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dancing lives—Kaori Nakamura
Kaori Nakamura is a disciplined woman. It’s a tricky business balancing home life, including her lively 15 month old daughter Maya, and the demanding career of a principal dancer in a major ballet company, not [...]
approaching ecstasy 3 – choreographing
A rather daunting prospect. Dances for eighteen sung poems of poet C.P. Cavafy, to create, teach/learn, and refine in five short weeks. This Wednesday morning, Whim W’Him artistic director/choreographer Olivier Wevers, along with dancers Chalnessa [...]
approaching ecstasy 2 – Eric Banks
Composer Eric Banks has always liked puzzles, codes, other languages. “In his composition,” as his website bio notes, he “is drawn to ideas that are ‘esoteric’ in origin, and chooses to uncover and elucidate texts [...]
sofa – in progress
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, they take furniture seriously. The arts, too. And they have a nicely whimsical sense of humor. This is how the official city website has publicized the Grand Rapids Ballet Company's new [...]
approaching ecstasy 1 – Cavafy
Candles (1899) The days of our future stand before us; They wait, like a row of burning candles: Golden, vivid, and warm. The days of our past remain behind us; They linger, in a row [...]
dancing lives – Jim Kent
Not long ago, Jim Kent returned from a fabulous three week visit to the Philippines. He traveled with his mother, who works at Minnesota State University now, but means to retire to an 80-acre piece [...]
Olivier Wevers – in Grand Rapids
This month Olivier Wevers is branching out to the midwest, bringing two Whim W'Him works, This Is Not a Raincoat and FRAGMENTS, to Grand Rapids Ballet Company, whose artistic director is Pacific Northwest Ballet's beloved [...]
dancing lives—Tory Peil
***It's spring and Whim W'Him activity is stepping up! So from now through Approaching Ecstasy (May 18-20, 2012) I'll be posting on Tuesdays as well as Fridays. VFB*** Last spring Tory Peil took a big [...]
two dance worlds
***NOTE: STARTING TODAY WHIM W'HIM'S 'BEHIND THE SCENES' WILL POST EARLY EACH FRIDAY, READY FOR READING WITH YOUR MORNING COFFEE!*** It’s taxing, yet can add greatly to a dancer’s flexibility and artistic maturity to work [...]
dancing lives- Lucien Postlewaite
What is it like to juggle obligations to two companies, especially such different ones as Pacific Northwest Ballet and Whim W’Him? In the recent PNB Don Quixote, principal Lucien Postlewaite danced Basilio, the lead male [...]
About the writer
Victoria Farr Brown is a former historian, a writer, now mostly of fiction, and a long-time lover of dance. She has written about Whim W’Him from its first steps in 2009.