What the critics have said about Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers…
On Unsing the Song
“To witness Unsing the Song is a painful honor, reminding us how infinitely transcendent and healing art can be art that transforms the worst of experiences into something exquisitely moving, lyrical, and hauntingly beautiful.”
-Linda Ayres-Frederick, SF Bay Times
“Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers enthralled Unsing the Song evoked a world of moving torments and fragile triumphs strangely chilling. I found myself holding my breath. This is the kind of dance that evokes powerful associations in the mind of the audience, each person creating a different story from the visual feast. This was a rich and troubling piece. And through it all, a woman walked, not seeing the struggle around her, singing in a plangent and beautiful voice, in an imaginary language.”
-Terry Baum, SF Bay Times
On Global Heart
“Global Heart invited us to contemplate the entire earth as a vast feeling and thinking body, one possessed of history, memory, voice, suffering, and desire”
Phrases seemed to coalesce into an account of origins and loss almost an eco-feminist counter-tale to Genesis (a Gynesis)then shifted and complicated their meaning.”
-Elizabeth Gand
On Tears of Rock
“‘Tears’ fervently but unsentimentally looks at the human cost of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East Bluethenthal’s choreography…included a whipping solo that sent her careening across the floor in exultation and despair…. A central duet was as economical as it was eloquent.”
-Rita Felciano
About Bluethenthal…
“You can always expect work that is thoughtful, fresh, and personal….”
“… Her work is brainy, her own, and full of soul, and without her voice, the chorus of Bay Area dance would be so much more impoverished.”
-Rita Felciano
“Bluethenthal has been a tireless member of the local dance scene since 1982 (with a) fluid, sensual style, she is interested less in a corpus of modern dance moves than in a breath line that links the movements, an intention that propels them and spiritual quest that binds them, however loosely.”
“Hers is at once a feminine and a feminist vision…”
“‘Broken Open’ richly describes the physical, spiritual and emotional heart.”
-Ann Murphy
“Anne Bluethenthal’s dancing and choreography appears natural and effortless as if it was made whole by nature or the human body, not built painstakingly of dance technique, discipline and hard work. It’s a joy to watch, especially in an age when dancers make a virtue of effort.”
-V. Morrissey
On Excavations of the Spirit…
“Bluethenthal’s ensemble relished this emotionally eloquent and detailed choreography with a fluidity that was mesmerizing. Central to Excavations is a long solo in which Bluethenthal’s hypnotic dervish turns seemed to dig from the earth, or the human body whatever rapture and harmony we are capable of.”
-Rita Felciano, Danceview
“The dance impulse triumphs in Excavations where Bluethenthal revealed a new universality. Bluethenthal has imbued the choreography with remarkable emotional nuance.”
-Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner
“Bluethenthal and her dancers create images that are disturbing, inspiring, and mindful of what dance is a reflection of humanity and culture. The ritualistic and sacred repetition in Excavations are reminiscent of dancing that was done thousands of years ago dancing that was performed because it was recognized as a sacred opportunity to connect with the divine. It’s that recognition that makes Bluethenthal’s repertoire not only stand out but remain timeless because it speaks the truth.”
-Janet Lynn Roseman, San Francisco Bay Times
“Her choreography is hotly passionate and cooly cerebral at the same time…you sense a focused intelligence that holds the work together like internal girders hold up a piece of sensuously curved architecture.”
-San Francisco Bay Guardian
On Bluethenthal…
“A rarity and a pleasure, Anne Bluethenthal is among the SF Bay Area’s most charismatic performers…(she stands) out for the rich and energetic fury of her own attack and the warmth and ease of her delivery…(she) dances with the headlong rush of freely inventing movement as she goes along.”
-Janice Ross, Dance Magazine
“Anne Bluethenthal is a dancer’s dancer….(She has a) richly sensual manner of moving and a feel for the private history of each phrase of movement… Bluethenthal doesn’t invent steps, she reveals them…as a bit of organic reality preselected for our enjoyment.”
“Bluethenthal’s work resonates with the strong gutsy integrity of dance that comes from a heart-felt center.”
-Oakland Tribune
“Bluethenthal is a fine, strong, silky dancer…”
-Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice
“The bursts of energy in Gold Horns and Green Eyes successfully conveyed a sense of urgency…Ms. Bluethenthal gradually allowed emotional strains to be visible behind a mask of poise in the compelling “Standing on the Throat of Her Own Voice.'”
-Jack Anderson, The New York Times
On Through A Fractured Sky…
“Bluethenthal’s moves capture the sweet lyricism of the music and even a heroic quality…The company revealed an airy musicality, enviable stretch, and remarkable technical control.”
-Allan Ulrich, SF Examiner
“Bluethenthal has assembled a group of vibrant performers who obviously relish the sheer joy of movement, and then permitted them to let their personalities shine through at every opportunity…”
“Anne Bluethenthal is one of those choreographers who continues to make complacency the wrong kind of baggage for Bay Area dance lovers to carry about with them.”
-Allan Ulrich, SF Examiner
“Anne Bluethenthal’s choreography is a fluent mix of steely modern technique and the random gesture of everyday movement.”
-Marilyn Tucker, SF Chronicle
“Anne Bluethenthal is a mesmerizing dancer: clean, fiery and wonderfully precise in her extensions. She is a joy to watch.”
“Bluethenthal’s movement concerns are utterly lucid: the way she and her dancers subtly shift their weight; the way they fall off balance…their paths unwinding spontaneously like ribbons off a spool; the fleeting interpolations of everyday features into a lush wash of abstract movement…a luxuriant, sensuous and released style of dance movement.”
-Janice Ross, SF Bay Guardian
“I was astonished by the clarity of line and gesture that define her movement style…work that’s well-crafted, non-gimmicky, sensitive, appealing, choreographically provocative…(it) was extraordinarily lyrical, introspective and communicative work…”
-David Gere, SF Sentinel