17 replies to this topic

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Rudi van Dantzig is dead at age 78.

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All today’s papers pay tribute to one of the leading lights of the Dutch ballet world, Rudi van Dantzig who died yesterday at the age of 78.

Trouw devotes over half its front page to “the choreographer and dancer who could turn classical fancies into social drama”. Fellow choreographer Hans van Manen praises him for “genuinely wanting to say something in his work”.

[dirac]

Reviews of San Francisco Ballet's gala.

The San Francisco Examiner

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Next: Val Caniparoli's gripping "Aria," to music from Handel's "Rinaldo," with Damian Smith; Nicolle Foland the soprano soloist.

The musical mood brightened with Balanchine's "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" in a stunning performance by Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan, even with a misstep and near-stumble. The dancer famous for his soft landings miscalculated one, but quickly recovered.

The San Francisco Chronicle

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In a program that ran the emotional gamut from dark and brooding to fiendishly nimble, modernity and drama took center stage with not a Petipa tutu in sight. The oldest ballet excerpt on what felt like a briefer gala program than usual was Vasily Vainonen's 1932 Soviet-era chestnut "The Flames of Paris," and the most recent, Christopher Wheeldon's sleek candy-colored "Number Nine," was created last April for SFB. That's a span of 79 years and, it just so happens, almost traces the lifespan of San Francisco Ballet itself.

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[dirac]

Russian media pick up the story of Keenan Kampa's move to the Mariinsky. Item in brief.

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Keenan Kampa, 22, is the first US dancer who graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St.Petersburg.
She was officially invited to join Mariinsky Ballet during her Russia tour last summer.

[dirac]

A feature on  Ballet Arizona's costume shop manager, Leonor Texidor.

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In addition, Ballet Arizona's 34 dancers will be changing several times per show. Within seconds of finishing one scene, they will quickly swap costumes, head-dresses and wigs to begin another.

"Each dancer may change costumes maybe three to five times during each performance," said Katrina Olson,spokeswoman for Ballet Arizona.

[dirac]

A preview of American Ballet Theatre'sDallas engagement by Margaret Putnam for TheaterJones.

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"It was my first work with him," recalls Herman Cornejo, who will be performing Friday, "and is a lovely and peaceful ballet. To me it is a masterpiece! With Xiomara Reyes I am part of 'a happy couple' and I will say that it is the most technically demanding solo in the ballet."

Despite the heavy emphasis on full-length ballets for its spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, when the company ventures into smaller venues or tours, it often brings a mixed repertory heavy on modern works. And these are no lightweights, either. The TITAS program features Paul Taylor's delightful Company B and for stark contrast, Merce Cunningham's ultra-modern Duets.

Related.

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They will dance Seven Sonotas, a piece choreographed especially for the company byAlexei Ratmansky, and Duets, a series ofmodern works, for, you guessed it, two dancers, choreographed byMerce Cunningham. Cunningham is known for his abstract choreography so don't expect a classical ballet for this one. Also in the show will be Tchaikovcky Pas De Deux, a Balanchine Ballet, and Company B, a modern ballet byPaul Taylor, danced to music of the 1940s.

[dirac]

A profile of Ezra Dickinson of the Seattle Dance Project by Michael Upchurch in The Seattle Times.

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Dickinson, along with Larsen and Iyun Harrison, is a newcomer to SDP, which began its life 5 years ago as an experiment by retired Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers pushing their dance vocabulary beyond classical ballet.

It's no surprise SDP artistic director Timothy Lynch spotted Dickinson. Over the past few years, the 29-year-old dancer has worked with Maureen Whiting, Zoe Scofield, Spectrum Dance Theater and the Offshore Project (aka the Can Can Castaways), to name just a few. But Lynch was familiar with him long before that: Dickinson attended the PNB School when Lynch was still at PNB.

[dirac]

The Hamburg Balletvisits Beijing.

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Neumeier was impressed by the quality of both the new theater and the audience. "Eleven years is a very long time for China, and it develops rapidly," the 59-year-old American choreographer says.

"The whole society is changing in its attempt to keep abreast with the dynamic of its own economical and commercial development. I was astonished when I saw how Beijing has changed, and I hardly recognized the city."

[dirac]

Melissa Leong of The National Post has dinnerwith Peggy Baker and John Kameel Farah.

