What is not known is whether other dance genres, such as ballroom dancing, Tango, modern dance, square dancing, jazz ballet or classical ballet are more effective at improving movement, balance and quality of life in people with PD.
Though the New York City Ballet "Square Dance" I saw in April had in some respects more technical polish at corps level (and, from Mr. Hübbe, a surpassingly eloquent interpretation of the lead male role), these Seattle performances were delivered with much more of the needed vitality.
Arnold B. Horwitt's clever lyrics and Richard Lewine's cheery music provide ample material for the show's choreographer, Rommy Sandhu, whose work draws from swing, waltz, soft-shoe, ballet and square dancing.
How to marry classical ballet and square dances was demonstrated by Maria Kowroski, all comic flair and flounce, and Nikolaj Hubbe, outstanding in his air turns and pirouettes to an increasingly brisk tempo.
As founder of the Suprematist style shortly before the Russian Revolution, Malevich might have wondered if the ballet's square-patterned costumes (jackets and shorts by Lucia Socci) could represent a complex aesthetic onstage.
Ballet needs to square up to the realities and the possibilities of being a 21st-century art form, and now of all times there's no room for any major company to be complacent or stagnant.
San Francisco may boast more Cuban ballet stars per square mile than any other dance capital outside Havana, but then tiny San Francisco boasts more than its fair share of a lot of cool things.
I also had on my black Burberry ballet slippers with toes squared off like pointe shoes.
Behind the ballet of masses on Kiev squares and Russian army manoeuvres, there is a clear economic logic.
When the ballet was new, it had a square-dance caller onstage ("See those feet go wickety-whack!"), offsetting the European music with American tradition.
In most of his ballets, the space is the regular old square; it's just more interesting than in other people's work.
