16 replies to this topic

[dirac]

The Australian Ballet celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a photo op and collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre.

The Daily Telegraph

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"It makes you move in a different way," Australian Ballet principal dancer Amber Scott said.

"Classical ballet is very elevated and weightless, but working with Bangarra it's like, 'OK, I get it now. Get those quads working'."

The Advertiser

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The Australian Ballet yesterday offered the nation's professional and would-be choreographers a chance to help it celebrate its 50th anniversary season.

The 50th Anniversary Ballet Project is open to any choreographer to submit ideas for a new work.
The winning entrant will receive $30,000 to develop the idea. That might have a fairytale ending, as Australian Ballet's artistic director David McAllister said he would consider staging the work in 2015.

The Herald Sun

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Bangarra dancer Patrick Thaiday, a Torres Straight Islander who grew up in Mackay, said sharing stories was important. "We need to share our history, and what better way to do that than with another dance company as unique in their dance style as we are?"

[dirac]

A related story on the company by Matthew Westwood in The Australian.

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McAllister said it was "going to be hard to get a ticket" for the story ballets.

More difficult to sell were Infinity and Icons, a triple bill revisiting 20th-century pieces such as Robert Helpmann's lyrebird fantasy The Display. "Part of what we want to do in our 50th anniversary is really open up what we do to the widest audience," he said.

[dirac]

A review of San Francisco Ballet'sgala opening by K.W. Jeter for the California Literary Review.

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If anything, this is where the SFB orchestra excels. Conductor West is capable of stretching out andante melodic lines to virtual states of suspended time, allowing the dancers complete opportunities to display their control and lyricism. This was amply demonstrated in the pas de deux from British choreographer David Bintley’s The Dance House, with principal dancer Sarah Van Patten partnered by Tiit Helimets. West and the SFB orchestra also had the advantage of having pianist Michael McGraw in their midst as they spun a fine thread from one of the tenderest moments of Dimitri Shostakovich’s first piano concerto. (A lot of long-time SFB attendees consider McGraw to be one of the company’s secret weapons, with treasured memories of his attaca opening chords in Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, for the company’s performances of Balanchine’s Rubies from years past.).....

[dirac]

A review of Ballet Manila's Maligayang Christmas by Joseph Cortes in The Business Mirror.

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The ballet seemed to have been choreographed for popular appeal. There was an opening that recalls Stomp with its use of noise as music, followed by a set piece in a ballet studio that segues into a hip-hop number. There was even a part with dancing zombies—in a Christmas ballet?—that proved to be a crowd-pleaser. It was this juxtaposition of milieus that made Ballet Manila’s original choreographies appealing, as they bridged the popular with the highbrow. It was a winning formula that the company has always followed. The overwhelming applause it garnered from its audience of schoolchildren and adults alike proved that the formula works. Those who collaborated on this ballet included Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, Osias Barroso, Rudy de Dios, Gerardo Francisco, Niño Guevarra, Michael Divinagracia, Ricardo Mallari, Romeo Peralta and Roduardo Ma.

[dirac]

A review of NC Opera and Carolina Ballet in "Les Enfants Terribles" by Brian Howe for Independent Weekly.

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At Fletcher, the stage was sparely appointed with minimal furniture and projected backdrops, making room for the extra bodies—each character was played by both a singer and a dancer. The latter got the short end of the stick. Beyond some uneasily co-dependent duos, the dancers often just aped the singers, simply doubling rather than multiplying meaning. Rich opportunities for dramatic irony were largely ignored. When all of the pairs were onstage at once, the presentation landed somewhere between experimental anarchy and the clockwork precision of quality ballet. The novel format, however, was compelling.

[dirac]

A list of the winners of this year's National Dance Awards.

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Held today at London dance venue The Place, the ceremony also saw recognition for Scottish Ballet principal Sophie Martin. Elsewhere, Akram Khan won best modern choreography for Vertical Road, while Sylvie Guillem was recognised as outstanding female performance (modern) for 6,000 Miles Away.