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Her career has been a kaleidoscope of shows, travels and events, from touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov to becoming artist-in-residence at the National Ballet School.

Born in Edmonton, Baker studied drama at the University of Alberta and moved to Toronto to study dance. “When I moved here in the ‘70s, I was in heaven. I could go out several times a week to see a play,” she says. “When I lived in New York for 10 years (while she was touring with Lar Lubovitch’s company), I was going out four or five nights a week. It changed my world to witness the creative act that often.”

[dirac]

Domenica Cemortan, ballet dancer, says the captain of the doomed Costa Concordia was not distracted by her charms.

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Italian prosecutors allege 52-year-old Schettino, who is married, may have been distracted from his duties by trying to impress Cemortan.

He under house arrest, accused of skimming the liner close to land to give a "salute" and then abandoning his ship when hundreds of frantic passengers were still trapped on board.

[dirac]

N.C. Opera's production of "Les Enfants Terribles" features choreography by Robert Weiss.

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Robert Weiss, artistic director of Carolina Ballet, astutely matches a dancer to each singer, creating doppelgängers that elucidate the characters' psychological states. Sometimes moving in tandem, sometimes in mirror images, sometimes on their own, the performers are beautifully set off by Jeff A. R. Jones' ever-changing scenic designs, enhanced by Roz Fulton's haunting projections and Ross Kolman's moodily atmospheric lighting. Conductor Wilson Southerland, playing piano along with Spencer Blank and Tad Hardin, gives the score great energy and lyricism.

[dirac]

N.C. Opera's production of "Les Enfants Terribles" features choreography by Robert Weiss.

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Robert Weiss, artistic director of Carolina Ballet, astutely matches a dancer to each singer, creating doppelgängers that elucidate the characters' psychological states. Sometimes moving in tandem, sometimes in mirror images, sometimes on their own, the performers are beautifully set off by Jeff A. R. Jones' ever-changing scenic designs, enhanced by Roz Fulton's haunting projections and Ross Kolman's moodily atmospheric lighting. Conductor Wilson Southerland, playing piano along with Spencer Blank and Tad Hardin, gives the score great energy and lyricism.

[dirac]

Wendy Whelan is interviewed by Claudia La Rocco in The New York Times.

Ms. Whelan became an apprentice in 1984 and a corps member in 1986, during a particular, and particularly difficult time in City Ballet’s history. “It was a hard era to come of age as a dancer,” said Peter Boal, a former City Ballet principal who joined the corps in 1983 and is now artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. He cited the leadership transition and intense public criticism. “And of course everybody felt this hole in the absence of Balanchine.”

Ms. Whelan, 44, tells a sad and funny anecdote of passing the great man in the hallway as a gawky student at the School of American Ballet (she enrolled in 1982), miming not being able to crane her neck to confirm it because of the brace she wore for scoliosis, a condition that has left an indelible mark on her.

[dirac]

Photo gallery from San Francisco Ballet's gala party.

In the meantime, here’s a look-see at all the gala glamour set within Rennaissance-theme splendor and starring the company’s many twinkle toes, including Corps de Ballet dancer Sebastian Vinet who entertained first-nighters onstage and later back in City Hall where he DJ’ed the La Dolce Vita post-performance dance party.

[dirac]

^{Oakland Balletpostpones its spring performances.}

Artistic Director Graham Lustig said that after disappointing ticket sales for "The Nutcracker" at the end of 2011, the company - which has an annual budget of $600,000 - faced an $80,000 deficit.

"I just think it's the most fiscally prudent thing," Lustig said in a phone interview from London. "We are not in a bind or a bad situation. Yes, we have a deficit that needs to be covered, but there's every anticipation that this can be done within the next 12 months in a very responsible manner and then we can move the organization forward on firmer footing."

[dirac]

A review of New York City Balletby Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

Even if you have an aversion to the costumes, they are the only part of “Ocean’s Kingdom” with a point of view: it’s a runway show of deconstructed London, from the ’70s to now.

Mercifully, two works by Balanchine — perhaps the pearls at the bottom of the ocean — followed. “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” a survivor of the 1975 Ravel Festival, is a gracious rendering of space and time, with its eight couples shifting through patterns with crystalline lucidity.