7 replies to this topic

[dirac]

New York City Ballet announces perfomance dates for the new ballet with a score by Paul McCartney, "Ocean's Kingdom."

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The work will be performed four times during the fall season on Sept. 24, 25, 27, and 29, and five times during the 2012 winter season on Jan. 19, 21, 24, 27, and 29, according to the ballet. The Sept. 22 gala premiere will include George Balanchine’s "Union Jack."

[dirac]

An interview with Vanessa Woods of Saint Louis Ballet.

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While a dancer never stops studying and practicing, Woods did begin to land jobs dancing with professional ballet companies located around the country, including the Colorado Ballet and companies in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.

It was a job dancing in Washington D.C. that made the biggest impression on her. “I danced with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center,” Woods said.

[dirac]

A review of a new collection of Agnes de Mille's writings, "Leaps in the Dark," by Megan Pugh for Boston Review.

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De Mille often veered between earnestness and humor—or as she described it in a harsh characterization of her choreographic tendencies, “the breaking of all lyric line with a joke.” In many of her ballets, she was the butt of those jokes: several early solos had her play the anxious and awkward ballerina, and in Rodeo, she was the clumsy, love-struck Girl. Her memoirs give a similar picture. After kicking off her slipper in the studio one time, she had to crawl underneath the chair of the famous choreographer Leonide Massine and “fumble long-armed behind his feet.” And at the end of a triumphant rehearsal, she turned around and began talking to the cast, only to find an empty room. “They had left on their vacation,” she writes. These gags keep de Mille approachable, but she doesn’t lose sight of art’s heroic powers.........

[dirac]

A story on ballet training options for aspiring dancers in the Salt Lake City area by Kathy Adams in The Salt Lake Tribune.

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Young Utah dancers who hope to pursue a professional career in ballet have several training options in Salt Lake City — most notably Ballet West Academy and most recently Salt Lake City Ballet Academy.

Yet there are also outstanding choices for those who live north and south of downtown. Through interviews with students, studio founders and the professional dancers who teach in those studios, we’ve chosen to highlight three programs.

[dirac]

The Thomas Armour Youth Ballet offers a program of low-cost classes.

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“Our goal is to bring high quality dance education to kids all over Dade County,” said Director Ruth Wiesen, “and to get them into magnet schools or “A” schools.

The non-profit dance company, whose students have gone on to perform in top-notch troupes such as Alvin Ailey, will provide kids with leotards, tights and ballet shoes.

[dirac]

A Ballet West dancer will be posting contributions to The Salt Lake Tribune's Facebook page.

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As Ballet West sets off to perform at Wolf Trap and the Chicago Dancing Festival, dancer Tom Mattingly will post comments and photos on The Tribune’s ReMix Facebook page. The Ballet West soloist says he plans to write about what dancers experience while on tour and offer a backstage look at what goes into a Ballet West performance.

[dirac]

Ballet West is holding a competition for short vampire-related films.

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Before that, however, they want you to help them advertise. Through Sept. 23, Ballet West is accepting submissions of short films between 30 seconds and five minutes in length. Your film needs to have a general theme of Dracula and/or vampires, but beyond that, knock yourself out.

The winning filmmaker will be granted the power to change himself into a bat and fly away -- no, not really. The winning entries will be posted at the Ballet West website and used to promote the upcoming production of "Dracula." According to a press release announcing the contest, "Additional prizes will be awarded."

[dirac]

A story on current plans for the future of Morphoses by Karyn D. Collins for DanceUSA.

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Rather than employing a new, permanent artistic director to shape the company’s artistic footprint in the dance world, Morphoses is planning to reemerge this fall without a permanent artistic director. Instead, the company, which is overseen by executive director (and former Balanchine dancer) Lourdes Lopez, will employ a series of resident artistic directors, each of whom is to be engaged for a year with the express purpose of creating a new work or works for the Morphoses repertoire. First up under this new structure: Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti, whose  world premiere “Bacchae” opens at New York’s Joyce Theater October 25-30. The production, described by the company as a “choreographic staging,” will feature 11 dancers selected for the production and a commissioned score by Paolo Aralla. Other members of the production team are flautist Erin Lesser, dramaturge Luca Scarlini, and puppeteer Candice Burridge.