Achieving the role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake is an honor, something many dancers strive for. But it’s without a doubt one of the biggest physical, technical, and emotional challenges a dancer can ever face. Long before Black Swan pulled back a fictional and highly exaggerated curtain on the mind…

Watching magic is a wondrous experience, so it would be wrong to spoil the The Illusionists by saying too much. What we will tell you is that the show is put on by Dallas Summer Musicals at the Music Hall at Fair Park (909 First Ave.), and it features crazy,…

It’s not boastful and it’s not a big leap…though it very well contains a few. It’s perfectly logical that you’d call centerpiece performances of three bold and diverse pieces of choreography, Masterworks. The Texas Ballet Theater presents abstract beauty, life and death through dance, and heady, lilting romance in the…

It’s been almost 40 years since Dallas Black Dance Theatre was founded. Since 1976, Ann Williams has grown a small, community-driven organization into a professional dance company recognized all over the country for its diversity — cultural, artistic and audience. In fact, DBDT was in such high demand it needed…

As mesmerized as humans are with the possibilities of outer space exploration, we often seem to avoid examining the space and environment directly around our bodies. Dancers serve as our earthbound pioneers. Diavolo — whose tag is “Architecture in Motion” — offers a unique exploratory adventure for dancers and audiences…

In the good old days of dance — any dance, mind you — movement was paired with music. We don’t mean a recording, we mean actual music, from actual instruments, played by humans right in front of you. Avant Chamber Ballet hopes to reverse this trend, and also to give…

Ina Garten, otherwise known as the Barefoot Contessa, is the queen of getting the culinary dirty work in any recipe done ahead of time. To hear her tell it, you’re actually supposed to enjoy cooking and entertaining! Whether it’s chicken matzoh-ball soup or sophisticated party plates you’re after, Her Food…

If you watched the one-night-only special of The Sing-Off this season, respond by modulating a quick pop vocal. Now, if you watched and — like us — were also impressed by that dude from Fall Out Boy despite missing Ben Folds on the judging panel (and not even 35 inane…

Sure, it’s cool to see a giant tree light up. There are oohs and aahs and it’s perfectly holiday happy. But the real draw to Macy’s Grand Tree Lighting Celebration at Galleria Dallas is what happens at the bottom of that huge skylight-tickling tree … what goes down, and around…

In the grand scheme of Dallas’ holiday offerings, we have everything from big and bright lights to restaurant feasts with leftovers provided. But there are certain things that must be done on the annual: cruising Highland Park’s Christmas lights, visiting the ultimate natural Santa at NorthPark, visiting the Operation Kindness’…

Haul out those marigolds, prep your sugar skulls, and don your best face paint—it’s time to honor the dead with some charitable festivities. Los Muertos Bishop celebrates Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in the naturally walkable fashion of the Bishop Arts District. From 6 to 10…

When you were a kid, did you know what you wanted to be? And if you did, did the goal stay the same longer than two weeks? Most kids are like magpies, flitting from soccer to bug camp to music lessons to the next shiny new thing their friends are…

When presented with the theme of Viva Dallas Burlesque’s upcoming showcase, Burton Burlesque, a friend pointed out that unlike the normal expectations of burlesque, this one could actually be fabulously, awkwardly un-erotic. Which, despite the sound of it, is not actually an insult to the skills of the VDB performers,…

There’s a perfect film for anyone who’s ever wandered into this state and wondered why the hell people get so hyped up about Truck Month: Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary. The 1997 S.R. Bindler doc chronicles an endurance challenge between 24 contestants in Longview. The goal? To be…

There’s no official word from Delkus, but the DADA Fall Gallery Walk may be the perfect way officially usher in the season. Keep in mind that by this point in September, temperatures in the 80s mean fall has arrived. With this 29th annual event, you can arrive yourself…at more than…

If you’ve sat in the Wyly Studio, cradling your sanctioned adult sippy cup, and listened to the presenters of Oral Fixation, you know the true life tales are something to cherish, something you feel special you got to hear first-hand. The themed readings of each season can sell out so…

As Americans — actually, just as literate creatures — we’re protective of those special treasure troves of words we call books. In fact, well before our military involvement in World War II, the United States became terribly disturbed by a certain form of censorship occurring in Nazi Germany: book burning…

The threat of having any one of your senses taken away can be frightening, but when you consider that condition could make you a target, the fright start to multiply. Within that fright lays the power of Frederick Knott’s play, Wait Until Dark. As the audience, we aren’t the protagonist—a…

We remember very little about the day we took the SAT. There was a strange school, pencils that weren’t our favorite pencils, flop sweat and intense paranoia. What we do know for certain is that we didn’t prep for it, aside from taking the PSAT, and in retrospect, a tutor…

Eat your heart out, Michael Flately, there’s a new gig in town and their feet are on fire! Rhythmic Souls’ new show Legends Never Die: A Revival of American Tap Dance Heroes, is paying tribute to the most beloved and well-known scenes from the movie musicals of the ’30s and…

When it comes to space exploration, there’s just no room to be jaded: Space is…well, it’s scary as hell, and nothing short of super-rad. The moon? Flying from Earth and landing on the freaking moon?! Seriously. How can anyone debate how unbelievably cool that is? They can’t. Which is why…