15 replies to this topic

[dirac]

An interview with the Indian classical dancer Ramli Ibrahim.

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He adds, “I am a product of Australian ballet. I worked as a professional dancer with the Sydney Dance Company. This explains my contemporary approach even in presenting Indian classical dance.”

While he was in Australia, Ramli was simultaneously working on Bharatnatyam, and soon his interest graduated to Odissi. “My involvement with Indian classical dance deepened as I became increasingly aware of my psychic connection and resonance with Asia, particularly India,” he says, explaining his fascination with Indian classical dance forms....

Related article.

[dirac]

Dayton Ballet appoints a new president of its board of trustees.

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Trahan's service on the Board of Trustees began in 2005, working as the Chairman of the Resource Development Committee and on the Strategic Planning Committee.

[dirac]

A feature on Next Generation Ballet's summer course by Andrew Ford in The Tampa Tribune.

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These students are slender. They all wear form-fitting tights. Their eager sounds — tapping toes, inside jokes, graceful landings — fill the Patel Conservatory at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. The halls have taken on the aroma of 183 pairs of used ballet flats and hard work.

This will be the first year the Patel Conservatory has held a summer intensive program lasting this long. For the next five weeks, students will dance six hours a day. They will learn classical and contemporary ballet among other lessons, such as jazz, character, tap and stretch.

[dirac]

The late Lena Horne  comes to the rescue of a Joffrey Ballet gala.

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Suddenly numb, I recalled that Pavarotti had a reputation for canceling. Hadn't the idea surfaced in staff meetings that the company should ask another name singer to stand by? Just in case? But in the hurly-burly of gala preparations, this idea had fallen through the cracks.

I later learned that when the company manager ran backstage, he found our senior managers working on a remedy. The Joffrey Ballet was going to dance part one of the program, as planned, so our officials were begging Lena Horne to fill in part two, meaning she'd have to sing twice as many songs as she'd rehearsed. I heard that Ms. Horne summoned her music director, and they quickly decided she would do most of her nightclub act -- a last-minute reprieve.

[dirac]

A review of the Barrington Youth Dance Ensemble by Barbara Benson for The Barrington Courier-Journal.

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“Graduation Ball” was first danced in 1940 by the original Ballet Russes. Greg Merriman’s choreography for Barrington drew on the David Lichine original and brought out the charm, humor and entertaining interactions between the cadets of a military academy who visit a girls’ boarding school for their graduation ball. The young dancers, joined by guest artists, brought great professionalism and presentation to one of the most popular ballets in the repertoires of many of the world’s leading ballet companies.

[dirac]

An interview with Choi Tae-ji, the Korea National Ballet’s artistic director.

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“Private ballet companies all agree on the importance of promoting ballet and staging quality works, and they have increasingly joined forces to do so. But as head of a national troupe, I knew I needed to work with the government to bring systematic change to the way ballet is administered in Korea,” she said in an interview last Wednesday at the KNB office in the Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul.

Since 2008, Choi has been outspoken about establishing a ballet school funded solely by the government that would educate and train 10 to 18-year-old professional ballet dancers-to-be. That way, Choi said, “Korea will be able to identify and foster dancers like Billy Elliot.”

[dirac]

A review of Ballet Manila by Elka Requinta in The Financial Times.

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East Meets West, a jolting mix of classical, neoclassical and contemporary pieces, may have been somewhat reflective of Filipinos’ tendency to put any ingredients to hand in the pot, but it was also Ballet Manila’s way of telling its foreign peers that it too can do anything. From tomorrow, the company will be touring the programme in the UK, Ireland and Asia.

Among the contemporary highlights were choreographer Agnes Locsin’s sexy interpretation of mating spiders in Arachnida and her earthy treatment of the native eagle in Agila. In the first, Mylene Aggabao, clad in an all-black unitard, was the dominatrix female spider and Niño Guevara her intended. In the second, a loincloth-clad Alvin Santos soared through the air and arrogantly puffed his chest to imitate the country’s national bird.

[dirac]

The Ailey company opens the "American Seasons" dance festival in Moscow.

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The US Ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, explained what the festival is all about:  “This will be a one-year-long festival under the aegis of the Russian-American presidential commission. It will familiarize the Russian audience with what is new in contemporary American art of dance. The name of the ‘American Seasons’ project in itself pays homage to Sergei Diaghilev, who did so much in the early 20th century to promote Russian culture in Europe. Starting from 1906 Diaghilev would organize performances by Russian dancers and musicians in Europe as part of his ‘Russian Seasons’ brainchild.  Picking up the baton from Diaghilev, The American Seasons project opens the Russian tour with what has become a symbol of the US art of dance - the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater”.

