Unison

CAMBRIDGE - Choreographer Kelley Donovan knows about impermanence and transformation, the themes of her latest work, “Made of Paper.’’ After years as one of the most vibrant choreographers on the Boston scene, she moved to New York, regrouping with a new set of dancers. Yet she still maintains close ties here, coming back periodically to teach and present new work. Sunday night’s “Made of Paper,’’ performed with five New York-based dancers at the Dance Complex, continues Donovan’s exploration of change and its impact.

CAMBRIDGE - Choreographer Kelley Donovan knows about impermanence and transformation, the themes of her latest work, “Made of Paper.’’ After years as one of the most vibrant choreographers on the Boston scene, she moved to New York, regrouping with a new set of dancers. Yet she still maintains close ties here, coming back periodically to teach and present new work. Sunday night’s “Made of Paper,’’ performed with five New York-based dancers at the Dance Complex, continues Donovan’s exploration of change and its impact.

CAMBRIDGE -- A culture of humanism sweeps through the long-limbed geometrical abstractions of Daniel McCusker. The choreographer, who couples subtly evolving movement patterns with surprising, idiosyncratic gestures, has always had heart. But the pieces in his latest concert signal a balance shift: These dances deliver an emotional wallop, even before the architectural framework filters into focus. McCusker crafted the evening wisely: three short dances -- two duets and a solo -- lead up to the 40-minute premiere "like the river with the same name," a segmented dance for nine to violinist...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Oil prices settled just above $50 a barrel yesterday, recovering from earlier lows as traders continued to look to the equity markets for signs the economy is set to recover. Benchmark crude for May delivery dropped $1.19 to settle at $50.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after dipping as low as $48.84 earlier in the day. Jim Ritterbusch, the president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said investors initially reacted to Friday's International Energy Agency forecast for a drop in global crude demand.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Oil prices settled just above $50 a barrel yesterday, recovering from earlier lows as traders continued to look to the equity markets for signs the economy is set to recover. Benchmark crude for May delivery dropped $1.19 to settle at $50.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after dipping as low as $48.84 earlier in the day. Jim Ritterbusch, the president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said investors initially reacted to Friday's International Energy Agency forecast for a drop in global crude demand.

Jerome Robbins was only 25 when he choreographed his first, most famous ballet, "Fancy Free. " A rousing choreographic tale of three young sailors on shore leave, the ballet sported a jazzy original score by a young, relatively unknown composer named Leonard Bernstein, marking the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Boston Ballet's company premiere of the 1944 ballet is the centerpiece of the current season-ending program, and it's a terrific addition to the repertory, full of comic flair and brilliant choreography.

WHEN I was kid, the only Russia I knew existed in books or the movies. It was a 19th-century landscape woven by Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Dostoyevsky, populated by aristocrats and serfs who had no clue that communism was coming. Or it was the cold headquarters of diabolical spies like the intelligence chief in "From Russia with Love" who stabbed James Bond with a knife in her shoe; the home of that boxer in "Rocky IV" whose soulless ambition and artificial muscles embodied everything we imagined the Soviet Union to be. Since the end of the Cold War, I have missed Russia, which seemed...

FEBRUARY 2, 2012, MIDNIGHT SPRING HILL, SOMERVILLE I am no one's idea of a morning person, but I have still set my bedside alarm clock for an ungodly hour. I've been handed an assignment that is half reporting challenge, half endurance test – spending a full day in Kendall Square – and I need to get an early start.   I'm supposed to investigate the theory that Cambridge's Kendall Square, which has languished as a wind-swept tech corridor for decades, has finally reached some kind of tipping point.

The story I'm about to tell is not a joke. Check that: It's in many ways a joke, but not in any way that's funny. It really happened. The award truly exists. The recipient really was honored. Here goes: There's an organization called the National Association of Corporate Directors. This organization has a New England chapter, known in shorthand as NACDNE. You know what corporate directors are. They are successful people, nearly always men, almost always white, who sit on the boards of public and private companies, often where their friends are the chief executives.

‘‘Can everybody say ‘volatility'?" There are seven people in the classroom: Kendric Price, a 25-year-old basketball phenom from a rough patch of Dorchester, and six boys he is trying to save from the streets. It's a Saturday morning, when many 25-year-olds are sleeping off the night before and a lot of city kids are home playing ‘‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," because real bullets don't fly in video games. The boys know volatility well. They have seen it on their blocks, in their schools, in their everyday lives.

CAMBRIDGE -- A culture of humanism sweeps through the long-limbed geometrical abstractions of Daniel McCusker. The choreographer, who couples subtly evolving movement patterns with surprising, idiosyncratic gestures, has always had heart. But the pieces in his latest concert signal a balance shift: These dances deliver an emotional wallop, even before the architectural framework filters into focus. McCusker crafted the evening wisely: three short dances -- two duets and a solo -- lead up to the 40-minute premiere "like the river with the same name," a segmented dance for nine to violinist...

Step through the flung-open door and you might think you’ve entered a nightclub. Inside, kaleidoscopes of color dazzle the walls. Latin music booms, deep bass penetrates to the bone. Silhouettes — mostly women, one or two men, tall, short, some with enviable bodies, others not so much — move more or less in unison. Step-step-step-right-knee-clap. Hip shake. Step-step-step-left-knee-clap. Hip shake. Arms flutter, feet pendulum, booties wiggle — every move accented by whoops and yelps and high-pitched, energetic trills.

The man on the cover of "The Wage Slave's Glossary" (Biblioasis) carries a briefcase and wears a ball and chain. Are those tears or drops of sweat falling away from him? No matter. Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell, creators of "The Idler's Glossary," offer a wry brand of enlightenment in their pocket-sized guide to the terms of paid labor. The phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" sprang from a 1913 comic strip in which the Joneses never appeared. And they trace the origin of "knock off work" to the days when oarsmen rowed in unison and a special knock would signify a time to...