She The People: The Patriarchy Isn’t Going to Smash Itself!!!
Warning: partial spoiler alert! Are you sick of watching the news and feeling angry? Have you had it up to here with sexual politics? Are you female, male, or anything in [read on]
Articles by Nancy Berman
Jeremy Dutcher: the music of activism
If you don’t already know Jeremy Dutcher, you should. A member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, this classically trained singer, composer, musicologist, and [read on]
Alt-J: Revenge of the Nerds
Critics love to hate Alt-J. They and their music have been called fussy and uptight; beige, tuneless, mild, featureless, and boring; lead singer Joe Newman has been compared [read on]
Dianne Reeves: Building Bridges, Not Walls
One of the world’s foremost jazz vocalists, five-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves and her phenomenal band knocked it out of the ballpark last night at the FIJM. Known for [read on]
Melody Gardot: sultry enchantress
Dressed all in black, with her customary dark sunglasses, Melody Gardot ravished a sold-out Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at the FIJM last night. Slow, sultry, soulful, smoky, and [read on]
The new soul on the block: Storry’s Leave My Heart Behind drops today and it’s f*cking fantastic
Storry—a creative powerhouse of a woman—unleashes her extraordinary voice and vision today with the release of her first single, Leave My Heart Behind. While channeling [read on]
Lisa Fischer and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet: Propelled Hearts
With a voice to shake you to your very core, Lisa Fischer takes to the stage with a dozen dancers in Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet’s Canadian premiere of The Propelled [read on]
Kidd Pivot’s Revisor: a fun-house mirror for modern times
In 1836 the Russian author Nikolai Gogol wrote a play called The Revisor in which not only the corruption but also the profound lack of humanity of government bureaucracies [read on]
Rosas incarnate Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
Nancy Berman reviews A Love Supreme by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Salva Sanchis, presented by Danse Danse.
Tentacle Tribe tantalizes with Ghost
Tentacle Tribe is back with an expanded roster of dancers in Ghost, part of Danse Danse’s 2018-2019 season.
King of the Tabla and Other Gods of Music
The creation mythology of jazz tells of the transplantation and fusion of various musical cultures in the 18th and 19th centuries. The slave trade brought north-west African [read on]
Women Rock the Jazz Fest: Jann Arden, Martha Wainwright, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Davina and the Vagabonds
The opening weekend of the 39th edition of the FIJM featured some of the most inspiring women in the music world, including a new fun find. Friday night Jann Arden [read on]
Who knew monks could dance?
In Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra, 19 Shaolin monks from an ancient temple near Dengfeng, China, perform hair-raising feats of martial prowess honed over a lifetime of [read on]
Legend Lin Dance Theatre’s Eternal Tides: the virtuosity of stillness
I have never seen anything like this. The stage is hung with long white translucent panels. Just in front of the stage, a candle burns on a sort of shrine. On each [read on]
Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal’s Dance Me: paging Leonard Cohen
With the one-year anniversary of his death one month past, Montreal’s craze for all things Leonard Cohen shows no sign of abating. There was the five-night Jenny Holzer [read on]
Danse Danse presents Hofesh Shecter’s Grand Finale: an absolute must see
Many years ago I met a young man from Tel Aviv. I asked him what it was like to live in a place where bombs regularly go off in night clubs, pizza parlors, and crowded [read on]
Marie Chouinard’s Garden of Earthly Delights: The Ecstasy of Creation
When was the last time you took a good look at Hieronymous Bosch’s early 16th-century painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights?” I mean, really looked at it, at all the [read on]
Michael Kaeshammer and Lisa Simone Double Bill at the FIJM
I admit that curiosity got the better of me: I wanted to see Lisa Simone not because I knew her music or anything about her, but rather because she is the great Nina [read on]
Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge Double Bill at the FIJM: Age Before Beauty
In the middle of her concert at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier Wednesday night, English soul wunderkind Joss Stone told the packed audience a story her mother had just told her: [read on]
The World Famous Harlem Gospel Choir: Praising the Lord at the FIJM
No matter how foul your mood, it’s ridiculously difficult not to smile like a fool at a gospel concert, and the World Famous Harlem Gospel Choir had the whole audience [read on]