15 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Academy's current exhibition on Degas and the ballet by Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph...rts-review.html

Degas’s longstanding passion for depicting ballerinas is perhaps best understood as an idiosyncratic take on Impressionism. The Impressionists were painters of modern life, recording the hustle and bustle in the bars and boulevards of Paris. The dancers of the Paris Opéra, many of whom came from an impoverished background and had a reputation for loose morals, belong to the large cast of “modern” characters found in Impressionist art.

BBC News report (video).

http://www.bbc.co.uk...london-14887704

Ahead of the show's opening BBC London traveled to Paris to explore Degas's roots and his interest in conveying the human figure in movement.

[dirac]

A preview of the Kremlin gala 'Ballet Stars of the 21st Century' by Joy Neumeyer for The Moscow News.

http://themoscownews.../189037883.html

The evening is to begin with a bang as Édouard Lock’s Montreal troupe La La La Human Steps premieres the famed choreographer’s untitled new work. Inspired by tragic myth, the piece explores the end of a love affair using multimedia and Lock’s signature fast-paced, athletic choreography.

The gala will also host performances by some of the most prominent international dance companies, such as the American Ballet Theatre, Switzerland’s Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the Berlin State Ballet, as well as Russia’s own Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers. Notable performers include the Mariinsky’s Diana Vishneva and Spain’s Lucia Lacarra.

[dirac]

Ballet Continental of Southern Arizona presents "Napoli."

http://www.gvnews.co...1cc4c002e0.html

New costumes, embellished by Julie Arbogast and Martha Meyer, will be presented in all three acts, as well as new sets designed by Steven Bacchus and Tom Meyer. Other sets designed by Mike Cain will also be used.

Caye VanWagenen, a local artist, painted the set designs along with her daughter Emily Bulldis (former ballerina with Ballet Continental) who flew in from Mississippi to help her mother paint the sets. Katheryn Meyer’s beautiful painting designs will also be seen on sets designed by Cain.

[dirac]

The English National Ballet will visit Vietnam.

http://vietnamnews.v...n-Viet-Nam.html

The company is scheduled to perform Vue de l'Autre with choreography by Vietnamese dancer Le Ngoc Van. Van was born in Ha Noi and joined the English National Ballet in 2003. Other highlights are expected to include performances of Trois Gnossiennes, excerpts from Suite en Blanc and the Black Swan Pas de Deux.

[dirac]

Ballet Philippines travels to Singapore.

http://www.gmanews.t...ra-in-singapore

The production also received accolades from an audience of dance enthusiasts, the DFA said. “The performance is the highlight of the yearlong commemoration of Dr. Jose Rizal's sesquicentenary in the city-state spearheaded by the Philippine Embassy in Singapore," said the DFA in a news release.

Based on national hero Dr. Jose Rizal's novel “Noli Me Tangere," “Crisostomo Ibarra" portrays through dance a privileged young man's fall from grace and his struggle to avenge his father's memory, hold on to his beloved, and regain his self-respect.

[dirac]

Ashley Wheater talks about his plans for the Joffrey's new season.

http://www.nwitimes....4695a156dc.html

Wheater says audiences had been asking for the company to doDon Quixote, but what is most exciting about the ballet is it's the first time since Robert Joffrey choreographed The Nutcracker more than 60 years ago that the Joffrey has commissioned a full-length ballet.

Told in two acts with choreography by Yuri Possokhov, the ballet, performed October 12 to 23, really tells a story as opposed to just being dancing, Wheater says.

[dirac]

Ballet Theatre UK prepares a new production of "The Snow Queen."

http://www.kentnews....asses_1_1019427

Moore started the company two years ago. He wanted dancers from the UK to get more opportunities to dance in their own country.

“I started Ballet Theatre UK because I noticed that we have a lot of foreign companies that come to the UK to tour. We have such a reputation around the world with our own dancers it seemed we did not have a way to showcase that in our own country unless people go to London or the big cities....."

[dirac]

The Diaghilev Festival comes to Abu Dhabi.

http://www.ahlanlive...abi-137187.html

The Diaghilev festival and Ballet Russes will be performing for the first time in the UAE where they will present two masterpieces of Diaghilev’s repertoire – Chopiniana by Frederic Chopin and Polovets Dances by Alexander Borodin.

