by Toba Singer When I saw Oakland Ballet’s Nutcracker at the age of five, it wasn’t about the développés. It was about the gestures and communication,” says Antoine Hunter, artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company in San Francisco. Hunter, who is Deaf,* grew up feeling as if he were being held hostage to a
by Steve Sucato Few tales are as universally known and beloved as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Countless dance versions have been created, approaching the story of two star-crossed lovers from numerous angles. For choreographer Hélène Blackburn and her Montreal-based company Cas Public, Romeo and Juliet took on a broader meaning. In Blackburn’s Symphonie dramatique, the