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Tap Dance Lives Forever

By Jennifer Davis-Lamm
Dec 4, 2014

The guy that wrote that “Tap Your Troubles Away” song was on to something. Despite the racket that it conjures up, it’s the very definition of “joyful noise”—a spirited rat-a-tat that elicits a smile with every shuffle-step. And it’s worth noting that the art form behind the cheerful hoofing has...
Red Is the Color of the Season

By Jennifer Davis-Lamm
Nov 20, 2014

It’s that time of year when you really should just be able to carry a giant tumbler of wine around with you everywhere you go. (Honestly, that time is between January 1 and December 31, but especially the holidays.) The magical elixir makes everything so much more bearable. Squeezing through...
Be Like Bey

By Caroline Pritchard
Sep 18, 2014

Head to Mesa in Oak Cliff at 9 p.m. Thursday and take your mole enchiladas with a side of flamenco. The upscale Mexican restaurant is once more hosting Julia Alcantara’s renowned dance troupe Ida y Vuelta, which specializes in that brand of Spanish folk music and dance from southern Spain...
Uptown Players' Soho Cinders Belongs in the Musical Ash Heap

By Elaine Liner
Jun 19, 2014

Instead of producing the American premiere of British musical Soho Cinders, Uptown Players should've taken script and score and burned them. What a tawdry, creepy adaptation of Cinderella. If a musical could carry an STD, this one would come with a warning from the CDC. With music by George Stiles,...
Transcendent Hallucinations

By Lauren Smart
May 8, 2014

Ayahuasca made the news when its consumption killed a gap-year student from England during a shamanic ritual ceremony in Colombia. It is a drug used by South America’s indigenous tribes to heal, but the recent upswing of drug tourism has revealed a more sinister side. This drug serves as the...
Hello to You, Fair Spanish Ladies

By Lauren Smart
Feb 13, 2014

Imagine you’re in a small Andalusian mountain town in Spain at the turn of the 20th century. You hold hands with your lover as the Spanish guitars fill the air and the flamenco dancers sweep across the stage in front of you. Open your eyes. You’re in the City Performance...
Stations of the Cross Leading at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival

By Stephanie Zacharek
Feb 13, 2014

Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, both of which publish special daily issues at the major international festivals, may be the most famous movie trade magazines. But every morning at any of these festivals, including Berlin, most critics I know – and probably plenty of industry people, too – turn to...
Gimme That Pretzel Necklace!

By Allison Perkins
Sep 19, 2013

When you think Oktoberfest, you think Germany, October and beer. But, dear schnitzel, you’re thinking wrong. Change the first two to “Addison” and “September” and you’re in business, Mister. Addison Oktoberfest is here and that means four days of nonstop German things. Beer, tavern-style snacks, arts and crafts, a yodeling...
Any Excuse for a Cape

By Katie Womack
Jul 11, 2013

This weekend, Café Madrid brings you all the fun of Spain’s annual Running of the Bulls without the risk of getting trampled, you know, by actual bulls. There will also be a lot less running (read: none) and a lot more eating great food and drinking Spanish wine. Starting at...
Tips for Hungry Brits

By Gustavo Arellano
Jun 6, 2013

Dear Readers: U.K.'s spectacular Guardian newspaper has asked if I could field some questions for their readers as part of the paper's summer travel package — turns out Brits want to know more about Mexican food! Let's be benevolent toward those buggerers: Their idea of what our comida constitutes comes...
Doctor With Borders

The Cold War drama Barbara is one for the ages

By Melissa Anderson
Dec 20, 2012

Set in East Germany in 1980, Christian Petzold's superb Barbara is a transfixing Cold War thriller made even more vivid by its subtle overlay of the golden-era "woman's picture," the woman in question being Dr. Barbara Wolff, brilliantly played by Nina Hoss in her fifth film with the writer-director. Yet...
Spain is No Place to Learn Spanish

