Email Author Bonner Odell

2008 Stories by Bonner Odell

• Raised by Wolff

  published September 10, 2008

  The stories of Tobias Wolff are like a good YouTube short, offering snapshot scenarios that suggest worlds about the characters that inhabit them.... More >>

• Five Minutes to Fame

  published August 6, 2008

  If creativity is born of limitations, this year’s WestWave Dance Festival should make for one heck of a dance sampler. The challenge:... More >>

• Odissi at ODC

  published July 16, 2008

  These are complicated times. While most good Bay Areans beleaguer themselves with double doses of NPR to shore up their cultural sensitivity,... More >>

• In the Bag

  published July 2, 2008

  They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Case in point: plastic grocery bags, banned by San Francisco last year from city... More >>

• Wonder Full

  published June 4, 2008

  The protagonist of the Joe Goode Performance Group’s latest piece is a puppet. Our first reaction was … yikes. How does a dance/theater... More >>

• Art Collab

  published May 21, 2008

  Depending on whom you ask, the Bay Area art world is either a major world center for creative innovation or a self-referential backwater prone to... More >>

• The Kids are Alright

  published May 7, 2008

  Children's art, like children's literature, can be downright profound in its simplicity, not to mention refreshing for the lack of guesswork and... More >>

• Talking Dance

  published April 30, 2008

  It's not just a rumor propagated by local dance devotees: The Bay Area really is home to the most happening dance community in the country outside... More >>

• Last Chance for Fest of Firsts

  published April 30, 2008

  If you're still making mental notes to catch SF Ballet in its 75th Anniversary Season every time a Muni bus placard conveys those exultant leaping... More >>

• Filles d’Afrique

  published April 2, 2008

  There are any number of reasons a collaboration between Urban Bush Women's Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Senegalese choreographer Germaine Acogny... More >>

• Study in Symmetry

  published March 26, 2008

  Many have wondered, since the days of the revolutionary postmodern Judson Church movement in 1970s New York, if there is any truly new ground to... More >>

• End of the Line?

  published March 26, 2008

  When it comes to the ratio of hours spent creating a production to actual time on stage, dance companies tend to get the short end of the stick.... More >>

• Seasoned Hope

  published March 12, 2008

  In the Bay Area dance world, choreographers commonly spring to life fully realized, like Athena from the head of Zeus. This may well be attributed... More >>

• The Lost Art of Lampoonery

  published March 12, 2008

  If you ask us, healthful satire is a waning art in modern day America. Blame the smiting gods of political correctness or the lack of critical... More >>

• Mapping Dance

  published March 5, 2008

  Aspiring artists out there trying their damndest to master just one art form may find it daunting to learn that Shen Wei Dance Arts... More >>

• Akin to Greatness

  published February 20, 2008

  No matter what you fancy modern dance should be, chances are at least one piece on a Robert Moses' Kin bill will satisfy your criteria. Too... More >>

• As American As Alvin Ailey

  published February 20, 2008

  While the qualifier "American" in Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater might seem superfluous, the nature of the wildly popular company's... More >>

• At Home on the Edge

  published February 13, 2008

  "Experimental" is a favorite term in the dance world, one too many dance-goers have learned to equate with "amateur." So when Kunst-Stoff, a... More >>

• Not So Black and White

  published February 6, 2008

  What exactly qualifies a dancemaker to take part in the Black Choreographers Festival? Chops aside, does "black" mean African-American?... More >>

• Butoh Blood Transfusion

  published January 23, 2008

  Butoh is one of those art forms that, in a heroic attempt to remain open to possibility, refuses to define itself. As in all such forms, those... More >>

• Capacitor Gets It Right

  published January 23, 2008

  While the world's many environmental crises provide a trusty source of emotional poignancy for the art and entertainment industry, it's generally... More >>

• Avant-Vietnam

  published January 23, 2008

  When it comes to keeping a finger on the pulse of global developments in the performing arts, we've got to hand it to Yerba Buena Center for the... More >>

• Original Copy Cats

  published January 16, 2008

  Let's be honest: Unabashed idea theft is responsible for some of the best art of our time. From Jesus Christ Superstar to best-sellers like... More >>