of movement and performance. Promotional materials say that in Lost Action, the evening length work they’ll perform here, the dancers “sculpt space in real-time, working inside a form that is constantly in a state of vanishing.” more ›

Starting tonight and running all weekend, our very own home for new and exciting performance, REDCAT will host a four evening “contest” for audience-decided best (modern) dance in the area. Part of a national six-city event created in New York in 2005, The A.W.A.R.D. Show! presents the work of 12 local dancemakers chosen by a national panel of cognoscenti. more ›

Bringing homemade spacecraft, live dancers and film together with an exploration of a Mississippi Delta sharecropper’s life, Ralph Lemon/Cross Performance takes up residence at REDCAT this week. As part of a nation-wide tour, the company will present How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? for five evening performances in our local citadel of theatrical surprise. more ›

After having made and presented dances in local sites including a laundromat, a dry river bed, a jail, a condemned but history-infused hotel and a handful of international locations, Collage Dance Theatre will bring its army of artists into our very own iconic city hall for three performances of Governing Bodies starting this Saturday. more ›

The Barclay Theater in the OC is doing some big things right these days. Last weekend, they hosted the local premiere of a beautifully elegant evening of Sankai Juku, the award-winning Japanese company that is a highpoint of the dance form known as butoh. This week—only on Thursday—they present French contemporary dance with Ballet Preljocaj, a world renowned group under the direction of its celebrated choreographer, Angelin Preljocaj. more ›

Who knew local choreographer/dancer Lionel Popkin has such an interesting background? I did know about his New York tenure with the iconic Trisha Brown Dance Company and his shorter stints with smaller downtown groups, but none of that revealed his unique heritage and its influence on his recent dance making. A few years ago, he presented a duet as part of the summer NOW Festival at REDCAT that, among other movement ideas, included dancing with his partner’s finger in his mouth. A strange relationship with little explanation offered, it now starts to make sense to me. more ›

One of the big things that choreographer Bradley Michaud mentions in his company's promotional materials is his aesthetic austerity. He’s interested in the movement, the energy and the physical abandon. He’s not looking for music, text or other visuals to tell his not-a-story. At the Bootleg Theater, he and his performing collaborators in Method Contemporary Dance followed that prescription in their weekend production, See If You Still Love Us. more ›

Choreographer Bradley Michaud does not want to say more than what we see or feel when we look at his dances. His promotional materials highlight the lack of embellishment to the dancing--no text, no video, no acting--and emphasize the "pure, high velocity, idiosyncratic, unbridled movement and momentum." more ›

Acclaimed New York choreographer John Jasperse brings his five member company to REDCAT this week for a handful of performances of his newest evening length dance theater work. Presenting the west coast premiere of Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat-Out Lies, the work includes a score composed by Hahn Rowe and played live by the string quartet (with electronics) called ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble). more ›

Independent LA dancemakers and small companies struggle with all the non-artistic elements (production, fundraising, audience development, etc.) while they persevere in paying the rent, feeding the family and staying sane in a dynamic world. A quartet of such artists--women and men who have created intelligent, thought-provoking, visceral and compelling modern dance in their noteworthy careers--have banded together for two performances they call Four Headed Dance III more ›

The illustrious downtown theater in the basement of Frank Gehry's iconic Disney Hall, REDCAT is bringing a dance classic onto its stage this week. But NOT ballet, to be sure! This week, the now near ninety year old pioneer Anna Halprin is presenting her 1965 masterpiece parades & changes, replays with an international cast of highly regarded performers and including the work's composer, the legendary electronic music trailblazer, Morton Subotnick. more ›

For the fourth year running, "impresaria" Jamie Nichols is presenting what she calls "9 of the most cutting edge dance companies in Los Angeles" for one performance only, this Saturday, March 14th in Celebrate Dance at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale. more ›

World renowned Batsheva Dance Company returns to UCLAlive’s Royce Hall to present the L.A. premiere of MAX on Saturday and Sunday night, Feb. 28-March 1. This new work by award winning choreographer Ohad Naharin is an evening length piece for 10 dancers that continues Naharin’s research into the roots, origins and essence of movement. The highly refined choreography investigates notions of structure, time and space, with each dancer compressing utmost attention inward. Set to original music composed and performed by Maxim Waratt, an onstage awkwardness turns into beauty when performed by this athletic and innovative dance company. more ›

Maria Gillespie brought Oni Dance, her company of strong, charismatic and engaging dancers, to a rarely used performance space in Santa Monica last weekend. Premiering wasteland ( arrival, she presented the evening length work in the round in the hundred year old home of the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club. more ›

Returning to the Irvine Barclay Theater for another of its quasi-regular appearances there, the Joe Goode Performance Group will present the southern California premiere of Wonderboy this Friday for one show only! more ›

Maria Gillespie has been dancing in LA for the past dozen years, exciting audiences with her strength, power and fluidity in the work of other choreographers. Forming Oni Dance in 2005 to showcase her own dance-making, the company has performed in venues as prestigious as the Getty Center, REDCAT, the Ford Amphitheater and Highways Performance Space, as well as several other venerable locales. The company has spent the last two years bringing work to New York City and returns this weekend with their latest evening-length dance, wasteland ( arrival. more ›

Re-arranging the cavernous Diavolo Dance Space to seat the audience on all four sides of the "stage," the California Touring Project opened our eyes to some inventive and entertaining new dances. Choreographed and performed by artists from both the north and the south of our golden Mecca, the evening was filled with samples of good dancing, creative minds and solid performances. more ›

Now in its second year, the California Touring Project will finally arrive in Los Angeles! A shared program of cutting edge dance work by some of our state's finest experimental choreographers and directors, the event happens this weekend at the Diavolo Dance Space in the Brewery Arts Complex downtown. more ›

Bradley Michaud’s Method Contemporary Dance Company opened up its fourth season with a three-night stand at the Diavolo Dance Space in the Brewery Arts Complex this past weekend. Having seen last year’s evening length premiere, I was happy to see the choreographer’s growth as a dance maker and the evolution of his company. more ›

Bradley Michaud's Method Contemporary Dance Company is opening up its season with "Remarkaly Content Free" at the Diavolo Space this weekend. Presenting three premieres and one work from the repertory (all choreographed by Michaud), the company of eight relishes the off-center, high speed world of sheer abandon without a need to embellish with artifice or explanation. more ›