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A preview by Gwen Gray How does a performing arts organization tackle the heaviest, most existential topics of our times, do them justice, and entertain and delight audiences along the way? 3rd Law Dance/Theater seems to have the recipe. They layer the deepest level of reflection, observation and meaning into the choreography, music, set, costumes, […]

Review by Barbara Hamilton It was an absolute joy to experience 3rd Law Dance/Theater back in the Gordon Gamm Theater at the Dairy Arts Center on Friday night, in For Example. An enthusiastic opening night crowd delighted in the company’s first appearance in a theater in two years. For Example consisted of a selection of […]

A preview by Gwen Gray For the first time in over two years, Boulder’s preeminent contemporary dance company, 3rd Law Dance/Theater, returns to the Dairy Arts Center stage, and it’s set to be a transformative reunion for the company, collaborators and audiences. The show, titled “For Example,” will take place April 22–24, 2022. It’s fair […]

A review by Gwen Gray, with photos by Heather Gray/Gray Area Dance Over the years, 3rd Law Dance/Theater has become known for navigating on-stage obstacles. They’ve glided across a stage filled with bouncing ping-pong balls, held handstands atop typewriters, and woven themselves in and out of a collection of cardboard boxes and towers of metal cubes. But those were self-imposed creative challenges.  This year, 3rd Law, like virtually all performing arts groups, had to face the impossibilities imposed upon them by the pandemic. Yet in characteristic […]

A review by Gwen Gray To hear it told by 3rd Law Dance/Theater’s artistic co-directors Katie Elliott and Paul Fowler, the company’s latest production, “Singularity,” was inherited. That’s because 3rd Law’s late cofounder Jimmy LaVita had already begun to assemble the research for the troupe’s next creation before his death — examining artificial intelligence (AI) […]

A review by Gwen Gray As last Saturday evening’s performance of “Lost in Place” by 3rd Law Dance/Theater got underway, the sound of trains chugging along and boats sloshing into harbor filled the Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, and old black-and-white scenes evoking 20th century European immigration were projected on the backdrop. Ten dancers […]

A preview by Betsy Schwarm At first glance, still-life imagery and dance might seem contradictory ideas. After all, the essence of dance is motion, not stillness. However, a still-life image is essentially a moment in time: what about the next moment? What colors and textures might emerge from further consideration of that bowl of fruit, […]

A preview by Barbara Hamilton 3rd Law Dance Theater’s upcoming performances of Lost in Place this coming weekend at the Dairy Center will be a tribute to the beloved co-founder of the company: Jim LaVita. Jim is survived by his wife and artistic partner Katie Elliott, who helped to choreograph Lost in Place. The work […]

A review by Gwen Gray The crowd at the Dairy Arts Center quiets. A young man appears on stage, barefooted, a headset microphone at his lips and a smartphone in his hand. He begins a monosyllabic a cappella chant, which expands into a rich, rhythmic hymn as he digitally loops and chains his own vocals […]

A preview by Marc Shulgold Let’s face it: Johann Sebastian Bach and John Cage are not exactly like peas and carrots, as Forrest Gump would say. The two composers come from opposite ends of the musical spectrum – Bach a disciplined Baroque master who passionately followed the rules, Cage a gleeful, rule-destroying lover of random […]