What the Press say about Summer Stages' Meet the Artist Performance Series...
2011 Season:
Illstyle & Peace
Productions kicks off Summer Stages 15th anniversary
Robin Young
Here & Now, WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station
“Explosive moves to driving beats at Summer Stages… Singular
talents seemed to shoot like sparks out
of the 20-member llstyle & Peace
Productions troupe… The killer finale, “KINGZ,’’ …an
exploration of power wrought from spirit. …it alone was worth
the price of admission.…You leave hearing not so much the beat
in your ears as the one in your heart.”
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
August 1, 2011
“Choreographer David Parker deconstructs the familiar to make
sly, affectionate dances that reveal the essence of things. His tools
for doing so? A passion for rhythm, a keen kinetic wit, and the ability
to detect both irony and joy in everyday circumstances.”
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
August 1, 2011
“What happens if we understand, or even adopt, each other’s
narratives?’’ New York–based choreographer Alexandra
Beller has asked. Her other stories - which had its world
premiere…as part of Co Lab: Process + Performance series - is
her sophisticated attempt at an answer.”
Jeffrey Gantz
The Boston Globe
July 25, 2011
“Choreographer Heidi Latsky struts like a fashion model…spreading
her arms wide with an intentionally forced smile, then spinning down
to the floor, where she takes one sculptural pose after another before
slithering, snake-like, off to the side. Even with no music, costumes,
or special lighting, one can feel the yearning at the core of her soulful
piece, “Gimp.’’”
Valerie Gladstone
The Boston Globe
July 10, 2011
[Summer Reunion / Lawrence Goldhuber: Trellis]
“In Goldhuber's enigmatic Trellis, Goldhuber and Roy Fialkow
inhabit the uneasy space of their relationship.”
[Summer Reunion / Heidi Latsky: Grace, and excerpt from Gimp]
“…created for Lisa Bufano, a dancer who uses prostheses — the
able-bodied Latsky gave a performance of exquisite alertness.”
[Summer Reunion / Alexandra Beller: egg]
“There's an old-fashioned postmodern dance-task element to all this— suffused
with whimsy and poignancy.”
[Summer Reunion / Sean Curran: Aria/Apology]
“Danced by the decorous Elizabeth Coker Giron and David Gonsier, Curran's
rich choreography raises questions about impropriety and eventually rinses away
dysfunction.”
[Summer Reunion / Andrea E. Woods Kujichagulia to the Max/Self
Determination to the Max]
“Each part of the body, [Bill T.] Jones and Woods remind us, plays its
own visual music.”
[Summer Reunion / Arthur Aviles: Elysian Fields]
“Aviles remains a compact and articulate dancer, and in his choreography
for his company he celebrate[s] love in all of its approved and transgressive
incarnations.”
Debra Cash
The Boston Phoenix
July 21, 2011
2010 Season:
“In his notes, Trajal Harrell poses,’What would have
happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene in Harlem had
come downtown to perform at Judson Church with the early postmodern
choreographers?’ The New York-based dancer-choreographer answers
with the strange but intriguing “Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning
at the Judson Church (S).”
Karen Campbell,
The Boston Globe
November 8, 2010
"Two terrifically exciting collaborations are coming to Summer Stages in July, courtesy of Co Lab: Process + Performance, a partnership between the Summer Stages festival and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. First, the choreographer and Merce Cunningham dancer Raushaun Mitchell teams up a second time with the poet Anne Carson. Then the visual artist Jenny Holzer, who last worked with achoreographer Bill T. Jones in 1985, will collaborate with Miguel Gutierrez, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow and one of today’s
most exciting dance artists."
Claudia La Rocco
The New York Times
May 4, 2010
"Something new and electric--and something with roots in something wise, and strengthened by time--is what Summer Stages strives for with each step"
Margaret Smith
The Concord Journal/GateHouse News Service
July 14, 2010
[on Summer Stages new community dance classes]
"Workshops get Concord dancing"
Patrick Ball
The Concord Journal/GateHouse News
July 14, 2010
[on Sintesi by The Troupe] "... vividly compelling."
Karen Campbell
The Boston Globe
July 20, 2010
"Her Words, His Movement, Their Collaboration"
A Preview of Co Lab: Process + Performance - Jenny Holzer, visual artist and Miguel Gutierrez, choreographer
Claudia La Rocco
The New York Times
July 20, 2010
"'Bracko' and 'Nox'...are events where different kinds of poetry become layered upon one another with extraordinary eloquence.
"'Bracko' is fascinating, varied and full of promise, but the new 'Nox' is a work of rare theatrical power..."
"You're always aware that [Mitchell and Riener] are two of the greatest dancers before the public today."