[dirac]

A review of the Birmingham Royal Ballet by Laura Thompson in The Telegraph.

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There is something rather fearless about the title of this double bill. It certainly raises audience expectations to call a show Passion and Ecstasy, and to advertise it with a poster of a near-naked Tyrone Singleton in a fiercely sexy clinch with a fellow BRB dancer. Still, judging from the pleasurable rustling among the sizeable crowd before curtain up, the blatant ruse had done its job.

That said, there was neither passion nor ecstasy in the first half of the evening. Instead there was charm and delight in the form of Allegri Diversi, created by David Bintley in 1987 and set to some light yet stately curlicues of Rossini. In his role as company director Bintley has become known for his “story” ballets. Yet the subtle inventiveness of this plotless little piece shows a very different aspect to his talent.

[dirac]

Q&A with the actor Amy Bailey.

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Film-News: Amy, you're from Texas originally. After having moved to New York to dance with a ballet company there, you then moved to London to dance with ballet companies here. Why did you choose London?

Amy Bailey: Growing up as an artsy-fartsy kid in South Texas, all I wanted to do as a young teen was move away! Living in NYC was fantastic, but when I was invited to go to London I jumped at the chance. London has such a rich ballet history, and the opportunity to work with the greats, like Dame Alicia Markova, was thrilling. The style is also very different from American ballet, so it was exciting to broaden my horizons artistically.

FN: Are you still active in ballet?

AB: No, I decided to hang up the pointe shoes for good two years ago. It was strange to "retire" so early, but having been professional from 16, I was ready to move on. Classical ballet is not something I can ever do as a hobby - I'd judge myself too harshly. But I enjoy being a patron now and ballet dancers, to me, will always remain the hardest working and most exquisite artists.

[dirac]

Roberto Bolle will perform in Istanbul next month.

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Arriving in İstanbul on Monday for a four-day trip to promote his show titled “Roberto Bolle and Friends,” the 36-year-old heartthrob was greeted at İstanbul Atatürk Airport by students of the classical ballet department of İstanbul University State Conservatory, who presented him with flowers, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.

Noting that this was his first visit to İstanbul, Bolle said: “I’m very excited. I’ve been curious about İstanbul for a long time so I’m very happy to see it. In reality I don’t know that much about the city -- I have seen the Bosporus and the mosques in friends’ photographs, but I want this to be a real learning experience and I will make the time not only to see İstanbul but also other Turkish cities.”

[dirac]

Wheeldon's Alice in Wonderland ballet is a hit in Canada.

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It would also be "wonder" as in wonderful, which is a pretty fair description of how critics and audiences responded to the work — a celebration of dance that sold 27,180 tickets (for a haul of almost $2.5 million) over 13 performances, making Alice the highest grossing main season production in the company's history.

[dirac]

A review of American Ballet Theatre in "Swan Lake" by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

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Yet unless you think that 32 fouetté turns are what ballet is all about, this production (new in 2000) really doesn’t showcase the greatest features of “Swan Lake.” It starts handsomely enough, and its storytelling virtues don’t flag. But its most obvious deficiency occurs in Act IV, which is rushed and gives too little to either ballerina or corps de ballet.

It’s as if Mr. McKenzie shared the feeling that the fouetté turns, danced by the anti-heroine, Odile, are where the ballet reaches its summit, and he tries to polish off the remainder as quickly as possible, without any intermission. Half the final act is danced before a front cloth, and the music has achieved its first important climax before we’ve even reached the lakeside or seen Odette again. The bond between ballerina and corps de ballet, so central to Act II, is no longer in the picture.

[dirac]

The Vienna Ballet concludes its season with a celebration of Nureyev.

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The Nureyev Gala, due to become an annual event, marked the end of Legris's first season as director of the Vienna ensemble, which has seen a renaissance on his watch.The dancer also kept his promise to appear on the Vienna stage this season.

Clocking over three hours, not including interludes, the marathon evening kept the audience enthralled with a mixture of genres, pas de deux and set pieces. In total, 13 pieces followed in quick succession, choreographed by Nureyev or contemporaries like Jerome Robbins, Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice Bejart and William Forsythe.

[dirac]

A Q&A with musician Nick Jaina by Robert Ham in Willamette Week's blog.

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When I ran into him at the Wooden Birds show on Friday at the Doug Fir Lounge, he surprised me with yet another facet of his polymath personality: he has composed the music for a series of ballets that are being performed in New York this year. Working with choreographer Kevin Draper and members of the New York City Ballet, Jaina and his Satellite Ensemble (that includes string players Nathan Langston and Amanda Lawrence) have created some gorgeous and emotionally-stirring instrumental backdrops to the onstage plies and arabesques.