Dance finds ‘sea legs’ at Montpellier Danse 2024
au bord de la mer, on the cote d’azure, in nice The expression, to “find your sea legs” feels apt for dance right now. The term refers to the human body’s struggle to adjust to the pitching-and-rocking of a ship in motion. It’s a jolting loss of balance; it’s the absence of terra firma. Four ...
Strangers-on-a-Tram meet at Montpellier’s Hotel ‘Richer de Belleval’
You’ve heard of the Hitchcock thriller, Strangers on a Train (1951), in French, L’Inconnu du Nord-Express, starring Robert Walker and Farley Granger, based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. But have you heard of “Strangers on a Tram”? I hadn’t either, not until my visit to the beautiful, historic and aesthetic city of Montpellier in ...
Nice’s Windsor Hotel — jungle refuge for traveling arts lovers
Jul
6
2024
garden patio of nice’s windsor hotel in south of france The artist’s hotel, a venerable tradition, is alive and well in France’s golden Cote d’Azure, aka The Riviera. For three nights prior to attending Montpellier Danse, we recovered from jet-lag in Nice — the sun-dappled, seaside city on the Mediterranean. Our home base was the ...
To south of France, for ‘Montpellier Danse’
Launching just now, in its 44th year, a summer dance festival known for edgy, forward-looking content in an ancient, historic city is Montpellier Danse. Montpellier, France’s eighth-largest city, gleams with Mediterranean sun bathing its beautiful, walkable historic center. This year, for the first time ever, artsmeme will attend the dance festival. At right, from choreographer ...
In Tahoe, for Dance Festival 1
stephen hanna, photo: erin baiano “There will be bears in Tahoe,” Festival intern Summer Hatcher warned me — a dance writer who has never lived beyond a five-mile radius from a performing arts center. As we departed Reno Airport, she explained that I should wave arms at the creatures. Summer was navigating Interstate 80’s sweeping ...
Northward bound, for Lake Tahoe Dance Festival
It’s a well-kept secret, except for ballet aficionados. One of the most beautiful and natural environments in our nation, Lake Tahoe, California, the massive freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada straddling the border between California and Nevada, is home to an engaging dance festival that marked its tenth anniversary last year, and enters its eleventh, ...