Author: Y Kendall

Alvin Ailey: A Thriving Legacy of Excellence

When Alvin Ailey premiered Revelations in 1960, he was not quite 30 years old and his dance company had only been performing for two years. Ailey, son of a teenageRead More

Total Art at the Nashville Ballet: Vasterling, Prokofiev, and more

Paul Vasterling’s Romeo and Juliet is definitely a tour de force. As he reveals in the pre-performance video, his intent was to create balance between narrative and dance, between movementRead More

Frist Art Museum in collaboration with Nashville Opera

When Marian Sang

It wasn’t clear what to expect. A collaboration between an art museum and an opera company was unusual enough to pique curiosity in lovers of both arts. So, on aRead More

Michelle Eistrup’s Dikenga: Four Faces of the Sun at Fisk

Prior to the sunset premiere of Dikenga: Four Faces of the Sun, Fisk University Galleries (Jameel Sheats, curator) hosted a panel and reception indoors on the John Hope and AureliaRead More

Thoughts of a Colored Man: Town and Gown Triumph

The first morality play in Western culture was written in 12th-century Germany by a woman for women. Of its many characters, only one, the devil, was male. The most recentRead More

OZ Arts presents

TRIBE – Black Hole: Trilogy and Triathlon

Darkened space, a throbbing mass of blue glimmering lights upstage center. Gradually, one by one, dancers emerge from a primordial ooze as if crawling into a new reality or allowingRead More

The MCR Interview

Shamel Pitts, Founder and Artistic Director of TRIBE

The MCR Interview: Journalist Y. Kendell interviews Shamel Pitts, the founder and artistic director of TRIBE, about performance art, afrofuturism, the complexities of race and identity. TRIBE will be performingRead More

From the Nashville Ballet

A Tale of Two Nutcrackers

The Nutcracker has been in the news lately. That’s unusual because this 19th-century masterpiece has been a staple of American holiday seasons for generations, remaining as part of the festiveRead More

From Nashville Ballet

The MCR Interview: Mollie Sansone, resident choreographer for Nashville Ballet, discusses her work

A star on Nashville’s skyline since 2004, when she began her career with the Nashville Ballet, Mollie Sansone has had a remarkable career as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. HerRead More

In Correspondence from San Francisco

Les Illuminations by Benjamin Britten and The Planets by Gustav Holst

(performed in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California, October 27, 2023. San Francisco Symphony, Elim Chan, conductor; Andrew Staples, tenor.) Greatness makes itself known, even to the least experienced musicRead More