By Gustavo Arellano
Nov 1, 2012

Dear Mexican: After a year in Spain, I speak more-than-decent Spanish, and I want to get a job in the nonprofit field where I can put it to use. Thing is, my Spanish is pretty peninsular. I maintained my seseo, thank God, but people have told me I have un...
How to Survive a Plague Recounts a Stirring History of ACT UP

By Melissa Anderson
Oct 4, 2012

In his filmmaking debut, journalist David France assembles a thoroughly reported chronicle of ACT UP's most vital era, from the direct-action group's founding in 1987 (six years into the AIDS epidemic) through 1995. Expertly compiled from hundreds of hours of archival footage — depicting fractious meetings, infamous demonstrations like 1989's...
David France on the History and Survival of ACT UP

By Simon Abrams
Sep 27, 2012

"Death wasn't being responded to as a public health problem," David France says. "It was dealt with with sniggers. It was left to religious leaders to explain or respond to the epidemic. And they responded by calling it the wrath of God." He adds: "That's the hostility we all saw...
Julie Delpy Brings the Paris Gang Stateside for 2 Days in New York

By Nick Pinkerton
Aug 23, 2012

Calling back many of the same characters and more than a few of the same jokes, 2 Days in New York, Julie Delpy's fourth film as writer-director, is a sequel to her 2007 2 Days in Paris. A spin-off of sorts itself, Paris piggybacked on the popularity of 2004's justly...
Where Should I Hang This Gold Medal?

By Brentney Hamilton
Aug 16, 2012

Hard times call for hard bodies, especially when those glutes are available for less than 50 cents apiece! The Hardcore 3rd Sundays International Revue boasts “30 Dancers for $30 or Less,” and Sunday presents a rousing round of finely oiled gentlemen in leather chaps and cowboy hats. Celebrating the 2012...
Take the Bull by the Horns

By Alex Copeland
Jul 5, 2012

Pamplona's Running of the Bulls is an event of ultimate machismo, with men hurdling down narrow streets, pursued by rampaging half-ton bulls. Cafe Madrid's running of the bulls might not be as thrilling thanks to the foam horns of its “bull,” but it could be just as fun. This annual...
The Temper Trap at House of Blues

Sunday, June 10, at House of Blues

By Chris Parker
Jun 7, 2012

Relocating from their Melbourne, Australia home to London before the release of 2009 debut Conditions, The Temper Trap blended like lemon and iced tea. The quintet's sweeping pop melancholia follows on the heels of moody post-millennial U.K. rockers like the Editors and Keane, but with a stronger strain of U2,...
Preview: Starkey at 3025 Main

Saturday, April 21, at 3025 Main

By Shahryar Rizvi
Apr 19, 2012

As one of the original producers of American dubstep, PJ Geissinger has responded to the genre's transition from the U.K. underground to packed arenas by searching for a happy medium. While running his Seclusiasis and Slit Jockey label, Starkey landed on the U.K. electronic imprint Planet Mu for his first...
He is Iron Man

By Sarah Kramer
Feb 9, 2012

While edgy is good, poise is equally important — especially when you’re talking about hard, steel constructions. Artist Marko Kratohvil has found the perfect balance between the traditional and the contemporary. Smooth surfaces of iron and steel collide with the sharp and abrupt bends and sudden loops in his sculptures...
Preview: Los Campesinos!, Wednesday, February 15, at Club Dada

By Chris Parker
Feb 9, 2012

This Welsh septet arrived four years ago on the coattails of similarly energetic U.K. bands (Bloc Party, The Go! Team), blending clamor with sweetness. "You! Me! Dancing!," off their 2008 debut, Hold On Now, Youngster, boasts such bracing pop attack, Budweiser used it in a commercial last year. The writing...
Conquer Your Super Hangover

By Jamie Laughlin
Feb 2, 2012

Did the Super Bowl do you dirty? Are you feeling the punishing aftermath of all-day drinking? Do you feel like an injured athlete, limping off of the field? Don’t worry, player, we have a prescription for your pain: Stretch out that overextended liver and massage it with more booze. Here’s...