Ann Haskins

Like its namesake Italian pasta and pizza dishes that layer four cheeses into an entity that respects the value of each component but strives for an exponential result greater than the arithmetic total, the secret to success rests in the quality of the individual ingredients. In the case of this......

Ever since Stephen Sondheim swirled Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and other familiar storybook characters together and sent them Into the Woods, deconstructed fairy tales have become ubiquitous. With the musical Wicked remaining a hot ticket and the movie Enchanted emerging as a big holiday hit, Debbie Allen’s reconsideration of......

This past September brought the first-ever festival in celebration of the movement practices known as SOMA. It was a bigger success than the organizers anticipated: At the conclusion of a week of workshops, discussions and other activities, the culminating performances sold out. Those turned away and those who want another......

That rumble isn’t just your post-Thanksgiving tummy, but the delightfully inexorable march of approaching sugarplum fairies, waltzing flowers and a parade of Nutcracker princes and adoring Claras lined up and ready to land like a stream of planes off LAX. Every Christmas season brings a generous number of Nutcracker performances,......

As 19th-century writers, the three youngest Brontë sisters created romantic, passionate stories such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights that continue to haunt readers today. But the sisters’ own lives were relatively cloistered, isolated from the larger world and filled with hardship and tragedy; all six Brontë siblings died before......

Long a thoughtful and probing presence on the local dance scene, Zina Bethune bears credentials that include adventurous excursions into the realm of dance theater and some of the earliest exploratory efforts to incorporate wheelchair-bound dancers into dance performances. Based on a Ray Bradbury short story and highlighted by a......

Like the reassuring promise of a baby laughing, the intoxication of falling in love or the smell of the smoldering remains confronting so many in Southern California, Bausch’s passionate, laser-focused danceworks involve visceral components that must be experienced because they exceed words, no matter how descriptive. This is true in......

A spark-flying exchange about choreography and improvisation between LACDC director Kate Hutter and company member Kevin Williamson provided the impetus for this exploration of the many complicated nuances of friendship. Co-directed by Hutter and Williamson, Pinky Swear challenges the dancers to segue from set choreography to extended sections of improvisation,......

For his company’s Music Center debut, Mark Morris chose his highly praised Mozart Dances, a lushly lyrical nine-part suite with live piano music provided by Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki. Regarded as one of the premier choreographers of his generation, Morris teamed with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the initial White Oak......

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the Nicholas Brothers, Ann Miller, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Eleanor Powell, Gregory Hines. Their tap dancing, especially in movie musicals, made them legends. Unfortunately, the surrounding plots often did not age as well as those performers’ immortal dance numbers, leaving their work seldom seen except in......