9 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.c...rises.html?_r=1

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The fall seasons of 2010 and 2011, by contrast, have felt like merely more of the same: leftovers from the spring, supplemented each time by a premiere that generated no special sense of anticipation and proved forgettable. (Last year’s was by Benjamin Millepied, a recurrent choreographer whose next City Ballet premiere is in spring.)

A ballet company is forever a work in progress. Wouldn’t it make all the difference to give us at least one major revival of a big, full-throttle Balanchine ballet that hasn’t been seen in a while? Something to test the prowess and artistry of the company’s several remarkable younger principals? Isn’t it time for new casting in “Chaconne” and “Mozartiana”? When will “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2,” “Raymonda Variations” or “Harlequinade” return? Will the new production of “Symphony in C” bring new casts as well as new costumes? isn’t Mr. Martins too cautious about exposing his best dancers to the highest challenges?

[dirac]

Charles Askegard is interviewed in The Wall Street Journal (subscription only).

http://online.wsj.co...2270222710.html

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This week, dancer Charles Askegard retired from the New York City Ballet, the company he's been with since 1997. Mr. Askegard, husband to writer Candace Bushnell, is starting his own company, Ballet Next.

[dirac]

A story on David Hallberg's move to the Bolshoi by Sergei L. Loiko in The Los Angeles Times.

http://www.latimes.c...0,2475494.story

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Hallberg's first appearance in a Bolshoi production will be partnering with Natalia Osipova in "Giselle" on the New Stage of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater on Nov. 4. But two weeks later he is set to experience a career highlight when he opens the season on the renovated main stage of the company's historic theater, pairing with prima-ballerina Svetlana Zakharova in a new production of "The Sleeping Beauty."

Far from artistically defecting to Russia, Hallberg is planning to live and work in Moscow and New York a month or two at a time as, he said, he remains committed to ABT — a key provision in the Bolshoi deal. "I really don't want to lose my influence and my place at ABT because I feel like I represent American ballet, and I feel a responsibility to do that even more now," Hallberg said. "In Russia, now I represent the globalization of ballet."

[dirac]

A Sydney ballet teacher pleads guilty to assaulting a student.

http://m.smh.com.au/...1011-1lj5c.html

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Court documents show Horvath, who has danced with the English National Ballet and New York's famous Trockadero de Monte Carlo, told Ms Dowse to sit and watch the class because she had not learnt the choreography.

Ms Dowse, a full-time dance student, walked out of the class, ignoring Horvath’s calls that she come back.
Witnesses say he grabbed her left arm in both hands and dragged her back towards the studio as she thrashed her arms and legs and screamed.  She sustained bruising to her arm.

[dirac]

A review of the Joffrey Ballet's "Don Quixote" by Zachary Whittenburg in Time Out Chicago's blog.

http://timeoutchicag...let-don-quixote

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No sacred cow among the classics—among dance writers, I think I enjoy it more than most—Possokhov’s cuts to the score (by Ludwig Minkus) and story (loosely taken from two chapters of Cervantes’s novel) will have only the purest of purists up in arms. Most of what you expect to see in a Don Quixote is left intact, from Act I’s punchy dances, which bleed into and out of sunny crowd scenes; to the Don’s misty reverie of perfect, pale ladies dressed in pretty, pale tutus to match; to the grand wedding pas de deux, a show-off showpiece and favorite at galas; to broad antics from the Don (Fabrice Calmels, nicely tuned) and Sancho Panza (Derrick Agnoletti, slapstick silly). A pause during Act II, before the wedding, is empty and long enough to be a second intermission, but up until it and afterward this Don trucks along.

Photos(scroll down):

http://timeoutchicag...let-don-quixote

[dirac]

Maine State Ballet presents "Hansel and Gretel."

http://bangordailyne...-and-gretel’/

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This month’s performances represent another milestone for Maine State Ballet, as they will be the first shows held at the recently renovated theater in Falmouth. Seating capacity has been expanded from 115 to 140, and there are more spaces in the parking lot. Other upgrades include new chandeliers and crimson paint to match the stage’s velvet curtain.

“Having this beautiful theater in-house allows our dancers to perform several times a year,” said artistic director and co-founder Linda MacArthur Miele. She said the upcoming version of “Hansel and Gretel” is appropriate for all ages and all levels of interest in dance.

[dirac]

An interview with Twyla Tharp on her new work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, "Scarlatti."

http://www.suntimes....ard-street.html

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“I’ve notated every entrance and exit, every grouping of dancers, every sequence of jumping and turning right on the score. I came to work with most of this dance in my head because rehearsal time was limited, and the sooner the dancers have a sense of the whole framework the more they own it.”

Though the work is full of ballet steps, Tharp says she never thinks of things that way. “It’s shared movement, and here I’ve worked hard to find ‘common man’ movement,” she said. “This is an emotional work, with a sense of joie de vivre and humor. And it’s a fine thing to feel happy.”

[dirac]

A review of Houston Ballet by Leigh Witchel in The New York Post.

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Houston, we have a problem: Your ballet is the fourth largest in the country and its dancers are top-notch, but it rarely visits New York. And now it’s here -- but with only a fraction of the company in a chamber-sized repertory, and the ballets aren’t even good.

Tuesday night, poor Mozart got the Jorma Elo treatment: The Finnish choreographer managed to make Mozart’s music seem incoherent and trivial.

[dirac]

A story on Charles Askegard's retirement by Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk in The Grand Rapids Press.

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Kowroski, who's much younger, said in September she's going to miss her longtime partner.

“It's going to be a very difficult season for me,” she said. “We've partnered together for so many years, I feel like he's my backbone, in a weird way.”

[dirac]

A preview of Fall for Dance and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet by Joel Lobenthal for City Arts.

http://cityarts.info...ratizing-dance/

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In addition to its affordability, Fall for Dance demonstrates the importance of integration—by which I mean different types of dance juxtaposed on the same program and dance mixed with other entertainment forms. At the turn of the 20th century, great ballet dancers from all across Europe and Russia trekked to London to appear (for generous remuneration) in the city’s music halls, to which a vital cross section of every stratum of society repaired for amusement. London at that time did not have a major state-supported ballet company as Paris, Moscow and St. Petersburg did. In the music halls, the toe dancers were right there alongside the boulevard-style attractions, trained animals and ballad singers.