Janice Berman

Janice Berman, SFCV’s senior dance critic, has been a dance writer and reviewer since 1978, beginning at Newsday and New York Newsday. She has written on dance for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Ballet Review, and Dance Magazine, where she was editor-in-chief.

Articles By This Author

Janice Berman - October 15, 2011

Resin — a stunning new ballet created for the Alonzo King LINES Ballet — is a cohesive suite of dances that is continuously spellbinding with dancers who are glorious interpreters and enhancers of rhythm and melody.

Janice Berman - September 30, 2008
Mark Morris has said that one of the things he finds puzzling about Romeo and Juliet ballets is that when the couple awakens after their night of nuptial passion, Juliet's still wearing toe shoes. When modern choreographers snipe at toe shoes, they're drawing distinctions between ballet's contrivances and modern dance's lack thereof.
Janice Berman - May 6, 2008
Were it not the brainchild of Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, a festival marking the San Francisco Ballet's 75th anniversary by presenting 10 new ballets in one week (three programs in all) would be regarded as a fool's errand. Some fool. Some errand. It's a success.
Janice Berman - April 15, 2008
It’s not that unusual, not anymore, for a ballet company to commission a dance from a modern choreographer.
Janice Berman - March 25, 2008
Like freelancers in other fields — journalism comes to mind — Laura Jackson, one of the six finalists in the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra’s search for a music director to succeed Kent Nagano, flies in, forges bonds, does her job, and moves on.
Janice Berman - February 19, 2008
At opposite sides of the Bay over the weekend, two productions of Giselle highlighted two ballerinas who are, in effect, at opposite ends of their careers. Nina Ananiashvili, artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia and in her 40s, danced the title role Saturday night during the troupe's Cal Performances engagement at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.
Janice Berman - February 5, 2008
Virgil Thomson isn't the composer who pops automatically to mind when you think of dance, but he was a major presence at San Francisco Ballet over the weekend.
Janice Berman - January 29, 2008
Predictably, the two versions of Merce Cunningham's eyeSpace seen on consecutive nights of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's engagement at Stanford University last weekend, presented by Stanford Lively Arts, looked so different from each other as to be separate creations. What was less predictable was the difference in their affect, their effect.
Janice Berman - January 22, 2008
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company, as has become widely known, does not dance to music, nor does the music play for the dancers. Both exist in the same time frame, but they're created separately, as are lighting and decor.
Janice Berman - January 8, 2008
As we begin the new year, San Francisco Classical Voice takes a look back at the performances of 2007 that some of our reviewers most enjoyed. As with any such list, the choices are entirely subjective.