The Scen3

A review by Gwen Gray I suspect that it takes a certain amount of restraint for the ever-forward-thinking 3rd Law Dance/Theater to pause and take a look back through their 13-year repertoire, as they did on the evening of June 14 in Boulder. Nevertheless, the retrospective — which paid tribute to The Dairy Center for […]

A review by Gwen Gray (with photos by Heather Gray) Boulder contemporary dance and classical music fans converge during Boulder Arts Week. How do you get from baroque music to a contemporary boxing ring? Follow the path of one restless neuron to another in Katie Elliott or Jim LaVita’s brain. When the co-artistic directors of […]

A review by Gwen Gray “People always want to know about the title,” says 3rd Law Dance/Theater’s artistic director and choreographer Katie Elliott, with a smile. The platypus, it turns out, is invoked in 3rd Law’s latest performance — an installation at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art — as a metaphor representing the in-between […]

A review by Gwen Gray As dance companies look for innovative ways to reach new audiences, two approaches seem to be gaining traction in today’s dance landscape: collaboration and relevant storytelling. Ballet Ariel’s Sunday evening production at the Lakewood Cultural Center fell smartly in line with these strategies during the program’s two original ballets: Ilena […]

By Gwen Gray Remember back in the ’90s when the swing revival hit Denver, and (eh-hem) some of us went around quoting the movie “Swingers?” We dragged our husbands to vintage-y nightclubs to learn how to “pretzel,” and hummed Brian Setzer Orchestra songs. I doubt many of us spent much time pondering the true historical […]

A review by Gwen Gray “Anywhere a monk has been, you have good wine.” “The nose begins the dialogue between the palate and the brain.” “Pouilly Fuisse sits in an amphitheater of light and heat.” Such tidbits tumbled out of our instructor’s mouth as I eyed the three glasses of chardonnay before me. We were […]