"A dazzling lesson in theatrical craft... funny, thrilling and utterly deft."
– The New York Times
"Few artists make categories seem as happily irrelevant as ...Big Dance Theater in their exquisitely constructed collaborations...richly layered... A choreographic knockout..."
– The New York Times
"The company's artistic directors consistently make contemporary magic from classical material."
– New York Times
"It's hard to do justice to the freewheeling brilliance of Big Dance Theater's combination of dance, theater, video and idiosyncratic imagination; suffice it to say you should see the work of Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar whenever possible."
– New York Times
"...a sublime reimagining of Euripides' "Alcestis" by this unclassifiable company. The co-directors evoke its slippery moods to poetic effect, using ... their usual multimedia wizardry."
– New York Times
"I'm still haunted by The Supernatural Wife's ingenious layering of the lofty tragedy with down-home manners. Parson, Lazar, and the cast convey a carefully calibrated sense of performers impersonating performers who are performing Euripides. Or rehearsing for a tragedy they don't fully understand, when, of course, they do."
– Deborah Jowitt
"Supernatural Wife is a work with a real artistic identity.... a breathtaking, contemporary adaptation."
– Scenes Magazine
"Visually the show is striking and often of a great beauty, as the strength of the text is magnified. It is a brilliant success."
– Le Progres
"Big Dance Theater makes ancient Euripides for the 21st century. Their theatre is jubilant and virtuosic."
– Lyon-communique
"Spotted during its previous appearance at Les Subsistances with Comme toujours Here I Stand, a beautiful tribute to Agnès Varda, Big Dance Theater gets down this time, with as much talent, to Euripide's Tragedy of Alceste. (Destined to die soon, this young king gets the chance to have someone else take his place. His spouse sacrifices herself for him and in return, she demands that he be forever faithful to her.) Once again, the New York company excels in being a Jack of all trades in this eclectic performance. Each medium is perfectly mastered Dance, video, theater and song combine in making this tragedy a complete and hybrid form— the ancient aligns with modern technology."
– Les Trois Coups
"... the final moments have a gut-punching beauty that brilliantly
sidesteps sentimentality."
– Austin 360
"Comme Toujours Here I Stand is a veritable hommage to Agnes Varda, the New Wave, and more generally, to the French culture."
– Elise Ternat-Les Trois Coups, Lyon, France
"Riotously, beautifully more than its parts is Big Dance Theater’s The Snow Falls in the Winter"
– The New York Times
"The always adventurous Big Dance Theater, which makes vivid theater from disparate themes and images... Paul Lazar [is] a brilliantly subtle actor..."
– The New York Times
“The result is funny, smart, and unexpectedly moving. Also, it's daring. The results feel bracingly fresh. [It] does what art ought to do: It shows us something new."
– The Washington Post
"Such effortless dream logic delivered in a whimsical melancholy slice of enchantment is only to be expected from BDT."
– Time Out New York
“Some of the most interesting and intelligent performers in New York.”
– The Village Voice
“Deeply brilliant ...people need to see this amazing company.”
– The New York Times
“...even it you claim dance illiteracy, BIG DANCE THEATER’s fiercely visual work can move you to tears.”
– Time Out New York
"Big Dance Theater does, in fact, think big. It's a richly layered, multi-textured work that...always engages and greatly entertains."
– The Boston Globe
"Like some bastard offspring of David Mamet and David Lynch, Big Dance Theater...defies easy pigeonholing as dance or theater at the same time it utterly entertains and provokes. One of the funniest performances you're likely to see at The Pillow - or anywhere."
– Berkshire Living Magazine
“The most cohesive ensemble work in recent history.”
– Off Broadway Review
“Be forewarned: the company’s work has a way of sticking with you.”
– The Village Voice
“The most refreshing voice among a new generation of choreographers. Parson’s blend of dance and theater is accessible to any audience member regardless of age, race, gender or previous knowledge of dance.”
– Call Toronto
“Like innovators, not imitators...they know how to deliver a spectacle piping hot.”
– The Village Voice
“This splendid and adventurous company conjures up the most implausible choreographic and literary concoctions.”
– 2000 Obie Awards
“In Parson and Lazar’s magic realism, surprising events seem normal, comedy and tragedy dance hand in hand, and the trivial assumes profundity.”
– The Village Voice
“Beyond the formal pleasures and the wit of BIG DANCE THEATER’s work, there is dignity and gravity, a profound sense of something at stake, perhaps a search for truth.”
– American Theater Magazine
“A boldly arranged marriage of dance and theater that is equal parts classical and contemporary text, deft music-theater composition, gifted ensemble and inspired design. A constantly startling body of work.”
– 2002 Bessie Award
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