6 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Further elaboration from San Jose Ballet on the nature of the changes at the company.

"Dennis has some decisions to make and so does the board. We are not hiring an artistic director."

Nahat, who founded the dual-city San Jose Cleveland Ballet in 1985, could not be reached for comment.

[dirac]

Ballet Manila uses its Christmas production for community reachout.

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Ballet in Philippine setting is also sociology revealed in the medium of [color=blue ! important][color=blue ! important]dance[/color][/color]. Here you are faced with two social classes that can afford ballet lessons and ballet tickets and those who cannot.

Ballet Manila makes it easier for poor but promising [color="blue"][color=blue ! important][color=blue ! important]dancers[/color][/color][/color] by giving them scholarships.

[dirac]

A BBC News feature about Birmingham Royal Ballet's transfer of its Nutcracker production to O2.  Video.

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Ten trailers were packed up by the backstage crew ahead of the move. Birmingham Royal Ballet's principal dancer Robert Parker and technical director Paul Grace spoke to BBC News about the exciting challenge of taking the classic Christmas ballet on the road.

[dirac]

A profile of Fernando Alonso on the occasion of his ninety-seventh birthday.

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In the period between 1948 and 1956, Fernando Alonso knew how to face the apathy and misunderstandings of the Cuban governments which denied the most basic support for cultural efforts such as the Cuban ballet. In a prophetic and brave paper sent to the Continental Culture Congress held in Santiago de Chile in 1953, read by Cuban National Poet Nicolás Guillén, he said: “Ballet has begun taking roots in the people, getting the autonomous essence of different nationalities, acquiring new colors, invigorating itself with new currents and helping average man and man in the grass-roots in his artistic and intellectual improvement. Ballet will never again be an arts for kings and the powerful but a popular arts for the people, such as new times demand. We have to work toward that end.”

[dirac]

An appraisal of the year in danceby Michael Crabb in The Toronto Star.

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4. Swan Lake productions abound and many of them are outstandingly good, but there was still something magical about seeing the dancers of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet perform this Tchaikovsky-scored classic as if they were born to do it — which in a way they were.

[dirac]

Alberta Balletpresents its Nutcracker.

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Edmund Stripe's choreography, along with two-time Emmy Award-winning designer Zack Zach Brown's sets and costumes captures the magnificent opulence of Imperial Russia. The production, which cost $1.5 million, is one of the most expensive ever mounted by Alberta Ballet. The costumes are delicate and sumptuous, and the world that unfolds onstage looks like illustrations from a beautiful book.  

[dirac]

A review of Texas Ballet Theater's "The Nutty Nutcracker" by Margaret Putnam for TheaterJones.

Even though the conventional version offers more mayhem, The Nutty Nutcracker offers more in the way of surprise. Thunder erupts, the room darkens, and in a flash of light Elvis takes over the scene with a flourish, gyrating like mad. Just before the party breaks up, Michael Jackson moon-walks, grabs his crotch, and gets everyone else in the mood to rock as the cast does the full routine to Thriller.
Since The Nutty Nutcracker depends on surprise, it is no wonder that bits from earlier versions worked better. After all, you can only turn the Nutcracker into a pitcher from the Texas Rangers once, with the Toy Soldiers his teammates. This year, the Nutcracker becomes Santa Claus and the Toy Soldiers his Elves. Santa and Elves are, alas, no match in battle against mice.