Alastair Macaulay
The New York Times
July 21, 2010
"Misters & Sisters celebrates 20 years of friendship"
Julie Becker
Bay Windows
July 21, 2010
"...just as [Anne Carson] translates the classics into English, Mitchell, a leading dancer with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, translates her now searing, now plain, now made-up words in movement that bridges past with present.
"Choreography here is translation through inhabitation: Mitchell, and Silas Riener, also a Cunningham dancer, crawl into the words, the spaces between the words, the rhythm of the lines."
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
July 23, 2010
"...[Misters and Sisters] is clever, sweet, and very funny, camp yet utterly sincere."
Karen Campbell
The Boston Globe
July 26, 2010
[on Anne Carson and Rashaun Mitchell's Co Lab performance]
"...an intriguing match. ...The whole evening was throughtful and disorienting. With its silences and optical suprises, its interrupted moves and dissociated effects, it defeated "meaning" and yet made a meaningful impression. Cunningham would have approved."
Marcia Siegel
The Phoenix
July 28, 2010
"The lights in the magnificent ICA theater, a glass box on the waterfont, go out. The rhythm of 20 thudding feet reverberates, Fragments of text arise from the water and roll up the dancers' bodies and the walls of the space, dissipating as they cross the ceiling. …I am transfixed."
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
July 31, 2010
“In his notes, Trajal Harrell poses,’What would have
happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene in Harlem had
come downtown to perform at Judson Church with the early postmodern
choreographers?’ The New York-based dancer-choreographer answers
with the strange but intriguing 'Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at
the Judson Church (S).'"
Karen
Campbell,
TheBoston Globe
November 8, 2010
2009 Season:
[Armitage Gone! Dance] "It’s a joy to
watch."
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
July 11, 2009
"Disappearing Woman is a rich, prawling mélange of ideas and images... totally engaging and visually striking."
Karen Campbell,
The Boston Globe,
July 13, 2009
"[Chris Elam/Misnomer Dance Theatre] will crack wide your conception of how far dance - and human bodies - can go."
Thea Singer,
July 18, 2009
"[Armitage Gone!
Dance] is powerful yet lyrical, angry yet funny, and absolutely enthralling.
...Given this is the opening night show, expectations of this small
but celebrated annual event can only be higher for their fourteenth
season."
Chelsey Philpot
Big Red & Shiny
July 26, 2009
"Misnomer Dance Theater is beguiling to watch!"
Chelsey Philpot
Big Red & Shiny
July 26, 2009
"The Bang Group's performance at Concord Academy Thursday night wrapped the audience in rings of intimacy and surprise."
Marcia Siegel
The Boston Phoenix,
July 28, 2009
“The Summer Stages Dance Festival always packs a punch with stellar guest artists, and this season features a real coup in the sensuous, expressive Sara Rudner as artist-in-residence”
Karen Campbell
Boston Globe
May 18, 2008
“The little engine that could of summer dance festivals…smartly programmed”
Jennifer Dunning
The New York Times
May 14, 2006
“One of the Top Ten Dance Events of 2007!”
Thea Singer
Boston Globe
December 30, 2007
“From the Concord-based festival’s beginning 11 years ago, directors Amy Spencer and Richard Colton have set out to find new, compelling ways to bring the Boston area dance community together and forge creative relationships with other local institutions.”
Karen Campbell
Boston Globe
July 27, 2007
“…another intriguing series of July performances…”
Marcia B. Siegel
The Boston Phoenix
July 13, 2007
“You don’t have to head to the Berkshires to see fabulous summer dance. …”
Karen Campbell
Boston Globe
July 8, 2007
“For 10 years, Summer Stages Dance has been a fertile dance oasis … and offers some of the most provocative, high-quality programming around.”
Karen Campbell
Boston Sunday Globe
May 21, 2006
“One of the Top 10 Dance Events of 2005”
The Boston Globe
“…Arguably the most innovative presenter of guest choreographers around”
Thea Singer
The Boston Globe
July 30, 2005
“Indeed, the roster of artists who have worked (at Summer Stages Dance) reads like a modern dance fan’s dream team…”
Louise Kennedy
The Boston Globe
July 8, 2004
“A chance to see cutting edge choreographers up close”
Susan Daniels
The Jewish Advocate
July 23 – 29, 2004
“Intelligent and thought provoking…”*
The New York Times
May 4, 2003
“…live, offbeat but high-quality dance…”
Marcia Siegel
The Boston Phoenix
August 1, 2003
“Amy Spencer and Richard Colton have done it again: assembled a superb group of performers…”
Christine Temin
The Boston Globe
June 8, 2003
“Now the secret is out: this is a rare chance to see dancers and choreographers from world class companies right here at home.”
Concord Journal
August 2002
* In 2003, The New York Times selected Summer Stages Dance as “one of the premiere dance festivals across the United States.”