[dirac]

A review of Moscow City Ballet's'Swan Lake' by Jeffery Taylor in The Daily Express.

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Moscow City Ballet's mere 16-strong corps de ballet, plus a principal dancer or three, comes across like a cast of hundreds.

Clearly these people look as though they can cope with anything, and probably do, and never lose their will to live and dance. Pulled almost into our laps by the theatre's focusing horseshoe shape, this good-looking bunch, locked to us eyeball to eyeball, never flinch from loving every minute.

[dirac]

A review of American Ballet Theatre by Danna Reubin for D magazine.

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From a purely academic perspective, I applaud American Ballet Theater for reviving “Duets” the second piece on the Dallas program. “Duets,” by Merce Cunningham, may very well be one of his most accessible works for classically trained ballet dancers. The formal structure of “Duets” makes it a rare work for Cunningham who is best known for his innovative approach to creating dances based on a certain amount of “chance.” Unfortunately, with the bright purple, yellow, pink, and green lycra unitards, coupled with the repetitive and percussive musical arrangement by John Cage, this piece is firmly locked in the early eighties. Composed of six consecutive dances, “Duets” is technically quite simple to perform but structurally as complex as any Cunningham fan would expect it to be.

[dirac]

An item in brief on the fiscal troubles at Oakland Ballet.

[dirac]

More on Oakland Ballet.

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Board President Roz Perazzo said the company's 2011 budget was $600,000. Perazzo said the shortfall -- 15 percent of the budget -- is not critical right now but the board chose to be "fiscally conservative in this economy."

[dirac]

The Mariinsky formally welcomes Keenan Kampa into the fold. Video included.

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Kampa finished the studies at the Vaganova and then joined the Boston Ballet. During a visit to Russia last summer, Kampa, Fateev and Seliutsky re-connected. "Keenan is talented and because she was trained at our school there will be no problems having her integrate into our company. She will be dancing with the company as well as given solo opportunities," said Fateev.

[dirac]

A champion bull rider recommends yoga and ballet as part of training.

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"I do yoga; it's calming and helps with balance ... . Nerves will get to you," Stratton said. "You have to calm yourself down, relax and not worry about what's about to happen. Then you'll have a better shot at success."

Stratton said perseverance is also an important aspect of bull riding.

[dirac]

Sarasota Balletadds a performance of its "Made in America" program.

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The program features George Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations,” Will Tuckett’s “Spielende Kinder,” and Johan Kobborg’s “Salute.” Kobborg, the Danish-born Royal Ballet mega-star, has been in Sarasota for three weeks to stage only his second work of original choreography.

Webb noted that even season ticket holders may want to purchase a seat for the added performance because it will mark the partnering debut of principals Kate Honea and Ricardo Graziano in “Donizetti Variations,” an abstract ballet choreographed for a principal couple and a corps de ballet of six women and three men.

[dirac]

A review of the Mariinsky Balletat the Kennedy Center by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

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Yet the questions over authenticity of these versions need not matter greatly. As it happens, I saw this triple bill when it was new at the Mariinsky’s White Nights festival in 1994. At that time the intelligence with which Mr. Liepa and Ms. Fokine tried to restage aspects of the 1910 "Firebird" was impressive, while the deluxe casting of "Schéhérazade" — Altynai Asylmuratova as the Shah’s favorite wife, Zobeide, and Farukh Ruzimatov as the both exotic and erotic Slave — made an unusually strong case for this often hackneyed melodrama. But the pure-dance "Chopiniana," usually one of the constant wonders of the Mariinsky repertory, had ossified.

Fortunately, "Chopiniana" soon recovered. This weekend it was beautifully alive with several casts....

[dirac]

Someone hacks into Ballet Quad Cities'e-mail.

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At first glance it sounds legitimate, an email describing a tragic trip to London. Ballet Quad Cities director Joedy Cook's been mugged at gun point, she's now unable to get home, and needs $1,800 dollars wired to her as soon as possible.

"I am stuck in London, and I need money to get home," says Cook. The problem is Cook isn't in London; she's been in Rock Island this whole time with her dancers.