Karole Armitage: older, cool and sensual

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In the ‘80s, her hair was spiky, and that -- combined with her fondness for hard-edge pop and the visual effect of her long legs extended even further by pointe shoes -- made it unsurprising that Vanity Fair declared her a punk ballerina.

But as choreographer Karole Armitage explains to Susan Reiter in the Arts & Books section, classical ballet was always what appealed to her. She just ‘wanted to communicate things about my generation.’

In 1989, Armitage stopped dancing, and as Reiter reports, she spent the next decade and a half working primarily in Europe. It wasn’t until 2005 that, back in the U.S., she felt compelled to form a troupe of her own again. Dubbed Armitage Gone! Dance, it will bring her to the Carpenter Center in Long Beach next weekend.

Armitage’s recent work, Reiter says, is ‘intriguingly cerebral yet coolly sensual’ -- which may speak to the fact that she recently turned 55. But she hasn’t forgotten her roots: She’s also the choreographer of the new Broadway production of ‘Hair.’

-- Craig Fisher