Bebel Gilberto: the sounds of sunshine
With autumn just around the corner, Montrealers will find any and all ways to squeeze the last bit of summer out of September. And what better way to stock up on sunshine [read on]
Articles by Nancy Berman
Tanztheater Wuppertal gives us a (terrifying) taste of Sicily in Pina Bausch’s Palermo Palermo
Pina Bausch’s 1989 masterpiece Palermo Palermo is a Felliniesque portrait of life in the Sicilian city. Like Fellini’s films (Roma comes to mind), Bausch’s work is less [read on]
Marie Chouinard’s “M”: animated by breath
Watching Marie Chouinard’s latest creation, “M,” is like having a fever dream where AI teaches cute mechanical dolls how to dance like humans.
Danse Danse launches its 25th season with Pina Bausch’s legendary Rite of Spring
Danse Danse launched its 25th season this week with a revival of the late great Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring. Originally created in 1975 for her world-renowned Tanztheater [read on]
Holly Cole at the Jazz Fest
Sometimes the magic just isn’t there, and it’s hard to say why. That’s how it was at Holly Cole’s Jazz Fest appearance. Did she sound good? Yes. Did the band play [read on]
Cecile McLorin Salvant casts a spell of love at the Jazz Fest
Cecile McLorin Salvant held the audience in the palm of her hand at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. Review by Nancy Berman.
Storry rocks the Jazz Fest
Nancy Berman reviews Storry at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.
Nederlands Dans Theater: Not to be missed (but thanks to COVID-19, you’ll miss it)
The Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) is world renowned for the virtuosity and versatility of their dancers, as well as their collaborations with the most illustrious [read on]
José Navas’s Winterreise: A Cautionary Tale for Valentine’s Day?
Winter is long and hard. It sucks. Finding out that your significant other has ditched you for another and that you must leave your cozy home to wander, grieving and alone, [read on]
Radicale Vitalité: Marie Chouinard pushes the envelope, laughing all the way
In her latest work, Radicale Vitalité, Solos et Duos, Marie Chouinard walks a bunch of fine lines: pleasure vs. pain, laughter vs. tears, love vs. strife, sanity vs. [read on]
Dance From a Divided City: Elad Schechter, Rand Ziad Taha, and Hala Salem
From a divided city, a rare moment of collaboration between Muslim and Jew: Last night, Tangente Danse presented Premiere, a work choreographed by Elad Schechter and [read on]
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]
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.