Category: Adrienne Totino

Dance Review: On Being by Staycee Pearl Dance Project

| Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

Reviewed by Adrienne Totino Staycee Pearl’s latest evening length work, “…on being…” began as an exploration of post-blackness in America, a concept even Pearl had trouble defining because of its broad meaning. She and her company spent months researching black art, music, literature, dance and more. While they gained insight and inspiration, none of them …

Dance Review: Backlit in a Whole New D by The Pillow Project

| Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

Reviewed by Adrienne Totino There’s just something about Pearlann Porter. Her company, The Pillow Project, presents work unlike anything else on the Pittsburgh dance scene. Her latest evening length show was the product of a 16 year work in progress. The result was hypnotic. “Backlit in a Whole New D” premiered this past weekend, and …

Dance Review: Private Places by IdiosynCrazy Productions

| Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

Reviewed by Adrienne Totino Philadelphia based dance company, IdiosynCrazy, shook up the local contemporary dance scene this past weekend in their hilarious and haunting new work, “Private Places.” Audience members gathered in the lobby of the Alloy Studios, much like travelers huddled around the entrance gate to an airplane. The piece was inspired by just …

Dance Review: Drenched by Luke Murphy

By | Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

“There is something about when you are soaked by a heavy rain. You give in…realize that sunshine is not coming. There is an empowerment that comes with it. I think of passion that way,” says dancer and choreographer, Luke Murphy. The Ireland native and Point Park graduate brought his latest duet, Drenched, to the Kelly-Strayhorn …

Dance Preview: Twenty Eighty-Four by the Pillow Project

By | Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

“No matter how much we seem to annihilate ourselves, there is always a rebirth,” says Pearlann Porter, Artistic Director of the Pillow Project. Her latest work is, in fact, a revival. The piece, “Twenty Eighty-Four,” was originally created in 2008, but will premiere in its newest incarnation for six more shows this week. The evening …

Dance Review: Camille A. Brown & Dancers in Mr. Tol E. Rance at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

By | Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater welcomed Camille A. Brown back to the Pittsburgh stage for the world premiere of her latest work, “Mr. TOL E. RAncE.” Brown says her relationship with the theater happened “very organically,” when she first performed a solo in 2009 for the newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival. This past Friday and Saturday night, Brown …

Dance Review: Youth Moves at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

By | Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

Friday night at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) came as a wonderful and relieving surprise. It had been a long time since I’d seen anyone under twenty take the dance stage. In the day and age of Dance Moms and So You Think You Can Dance, watching children and teens perform has become an all …

Dance Review: The Pillow Project’s Second Saturday Speak Eazy

By | Adrienne Totino, Prose, Reviews: Performing Arts

“Second Saturday” at the Pillow Project keeps getting better and better. To call it a “happening,” rather than a performance or show, is right on target. Who else in the city combines the most happening art, dance, music and culture, and turns it into something that feels like the hottest underground club in town? Pearlann …