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May 11, 2007

Word of Mouth: David Parker tonight & tomorrow at Dance Theater Workshop

I really enjoyed David Parker’s Hour Upon The Stage last night at DTW. David is a deft choreographer and he and I have been friends for well over a decade. It isn't right for me to review it, but speaking personally here, this was the best thing I've ever seen of his. It may be because he wasn’t in it. The distance that allows gave the work a sharpness and the excellent dancers gave it a glow.

The dance is a group work, most sections without music. The hallmark of David’s choreography is percussive movement that creates its own accompaniment. His source is primarily tap but there are many felicitous borrowings from soft shoe and this time a lot from ballet. His chameleon borrowing is happy. His dancers are comfortable with ballet technique without looking like ballet dancers and it’s nice to see someone borrow from ballet with affection rather than issues. Hour Upon the Stage is very sweet natured with some poignant partnering - another hallmark of David's choreography. He has a way of letting what looks like a gag blossom into something thoughtful. All the dancers are really personable – you connect with them quickly. The only thing I did not like was the usual modern dance structure of a longer work without intermission - my brain likes 20 minute chunks.

It's only on until tomorrow, alas, but a very enjoyable evening. I wish I could have let people know sooner.

Posted by Leigh Witchel at 5:15 PM | TrackBack

May 7, 2007

Money for nothing (cleaned up and updated)

Like a jerk I made the Free Stuff web page by auto-converting an Excel spreadsheet.

I’ve redone it as a series of pages that hopefully will be a good deal simpler to read. There are also some survey providers I inadvertently omitted.

Have a gander.

Posted by Leigh Witchel at 4:26 PM | TrackBack

May 5, 2007

Money for Nothing and Your Clicks for Free.

I’ve been meaning for ages to do a post on shopping portals and other sources of free and nearly free cash and points, since I am officially an eggspert on them. Now that I’m avoiding writing a review, it seems like the perfect time. If you like the information here, could you join the programs through my links, or send me an email to refer you? It won’t cost you a thing and I get some points or cash for my effort. Thanks!

Free Stuff!

(I'd put it on the blog, but it's too complicated to fix the formatting - sorry.)

Posted by Leigh Witchel at 8:01 PM | TrackBack

May 3, 2007

Gone fishing

Apologies. Same as usual - I need the time in the day I would spend blogging for other things.

In the meanwhile, please read my writing on dance at Danceview Times on the web, or in print in Ballet Review, Point Magazine, Dance Now, Dance International or Dance View.

For me on knitting, check out Knit.1 Magazine, Vogue Knitting and Knit Simple.

I've turned off the comments to keep the spam to a minimum but feel free to write.

Posted by Leigh Witchel at 12:28 AM | TrackBack