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Merritt Martin

Merritt Martin has written for the Dallas Observer for over two decades. She has also contributed to Eater, DMN and USA Today. In addition to arts and culture writing, she spends entirely too much time extolling the virtues of pears, black clothing, and her cat Kenneth.

@merrittmartinhere

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These Photos Don't Fade, Either

By Merritt Martin
May 7, 2015

Once you’ve seen “Hip Hop, 1993” by Earlie Hudnall, Jr., it’s hard to clear it from your brain. Maybe you can forget the glowing, slight-but-strong frame bent in the most “Yeah, what” body language. It’s the hole-boring eyes that know way too much for their age, and the pager clip...
Put the Fun in Funimation

By Merritt Martin
May 7, 2015

It’s pretty much every day we dream of going in to the office and finding a tiny version of ourselves, equipped with a superpower. Even better yet, also equipped with fuller, bouncier hair and a tail. In other words, we’d either get a helluva lot more done or be totally...
Parisian Dancing Dreams

By Merritt Martin
Apr 30, 2015

For those who still think of dance—ballet, especially—as fragile or lightweight, limited to a throng of ladies and sometimes one guy, you should take a gander at the work of Malandain Ballet Biarritz. Tough, sensual, inventive, different, and above all body-proud are all easy go-to descriptions for what is one...
Masterful Footwork

By Merritt Martin
Apr 16, 2015

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 Not a Trick … It's an Illusion!

By Merritt Martin
Apr 16, 2015

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,...
Ugly Ducklings in Tights

By Merritt Martin
Apr 16, 2015

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...
Leap into Spring

By Merritt Martin
Apr 9, 2015

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...
Constructed Dance

By Merritt Martin
Mar 26, 2015

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...
Girls Got Moves

By Merritt Martin
Mar 5, 2015

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...
Shoes Off in the Kitchen

By Merritt Martin
Feb 12, 2015

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...
Fort Worth Is the Luckiest

By Merritt Martin
Jan 1, 2015

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...
Frosty Moves Under the Tree

By Merritt Martin
Nov 27, 2014

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...
What Is a Humbug?

By Merritt Martin
Nov 20, 2014

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'...
Post-Halloween Scares

By Merritt Martin
Oct 30, 2014

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...
Growing Into Their Leotards

By Merritt Martin
Oct 16, 2014

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...
Burton, Like Tim Burton

By Merritt Martin
Oct 2, 2014

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,...
Get Your MotherTrucking Hands Off Me

By Merritt Martin
Sep 25, 2014

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...
WTF is DADA?

By Merritt Martin
Sep 18, 2014

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...
Lifelong Fixation

By Merritt Martin
Sep 11, 2014

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...
In Defense of Words

By Merritt Martin
Aug 28, 2014

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...
None of the Above

By Merritt Martin
Aug 14, 2014

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...
Wait Until Dark

By Merritt Martin
Aug 14, 2014

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...