Lewis Whittington is an arts journalist based in Philadelphia. He started writing professionally in the early 90s as a media consultant for an AIDS organizations and then as a theater and dance reviewer for the Philadelphia Gay News. Mr. Whittington has covered dance, theater, opera and classical music for the Philadelphia Inquirer and City Paper.
Mr. Whittington’s arts profiles, features, and stories have appeared in The Advocate, Dance International, Playbill, American Theatre, American Record Guide, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, EdgeMedia, and Philadelphia Dance Journal. Mr. Whittington has received two NEA awards for journalistic excellence.
In addition to interviews with choreographers, dancers, and artistic directors from every discipline, he has interviewed such music luminaries from Ned Rorem to Eartha Kitt. He has written extensively on gay culture and politics and is most proud of his interviews with such gay rights pioneers as Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings.
Mr. Whittington has participated on the poetry series Voice in Philadelphia and has written two (unpublished) books of poetry. He is currently finishing Beloved Infidels, a play about the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. His editorials on GLBTQ activism, marriage equality, gay culture and social issues have appeared in Philadelphia Inquirer, City Paper, and The Advocate.
Philadelphia-based choreographer Silvana Cardell is nearing completion for the premiere of a multimedia dance piece titled ‘Disposable Bodies’ which will have its first performance run
While live performances are scarce by mid-summer, it provides a perfect time to catch up on your reading with a cool dance book. Here are
Jamar Roberts retired from performing after twenty years as a dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre but is still a part of the company
The balcony of the Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theater was filled last Saturday night for the final performance of MOMIX’s production of Alice, conceived by Moses Pendleton
BalletX artistic director Christine Cox was in front of medium size, but very enthusiastic crowd at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park on May 18
Jermel Johnson gave his final performance as a Philadelphia Ballet principal dancer at the Academy of Music on May 15 to an audience of his
About 200 people gathered at City Hall on May 11 for a noontime #FundPHLArts Rally calling on the Kenney administration to invest more in the city’s nonprofit
On the Forrest Theater stage for the first time in two years, and alas, the last time, was this chapter of the dancers of the
In the early 90s, Pennsylvania Ballet members Michael Sheridan, Nick Stuccio, Leslie Carothers, and Kelly Moriarty co-founded Shut-Up & Dance, a benefit performance to raise