Gia Kourlas

New York

Dance Critic at The New York Times

Articles

Review: Ayodele Casel Links Tap to Her Hip-Hop Beginnings

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Gia Kourlas

NowFrom the Archive: What It’s Like to Live in a Neutra—Two of ThemHistorian Thomas S. Hines didn’t just write the seminal monograph of Neutra’s work, he called the architect’s modernist apartment buildings home for decades. As a part of our 25th-anniversary celebration, we’re republishing formative magazine stories from before our website launched. This story …NowSonnets Don’t Ship Packages: Why Logistics Needs Specialized AIShekar Natarajan is the founder and CEO of Orchestro.AI.
Ayodele Casel Links Tap to Her Hip-Hop Beginnings

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

The tap choreographer and dancer returns to the Joyce Theater with "The Remix," a glorious gathering of artists, sound and soul. Ayodele Casel knows how to pull viewers toward her when she's onstage. She's a magnet. "There she is," someone behind me whispered in excited awe as Casel casually stepped onto the stage of the Joyce Theater, dropping a backpack on the floor. Applause, the kind that often greets musicians, followed, which was correct: Casel makes music with her feet.
The Ballet Kids of 'Midsummer' Bring Magic to the Bugs

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas |Erik Tanner

It could be that the youngest dancers are the real stars of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at New York City Ballet. Credit... There is Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and his beautiful Queen, Titania. Puck, a sprite, works his magic with the occasional unforced error, as mortals and immortals find themselves in a similar predicament: wanting to love. And wanting to be loved.
There Are Problems for Sure. But '√Čtoile' Has Humor and Heart.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Amy Sherman-Palladino's new series, created with her husband, takes ballet somewhere it doesn't usually go: the world of comedy. Like the art of ballet, "Étoile," a television show about ballet, has its ups and downs. Sometimes you want to toss confetti in the air to celebrate how deftly it dives into the intelligence and humor of ballet culture. It lives largely in the world of comedy, which is rare for a ballet story.
Andrew Veyette of City Ballet Has One Last Chance to Leave It All Onstage

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

The New York City Ballet principal Andrew Veyette is retiring after 25 years: "My path had a lot of peaks and valleys. Some very deep and some very high."Andrew Veyette, near Lincoln Center. His farewell performance is on Sunday. Credit... Scott Rossi for The New York Times Andrew Veyette has been pushing himself this season, his last at New York City Ballet. But, in his 25 years with the company, he has always danced every ballet as if it were his last - with dynamism, virtuosity and joie de vivre.
Dancing to the Beating Heart of New York Public Library's Collection

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

In "Lunch Dances," which tells fictional stories of regular people pursuing personal research, Monica Bill Barnes and Company invades the New York Public Library. A scene from "Lunch Dances" at the main branch of the New York Public Library. Credit Credit... The mission behind Monica Bill Barnes and Company is to bring dance where it doesn't belong. That's true but only part of the story. The experiential art the company produces creates an intimacy that has the potential to pulverize your insides.
At Gibney, a New Lucinda Childs Stands Out (No Surprise)

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Gibney Company brings an uneven trio of new works to the Joyce: a deft premiere by Childs and dances by Roy Assaf and Peter Chu. Gibney Company puts on dances, as its company director recently said, that deal with what it means to be human. That's true of any dance - a moving body is alive and therefore human - but as the group's program at the Joyce Theater showed, there are different ways to convey it. Dances can have feelings, but feelings are not dances.
Melissa Toogood Named New Director of Juilliard's Dance Division

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

A member of Merce Cunningham's final company, Toogood brings to the job years of experience as a dancer and educator. The Juilliard School has named Melissa Toogood as dean and director of its dance division, the school announced on Tuesday. Toogood, a Bessie Award-winning dancer who was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in its final years, succeeds Alicia Graf Mack, who is to become the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
An Inspiration to Balanchine, Suzanne Farrell Now Shows Dancers the Way

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

"There's a time for everything," said Farrell, who has returned to New York City Ballet to teach a new and eager generation of dancers. "Too much energy, too much, too much, too much," Suzanne Farrell said as she watched Isabella LaFreniere rehearse George Balanchine's "Chaconne."Farrell's direction, calling for more delicacy, softened the edges of LaFreniere's crisp attack.
Reclaiming the Past in a Dance of Simmering Power

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Wilson's soundtrack operates like a mixtape of sonic poetry. The blues singer Son House's "Motherless Children" is followed by the Gladys Knight and the Pips recording of "I Can See Clearly Now," which takes on a despondent tone as the dancers move forward with rocking feet that seem to be stuck in mud.