10 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Reviews of Carlos Acosta's "Premieres Plus."

The Telegraph

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It’s a test that Premieres Plus – Carlos Acosta’s latest pick-and-mix of modern dance – fails badly. The Royal Ballet guest principal has made a laudable effort to use sound, lighting and general stage craft to link one piece to the next. Unfortunately, these artfully blurred boundaries only highlight the works’ general saminess.

The Evening Standard

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And although only 90 minutes long, Acosta and Yanowsky dance almost non stop, meaning there are awkward transitions while they exit to change costume or simply catch breath. Acosta is a major talent, and retirement is some way off, but he needs better material, and a more varied mix. This show gives few clues to his range and cashmere appeal.

North Wales Daily Post

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Premieres Plus is a far better and more even choice of material danced with unerring certainty. At times it is achingly tender and at others excitingly explosive. Acosta’s power and Ms Yanowsky’s incredible agility are both excellent foils and undeniably fluid. They challenge each other and then envelop each other it is, to borrow Acosta’s word, a wonderful fusion.

The Arts Desk

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Like Sylvie Guillem he seeks out a new contemporary dance path to fulfil, being still full of glorious physical vigour and still well under 40. But it turns out to be about wise investment. Guillem invested long ago in blue-chip stock, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant, the choreographers with whom she now extends her stellar career into her mid-forties. Acosta hasn't invested so wisely.

[dirac]

Q&A with Eddie Mikrut of Nashville Ballet.

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What was your first real job as a dancer?

Growing up in Los Angeles I was always doing little day jobs acting or dancing in commercials, videos, and industrials, small jobs that you got paid for but never lasted for more than a couple of days. The first dance job that I did that lasted for a few weeks was dancing in Disneyland's Very Merry Christmas Parade. I was 10 or 11 and had the role of one of the Lost Boys dancing with the Peter Pan float. It was a fun job dancing down the streets of Disneyland and entertaining a whole park full of guests. At the time I thought being a chimney sweep on the Mary Poppins float was the coolest thing in the world. Of course now I realize we were dancing on concrete and getting paid minimum wage, but to the 10-year-old me it was an amazing time.

[dirac]

Ballet BC achieves its fundraising goals for the second year in a row.

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Reaching the target in its Spring Fund-raising Campaign in the first six months of the year was described as a "spectacular achievement" in a time of global economic uncertainty by Kevin Leslie, Ballet BC's chair of the board of directors.

It also indicates the goodwill and support the company enjoys in Metro Vancouver, he said.

[dirac]

An item on the new reality show in production focusing on ballet, "En Pointe."

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The series will showcase our very own Miami City Ballet Company as it prepares for the most prestigious ballet festival in Paris, France. The Les Etes de Danse Festival – Summers of Dance, runs from July 6 through July 23 at the Theatre du Catelet in Paris, France. The Miami City Ballet, under the great leadership of Edward Villella, will present 17 performances including works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp and Christopher Wheeldon.

The show continues filming through the end of the summer across the world and will feature a variety of ballet companies throughout the country. Be on the lookout when the show airs this fall.

[dirac]

A review of "Rattigan's Nijinsky" by Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail.

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This dandyish Diaghilev has an Indira Gandhi-style flash of grey in his fringe. He wears a fraying Astrakhan coat and still radiates  a rasping command, which somehow sees him through his fading finances.

Joseph Drake’s Nijinsky is an intense, shivery, devout creature but the show does not drill deep into his soul. He is courted relentlessly by pretty Romola (Faye Castelow), and for me the evening’s one moment of emotion comes when the two youngsters dance the tango, Nijinsky being finally captured by the pretty young woman (partly because she is wearing a dinner jacket).

[dirac]

Attendance was up for New York City Ballet in Saratoga this year.

The Albany Times Union

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The ballet attracted 45,034 people in 2007 and 42,354 in 2008, according to SPAC.

Ticket sales for 2011 were projected to reach $936,000, an increase of eight percent, SPAC officials said. They credited the gains to “a season of stellar programming, a highly successful “Gatsby” Ballet Gala and glowing reviews.”

The Saratogian

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When SPAC eliminated one week of ballet performances in 2008 the move made a slight dent in the financial loss SPAC experiences each year as a result of accommodating the ballet. When the season was longer, SPAC lost around $1 million each year, which shrunk to a loss of $850,000 once the two-week season was introduced in 2009.

According to White, the cost breakdown to host the ballet is as follows: about $1 million — $936,000 this year — is raised in ticket sales and fundraising; $400,000 comes from sponsorship; and SPAC is still left with a $400,000 deficit to be made up by individual donations and membership costs.

[dirac]

A story on the Bolshoi by Stuart Williams for AFP.

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Ratmansky left allegedly because he fell out with the pro-Grigorovich old guard and the company appeared to tread water after his departure. This year a top candidate to become the new artistic director became embroiled in a dark campaign to smear him using pornographic images.

But the Bolshoi then scored a coup by appointing as ballet director ex-dancer Sergei Filin, who had turned Moscow's Stanislavsky Musical Theatre into a rival of its more famous counterpart by promoting innovative dance.

[dirac]

Q&A with ten year old Sacha Skirzyk, who's dancing with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in their annual summer performances in the park.

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How did you come to be performing at "Ballet in the Park"?  

Well, my group that did the Manitoba Dance Fest together won a gold and the RWB school asked us to do Ballet in the Park.

Can you describe the dance you will be performing in?
"Sailors' Dance" - It's a Ukranian character dance and we are sailors. The Music is by Pavlo Virsky, choreographed for us by Kristina Washchyshyn who teaches at RWB and a Ukranian dance school.

[dirac]

A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet's 'Giselle' by Leigh Witchel for danceviewtimes.

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Unsurprisingly, the original ending undercuts the drama, but it makes more sense than one would think. Act 2 over the years has become such a complete communion for Albrecht and Giselle that if it’s really done well, one wonders why Albrecht would have any reason to go on living without her.

Throughout the production, the biggest difference of all is the mime. There is far more, and it’s a blessing and a problem.

[dirac]

Australian Ballet  dancers participate in a tribute to the Sydney Opera House.

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The Ship Songs also features vocals from Angus and Julia Stone, Katie Noonan and opera singer Teddy Tahu Rhodes. In addition to the Australian Ballet, the Sydney Symphony, Opera Australia, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Bell Shakespeare Company and the Australian Chamber Orchestra join the singers in the video.

Sydney Opera House chief Richard Evans said the stature of the artists and companies who joined the project is testament to the House's role in Australian performing arts.

[dirac]

A preview of the Trey McIntyre Project's performance at Lincoln Center by Robert Johnson in  The Star-Ledger of Newark.

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The choreographer’s own aesthetic is grounded in the vocabulary of classical ballet, but he describes his approach to choreography as "instinctive" and says he doesn’t care whether his dances look traditional.

McIntyre, who spent many happy hours relaxing in New Orleans with his friends when he was still performing with the Houston Ballet, says that in "Ma Maison" he wanted to capture the special outlook of the city’s inhabitants, who manage to combine the search for pleasure with a hovering awareness of their mortality. To quote from the lyrics of St. James Infirmary: "Put a jazz band on my hearse wagon/Raise hell as I roll along … Twelve men going to the graveyard/And 11 coming back."