Russian Ballet stars - Ilze Liepa, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Mariana Ryzhkina, Natalia Balakhnicheva, Mikhail Martynyuk, Alexandra Timofeeva - and the Kremlin Ballet Theatre will all be performing at the Emirates Palace Hotel in celebration of the legendary impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

[dirac]

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet will perform in London next year. Item in brief.

http://www.lfpress.c...2/18673286.html

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet presents choreographer Mark Godden's Svengali at the RBC Theatre at the John Labatt Centre on Jan. 23 at 8 p.m., the arena announced Monday morning.

[dirac]

Ballet Manila opens its season with Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.

http://lifestyle.inq...€™-is-great-fun

Ballet Manila’s “Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang" could become one of those great ballets, up there with thrilling dance productions such as “Don Quixote” and “Le Corsaire.” Give the show a chance to travel and it would definitely find itself a crowd favorite anywhere in the world. It could not go wrong.

This three-parter has all the ingredients for a really good time at the theater: gorgeous sets, colorful costumes, great storytelling and winning choreography. All that is needed are dancers who can also act.

[dirac]

A review of In Paris by Laura Cappelle in The Financial Times.

http://www.ft.com/cm...l#ixzz1XlRfF7lz

Legendary ballet dancers are of necessity a rare breed, their performances often remembered so vividly they seem to leave no space in the audience’s mind for another stage career. Seconds before In Paris started on Thursday, as Mikhail Baryshnikov himself stood waiting on the dark stage, some audience members were fervently recounting a 1970s appearance of his in Switzerland, and those of us who didn’t witness his glory days hoped against all odds to be initiated at last.

The legend himself, however, has moved on, and while his latest venture seemed to leave some long-time fans perplexed, the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory – a young Moscow-based company – has offered him an exceptional new leading role.

[dirac]

A preview of Colorado Ballet's new season by Erica Prather for the Denver Examiner.

http://www.examiner....full-of-fantasy

In the springtime, Peter Pan will help us get out of our winter blues - with shows running from Feb. 25 - March 4. Those who were fans of Colorado Ballet's Dracula will be just as enchanted by Peter Pan; choreographer Michael Pink will add his pizazz to the piece. Featuring brand new costumes, scenery, and a lively original score by composer Philip Feeney (also of Dracula fame), this feature will be the perfect spring piece for children and adults alike. If it's anything like the magic Colorado Ballet produced in A Midsummer Night's Dream several years ago, I'll be going several times.

[dirac]

A feature on Aspen Santa Fe Ballet by Debra Levine for The Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingto...41.html#s356359

For a chamber-scaled company like Aspen Santa Fe, the similarities in the dance world since the Ballets Russes era outnumber the differences. It's still a boatload of struggle to run a successful ballet company, a humongous labor of love. But Mossbrucker and Malaty, handpicked from the Joffrey Ballet organization in 1996 by founder Bebe Schweppe to run her company, have managed to find a structure that works.

Officially headquartered in Aspen, Colo. (population 6,000), ASFB shares naming rights with a city larger by ten-fold, Santa Fe, N.M. (population 65,000), a 300-mile, six-hour drive away. ASFB provides a year-round permanent presence for ballet in these two thin-air capitals, the first a Rocky Mountain ski resort, the second a mystical Native American mecca.

[dirac]

A preview of Australian Ballet's new "Romeo and Juliet."

http://www.melbourne...et/2288534.aspx

When choreographer Graeme Murphy asked the Australian Ballet’s cast of Romeo & Juliet to view the timeless Shakespearean love story with “new eyes and no expectations”, principal dancer Amber Scott had trouble separating herself from other famous interpretations of the tale.

“Baz Luhrmann’s film is pretty much up there as one of my favourite movies of all time. There are ballets and operas that tell this story too,” she explains. “For this ballet, the story doesn’t change and the musical score tells you about the first love and when people are dying. We are trying to forge a new path here and not repeat anything that’s been done before.”

[dirac]

A review of the West Australian Ballet in 'The Taming of the Shrew' by Rita Clarke in The Australian.

http://www.theaustra...6-1226134259421

He had a gift for storytelling, but in this comedy, many of the infantile antics associated with the foppish behaviour of Bianca's suitors, Hortensio (Yann Laine), Gremio (Andre Santos) and Lucentio (Daryl Brandwood), fall flat. Sarah Sutcliffe as Bianca was stylistically splendid as usual; so were Brooke Widdison-Jacobs and Jennifer Provins as the wily street girls. Although Cranko's choreography is intricate and stylish, the interweaving whole-cast sequences often seemed dry and detached. This may right itself when the cast and the West Australian Symphony have had time to get properly in sync.

Indisputably, however, what will always stand the test of time are Cranko's mastery of the pas de deux and his feel for dramatic possibilities.....