6 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A labor dispute at the Joffrey Ballet may result in a lockout.

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Featured dancer Fabrice Calmels downplayed the letter, saying that the Joffrey was “doing what it legally needs to do,” and that dancers had no plans to “do anything stupid like go out on strike.”

Calmels said the dancers just needed an extension for further talks. “Both sides need to make a rational decision that will involve some compromise,” he said. The letter was critical of the dancers’ union, saying it had not responded to a final proposal that included salary increases for each year of a five-year deal. The sticking point for the union, according to the letter, was an increase of rehearsal time from five hours a day to six hours.

[dirac]

A review of the Paris Opera Ballet by Laura Cappelle in The Financial Times.

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Don't be put off by the pompous title or the strike currently playing havoc with Paris Opera performances: Wayne McGregor’s first evening-length creation for a ballet company, L’anatomie de la sensation, is a welcome surprise at the end of a rather pedestrian season. After a glacial first collaboration with the POB in 2007, Genus, this work for eleven soloists and a corps de ballet has uneven moments but brims with a more relaxed inventiveness.

Billed as a tribute to Francis Bacon, the piece intermittently references the painter, with silent screams among the corps de ballet and bursts of violence in one pas de deux. McGregor’s work, however, is too idiosyncratic to take the connection much further, and relies on his customary bright, minimalist sets and costumes for visual effect. Instead, the driving force in L’anatomie is the score, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s own homage to Bacon, Blood on the Floor.

[dirac]

The Royal New Zealand Ballet presents 'The Sleeping Beauty.'

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Premiering in New Zealand in October, it is the Royal New Zealand Ballet's grandest production to date featuring spectacular sets, sumptuous costume design and breathtaking classical choreography.

In a coup, the company has also engaged American Ballet Theatre soloist Stella Abrera to perform the lead role of Aurora.

[dirac]

Michele Wiles will appear with the Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet.

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Michele Wiles, the principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater will make a guest appearance in the world premiere of "Anilla," Lemon Sponge Cake's new dance, in Boulder this Saturday at part of the Chautauqua Summer Series. The piece was created by Lemon Sponge Cake's co-founder and choreographer, Robert Sher-Machherndl, the Denver Post's 2010 Dance Person of the Year.

[dirac]

Kirsty Martin says farewell to the stage in 'The Merry Widow.'

The Herald Sun

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The principal artist will give her last performance tonight in The Merry Widow before stepping off the stage and into the waiting arms of her partner and two young children. "That's what I really want to be right now - a housewife and a mum and just that," Martin says. "I feel positive about it and I'm really ready to move on.''

At 35, she could stay in the game, but her shift in priorities has taken away the burning drive to be at the top. Ironically, it was after deciding to retire that she produced some of her best work.

The Australian

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She took a two-year sojourn from the AB in 2000 to dance with revered Dutch contemporary dance troupe Nederlands Dans Theatre I and she was the first among her contemporaries to return to the stage after having a baby, a feat she repeated last year after the birth of her second child.

"Oscar in 2005 was the first baby in a long time (born to a ballerina with the company)," she said.

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Ballet by Diane Baker in The Taipei Times.

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The Royal Ballet won a whole new legion of fans with its visit to the National Theater, which more than lived up to the expectations that had been building since its visit was first announced in December.

The Mixed Bill program and Giselle were in both impressive productions, in very different ways, but in the end in came down to the dancers, who were simply superb. The decision to open the Taipei tour with the mix of Wayne McGregor’s Choma, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Raphsody and Chrisopher Wheeldon’s DVG was spot on: McGregor’s piece served notice that this was not your parents’ Royal Ballet, Ashton’s gave the audience a vision of what they think the Royal is, while Wheeldon’s showed what the Royal actually is now.

[dirac]

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

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It’s New York’s loss that neither of its foremost ballet companies — New York City Ballet nor American Ballet Theater — currently has a production that does this classic ballet justice. The problem, admittedly, is not only local. There are obvious flaws in the Bolshoi Ballet production (a 2010 performance has now been handsomely broadcast in high definition in cinemas, most recently on June 19) and the Royal Ballet’s (which I saw in three performances this spring). But those two productions have serious merits, whereas the leading American productions simply trivialize the ballet.