6 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Associated Press obituary for Zina Bethune, who died yesterday at age 66.

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She was hit by an eastbound vehicle, then thrown into the opposite lane, where she was hit by another vehicle that dragged her body more than 600 feet, police said. She had severe head injuries and died at the scene.....

Bethune trained under famed dance instructor George Balanchine and began dancing with the New York City Ballet at age 14 despite suffering from scoliosis and lymphedema. "I was born to dance, in my heart, but not in my body," she told a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1999.

Playbill

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Bethune also founded Infinite Dreams, a dance and performance outreach program for children with disabilities. The program has worked in schools and community centers throughout Southern California.

LA Weekly

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It's not clear if the driver of the second car stopped to help, as several drivers appeared to have done, but officers want to talk to the person behind the wheel of a white car seen leaving the scene.....

Anyone who might have info on the white car was asked to call detectives at 213-972-1825.

[dirac]

New York City Balletwill perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra this season.

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Always among the most popular evenings of the SPAC season, the Tchaikovsky Spectacular showcases works by the great Russian composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, including the iconic “1812 Overture” with live cannons and a fireworks finale.

New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck and soloist Chase Finlay will perform the pas de deux from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker” on a specially erected dance floor in front of the amphitheatre stage, as the orchestra performs the scores.

[dirac]

A Wall Street Journal item on Ballet Next. Subscription only.

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Ballet Next, the company founded last year by Michele Wiles (former principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre) and Charles Askegard (former principal dancer at New York City Ballet), is aiming to bring audiences closer to dance.

[dirac]

A preview of Alberta Ballet's'Cinderella' by Bob Clark in The Calgary Herald.

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By his own admission, the intervening years of hands-on neo-classical experience between Cinderellas — his first premiered at the Jube in 2004 and was later enhanced for a 2007 remount — have taught Grand-Maitre much about the older modern style and given him an almost intuitive grasp of the craftsmanship required for a story ballet in the genre.

As well, having the prominent American choreographer and classical guru Kirk Peterson in Calgary on numerous occasions during recent seasons to create Alberta Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty in late 2010 (and this spring, a new Swan Lake) has done wonders for him in learning how to make narrative ballet stylized, yet still natural, says Grand-Maitre.

[dirac]

The National Ballet of Cuba performs in Vancouver this week.

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The Cuban company's tour was conceived by David Y. H. Lui, the local impresario who died suddenly last September. As his business partner, Belsher has carried on and dedicated the tour to Lui's memory.

The Cuban company will perform Don Quixote with about 50 dancers. They will dance choreography by Alicia Alonso, Marta Garcia and Maria Elena Llorente after the original by Marius Petipa and the version by Alexander Gorsky.

[dirac]

A follow up review of Ballet West's "Don Quixote" by Kathy Adams in The Salt Lake Tribune.

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On Saturday evening, the lead roles of Kitri and Basilio were danced by soloists Sayaka Ohtaki and Tom Mattingly. Their intrinsic musical phrasing authenticates the inner-life of the romantic story — as if the two are privy to something uniquely between them. Mattingly is resonant with Ohtaki’s movements, and she draws energy from looking into his eyes. Extraordinary characters are created through their seeming contradictions — her delicate body contains a steely strength and Mattingly’s rugged masculinity softens and succumbs to her every need.

[dirac]

An obit for Bethunein the Daily Mail. Many photos.

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She sang and danced on Broadway - and was in TV soap operas such as The Guiding Light in the 1950s and Santa Barbara in the 1980s.

On the big screen she was best known for appearing opposite Harvey Keitel in director Martin Scorsese's 1967 feature debut Who's That Knocking At My Door.