Khaled Hosseini: in conversation with Berkeleyside’s Frances Dinkelspiel on Sunday June 23 for a Berkeley Arts & Letters event. Khaled Hosseini: in conversation with Berkeleyside’s Frances Dinkelspiel on Sunday June 23 for a Berkeley Arts & Letters event. If you are ever stranded on that proverbial deserted island, you might hope to have author Khaled […]
Lou Fancher
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Ojai North! in Berkeley serves a cocktail of sounds, sights
Mark Morris’ Mosaic and United. Photo: Stephanie Berger What happens when you shake, stir and allow to mingle a music-savvy choreographer (Mark Morris), two earth-and-occasionally-ear-shattering composers (John Cowell, Igor Stravinsky), a marvelously matched foursome (American String Quartet) and a nimble jazz/pop/avant-garde trio (The Bad Plus)? You get a mixed drink — and that’s exactly what […]
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Eifman Ballet tackles the turbulent life of Rodin
Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg played Cal Performances on May 10,11 and 12. Photo: Cal Performances Thirty-six years after Boris Eifman began honing his “dissident choreographer” chops as artistic director of Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, a three-show Bay Area premiere of Rodin at CAL Performances revealed that nothing has changed. And yet, everything is […]
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Feed your soul, feast your eyes: Alvin Ailey is in town
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs Revelations April 23 – 28 at Cal Performances. Photo: Andrew Eccles. April 23 – 28 at Cal Performances. Photo: Andrew Eccles. The almighty power of contemporary dance is alive and kicking in Berkeley through April 28, after which the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will pack up their four, […]
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Dancemaker Trisha Brown retires her choreographic cap
Trisha Brown Dance Company performs “Les Yeux et l’âme” at Cal Performances March 15, 2013. Photo: Stephanie Berger Trisha Brown Dance Company performs “Les Yeux et l’âme” at Cal Performances March 15, 2013. Photo: Stephanie Berger Can a single-artist dance company become an ever-evolving, interactive, mobile museum? That is the question, and the premise, of […]
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Hubbard Street and LINES Ballet: A recipe for perfection
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Alonzo King LINES Ballet performed Azimuth at Cal Performances, Feb. 1-2. Photo: Margo Moritz Hubbard Street Dance Chicago stormed onto the stage of Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on Friday night and thundered its way through two beefy works of consequence and a collaborative world premiere with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. Compelling […]
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Joffrey Ballet provides ‘mesmerizing’ performances
Joffrey Ballet’s Age of Innocence, one of the works they brought to Cal Performances. Photo: Herbert Migdoll The return of the Joffrey Ballet to Berkeley was a joyful reunion as anticipation turned to renewed admiration for fans of the brilliant, 57-year-old, American dance company. Until their January Cal Performances doubleheader at Zellerbach, Joffrey appearances on […]
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Rich and satisfying: ‘The Hard Nut’ cracks the mold
The Mark Morris Dance Group perform The Hard Nut at Cal Performances Dec. 14-23. Photo: Stephanie Berger at Cal Performances Dec. 14-23. Photo: Stephanie Berger Exploding onto the main stage at Zellerbach Hall like the Fourth of July wrapped in black, white, red and green packaging, Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut made its triumphant return to Berkeley. […]
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Mummenschanz reminds us of the miracle of the physical
Company members of Mummenschanz returns to Cal Performances November 23-25. Photo: Gerry Born Company members of Mummenschanz returns to Cal Performances November 23-25. Photo: Gerry Born One day after feasting, football and family time on Thanksgiving Day, Cal Performances presents Switzerland’s Mummenschanz, a most bendable contemporary physical theater company celebrating 40 years in operation with their first North […]
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‘Einstein on the Beach’: Much more than sum of its parts
Cal Performances presented the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson collaboration “Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts,” on Oct.26-28 at Zellerbach Hall. Photo: Lucie Jansch Cal Performances presented the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson collaboration “Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts,” on Oct.26-28 at […]
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Mariinsky, ballet mothership, brings us Swan Lake
Members of the Mariinsky Ballet perform in Swan Lake. Photo: Courtesy Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Members of the Mariinsky Ballet perform in Swan Lake. Photo: Courtesy Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra It takes a certain kind of performance to cause a near sell-out audience at Cal Performances Zellerbach Hall to rise to a standing ovation and shout for […]
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Cal Performances continues to provoke with “Rhinocéros”
Theatre de la Ville performed Ionesco’s “Rhinocéros” at Cal Performances Sept. 27-29. Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandezéros” at Cal Performances Sept. 27-29. Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez The tragedy of a lonely man, confronted by his mortality and morality, has long been the stuff of playwrights, novelists, choreographers, composers and philosophers. In a four-show Cal Performance appearance by the Théâtre de la […]
