Dance, Performance

Yaa Samari Dance Theatre: Gathering

by  • 

“Gathering”
Yara Samar! Dance Theatre
Friday, February 27, 2026 8PM
Zellerbach Playhouse

Extraordinary! Exciting! Exhausting! Excellent…

…and not always easy to watch and absorb all the many events and movement patterns and skills that this Dance Theatre (from Palestine!) brought to the Zellerbach Playhouse this past week.

The eleven dancers are all remarkable skilled. Director, text editor and major choreographer Sama Haddad King brought her many talents to this dance/drama/group celebration performance. Very many acts were presented: group and solo choreography, text and visual projections and…to the audience’s delight, a stage full of oranges!

After an hour (8:15-9:30) the work moved into a narrative drama told on mike and on screen, by the women in the group (who came to visit individuals in the audience In white costumes). Fascinating and challenging as this was, it was an “over the top” expectation after witnessing an hour of dance. One supposes that the narrative was King’s personal story.

The evening concluded (some audience participating) with the return to the group circle activity, including some extraordinary “climb and fall” acts on and off what one can only guess was a 25 foot ladder! As amazing as this is, after the hour, the narrative, the skills become expectation, not excitement.

Yaa Samari Dance Theatre is an exciting, amazingly skilled group. It would be wonderful to see them again in an edited version of the show.

See Cal Performance’s web site for additional cast listings.

Commentary, Dance, Performance

Martha Graham Dance Company

by  • 

Martha Graham Dance Company
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley

“Remembrance of things past”

Cal Performances brought the Martha Graham Dance Company to Berkeley on February 14, 2026. For those of us (probably few left) who studied with Graham years ago, and all who had never seen the work, it was a very memorable event.

Artistic Director Jane Eilber, (former company member), conversed with press people at intermission. She cited the challenge to bring works, premiered decade ago, to new audiences. The audience on the evening of February 14, (to my view) were primarily an “older” group, those who had seen or remembered the Graham dance works from earlier times.

To extend this program, a dance “Cortege” was also presented by Baye & Asa, a 2023 New York premiere.

Graham’s works are essential dramatic: “Night Journey” employes dramatic gesture and “extended’ dance movement. The major characters are Jocasta (danced by Anne Snider), Oedipus (Lloyd Knight) and Tiresias (Ethan Palma). These three interact the “Daughters of the Night” who compose the chorus.

For audiences who are familiar with Greek drama, this event is rewarding and ecstatic, bringing the ancient story alive on stage. This audience greeted the event with extended applause. I was delighted to see “Night Journey” again after many “New York” years of performances and study with Graham, for a short time at her 63rd Street studio.

The style of her time, particularly in dramatic story telling Is essential mimetic, although Graham’s choreography extends gesture to its widest and most dramatic possibilities. The major cast, Ann Souder (Jocasta), Lloyd Knight (Oedipus), and Ethan Palma (Theseus) are accompanied by the chorus led by Marzia Memoli. The event is “dance drama”, its ultimate presentation. The work was superbly performed: the chorus marvelous.

For audiences who have seen “modern” dance beyond Graham this style may appear limited; yet it is perfect for its dramatic content. After Graham, choreographers (particularly Cunningham) employed less mimetic gesture and left story- telling to the ‘musical theater’.

The other work “Cortege,” choreographed by Baye & Asa was a long and extended exploration of group movement interspersed with remarkable solos and duets. It “draws inspiration of Graham’s “Cortege of Eagles” which dramatizes a version of the “crumbling of the Trojan Empire.” Program note cites, “Baye & Asa’s “Cortege” places the burden of fate on the ensemble.” It was extraordinarily performed by eight dancers.

See Cal Performances program notes on line for full information.)

It was inspiring and moving to see these works and remember the genius that Graham brought to the dance. She challenged the ballet world, engaged new audiences, and brought the future of the ‘modern dance’ into reality.

Dance, Performance, Shows & Events

“Moon”: A Mixed Media Mark Morris Mayhem

by  • 

“Moon” Mark Morris Dance Group
Friday, January 23, 2026 Zellerbach Hall
“MOON” (West Coast Premiere)

A “Mixed Media” Mark Morris Mayhem

The one hour production of “MOON” was thorough and congested with its inclusion of music, dance and most of all…projection, set changes and the placement of small doll-like figures on the stage. As an ‘older’ dance person I appreciate innovation, but this event was ‘too much’.

The accompanying music was both live and and recorded; Colin Fowler on piano and organ and Jordan Frazier on double bass. We hear ‘moon Songs (e.g. “Blue Moon” and “sound taken from the voyager spacecraft ”which “originally inspired the work.” The dancers shared the stage with ‘astronaut’ figures a foot-and a-half foot high: the dancers moved these figures several times during the work. Morris held one during the bow.

Projections of many sorts, including geometric diagrams were constantly appearing and changing; fascinating but in competition with the dancers’ activity. All nine dancers are exacting technicians and during all their ‘too short’ dance episodes, they did dominate the stage. They seemed to enjoy riding on scooters and on each other. But so many other electronic elements demanded audience attention.

Morris has written a short essay in the program about his (and the world’s) fascination with the moon. This dance event is his tribute to NASA’s “Golden Record” time capsule, and as he says “without understanding a thing.’

For further details see Cal Performance program notes.