10 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Saratoga Performing Arts Center reviews the numbers.

Glen Falls Post-Star

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Saratoga Performing Arts Center expects to break even for a seventh straight year thanks to a well-attended fundraiser and increased corporate sponsorship, the organization announced.

A wine and food fundraising festival attracted 4,000 people last month, a 25 percent increase over last year, and raised more than $250,000 for the organization as the summer came to a close, spokeswoman Shane Williams-Ness said.

Albany Times Union

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The chief financial officer of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center suggested Thursday the board should discuss raising ticket prices during its next budget discussions.

CFO/COO Rick Geary gave a cheerful description of SPAC's finances -- he expects the venue will break even for the seventh year in a row -- and noted the four-year average ticket price for admission to performances by the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra is only $33.

[dirac]

Colorado Ballet presents "Swan Lake."

Denver Post

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The company was already planning to bring back its well-received 2008 production of the 19th-century ballet masterpiece this fall, but the sensation surrounding "Black Swan" has given the revival a big boost.

Colorado Ballet marketers have eagerly sought to take advantage of the coincidence, hoping to lure fans of the psychological thriller who might never have attended one of the company's productions.

9News.com. Video.

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It has been a long wait for those of us who love Swan Lake. The last time we had the chance to see the Colorado Ballet perform Swan Lake in Denver was 2008.

Q&A with Maria Mosina. Video.

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If you could perform only one role for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

It's hard to say because when you start to prepare for a ballet, no matter whether it's classical or contemporary or whatever, you're changing everything about yourself in order to do that. You are that part for as long as you play it. At that time, at that moment, it's your favorite piece to do, especially in classical ballet. So right now my favorite parts are the white swan and the black swan because I think about nothing else.

[dirac]

A preview of the American Film Institute's 'Ballet in Cinema' series by Sarah Kaufman in The Washington Post.

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As you’d expect from these two world-class companies, the casting is top-notch: The dark beauty Maria Alexandrova, known for her thrilling jump, takes on the title role in “Esmeralda.” (Washington audiences may recall her ebullient flirtations in various “Don Quixotes” at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap.) In “The Sleeping Beauty,” Hallberg will pair up with Svetlana Zakharova, a showboat of great charm and warmth. Leading English-born ballerina Lauren Cuthbertson helms the Royal Ballet’s “Sleeping Beauty,” in the production the company brought to the Kennedy Center in 2006. Headlining the Bolshoi’s “Nutcracker” are the delicate classicist Nina Kaptsova as Marie and Artem Ovcharenko as the Nutcracker Prince.

[dirac]

A Russia Today item on Mikhail Baryshnikov's donation of his personal archive to the New York Public Library. Video clip.

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Revered ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov has donated his personal archive to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
It contains letters as well as rare photographs and video recordings, including footage of Baryshnikov rehearsing with the great George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham.

[dirac]

A CBC story on Atlantic Ballet Theatre's ballet on the subject of domestic violence.

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Friday marks the debut of the Ghosts of Violence national tour.

Over the next three years, the Atlantic Ballet Theatre will perform for high school students across the country — trying to raise awareness about what abuse is and how to stop it.

[dirac]

Oregon Ballet Theatre presents 'Carmen' and 'Petrouchka.'

http://www.oregonliv...e_steps_ou.html

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Together, they make for one of the most ambitious programs of Stowell's OBT tenure. For both pieces, everything but the music is being created from scratch -- movement, set and costume designs, even much of the narrative concepts. And those narratives also represent largely new territory for OBT.

"We do a certain kind of narrative work frequently," Stowell says, referring to the 19th-century classics upon which he's solidified the company's technical standing and reputation. "But we haven't been doing verismo, or realistic narratives. These are about real people and real situations, not princesses or fairies."

[dirac]

Ballet Victoria showcases Bach and Pink Floyd.

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Destrooper’s enthusiasm for both styles is obvious and he’s critical of those who define ballet too narrowly. When he pitched a dance based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, funders responded by saying “Everybody does that, it’s an old piece of music.” Showing no patience for such arguments, he emphatically says “it’s a beautiful piece of music.”

At the same time, his contemporary selections also go against the grain. Many ballet companies are performing to soundscapes these days, he says. “Nobody’s doing music anymore.”

[dirac]

The West Australian Ballet will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary next year and move into new digs.

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The oldest ballet company in Australia, WA Ballet will mark its 1952 formation by former Ballets Russes dancer Kira Bousloff with its Diamonds gala in May - celebrating international dance greats John Cranko and Margot Fonteyn and Australian leading lights Barry Moreland and Margaret Illmann.

Cavallari's 2012 season, launched yesterday, also will feature Pinocchio, the Italian-born choreographer's major new ballet about the wooden puppet-boy set to premiere in September.

[dirac]

Pennsylvania Ballet will formally open its new headquarters next week.

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Ballet officials said the building, at 321 N. Broad St. in Philadelphia, will house both its studios and offices. It replaces two temporary locations: administrative offices in Center City and a studio space in the city’s East Falls section.

[dirac]

Sylvie Guillem visits Japan.

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Hope Japan marks Guillem's 40th tour of this country and reveals the growth of her 35 years in dance, which includes being named youngest etoile (star) at the Paris Opera Ballet before joining the Royal Ballet in London as a longtime guest principal. Her latest tour also features the world's best in choreography: from ballet's past to the contemporary now. Classical favorites from legends Kenneth MacMillan and Frederick Ashton are topped off with Guillem's most current ventures from the best in modern dance, William Forsythe's "Rearray" and "Ajo (Bye)" from Mats Ek.

Guillem was with Forsythe in London rehearsing for "Rearray" when the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 occurred. She can still remember their feelings of hopelessness as news of the tragedy spread throughout the studio, and says: "That's why I decided to call the new program "6,000 miles away" — the distance from London to Tokyo, I thought, 'We are suffering with you. Not the same degree of suffering, but we too feel completely weak and hopeless. We will be with you, we think of you, and we hope it will soon be better."

[dirac]

An interview with Twyla Tharp.

http://www.chicagotr...0,7560766.story

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She's an easy choice as the greatest living American choreographer. She redefined dance, with depth and artistry, and managed professional breadth. Even many outside the usual dance fan base, who saw the movie "Hair" or the hit "Movin' Out," understand her achievement.

"She was an influence on Hubbard Street before she worked with us, before Hubbard Street even existed," says Claire Bataille, who danced in Tharp works for Hubbard in the '90s and who's assistant on the new piece. "In 'Push Comes to Shove' (starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and famously aired on public TV in the late '70s), what she did with the greatest classical dancer of the century in layering this new vocabulary on top of his technique showed us all so many new possibilities."