9 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A review of "Ballerina Swan" by Allegra Kent and Emily Arnold McCully.

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This is Kent’s first book for children, and it charms. Readers will root for the undaunted Sophie, who attends “every rehearsal — even rehearsals in which she didn’t have a part,” and in her downtime listens over and over to her music, visualizing her steps. McCully’s expressive pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures capture the full range of young-dancer experience: the scrupulous repetition of classroom exercises, the hope and fear of auditions, the anxiety and anticipation of waiting for a cast list to be posted and, on performance day, the bliss of stepping out into the lights.   

[dirac]

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center may cut New York City Ballet's summer engagement to one week (or zero).

Times Union

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SPAC will pay the ballet company about $1.7 million for this summer's two-week residency in July, White said. The figure is about $150,000 less than SPAC's cost for the last three-week season, in 2008. "When they decided to cut their performance schedule from three weeks to two, we had a substantial cost savings — about a third," White said. "Over the last few years that savings has evaporated."

Daily Gazette

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SPAC officials considered dropping next year's ballet season from two weeks to one, but the ballet company said that would lower the cost by only one-quarter. So officials decided to stick with a two-week season, which will “hopefully ... be the New York City Ballet."

“We're still in the process of negotiating with them," Dake said.

[dirac]

Orlando Ballet presents its "Stars of Tomorrow" showcase.

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Dancers come from the Orlando Ballet II, or junior, corps. Among the performers: Blake Kessler, who just took a top honor at the prestigious national Youth America Grand Prix competition, and Briana Berrios, who also won an award there.

[dirac]

City Ballet of San Diego presents "Romeo and Juliet."

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City Ballet of San Diego will be closing its 19^th season with the world premiere of Elizabeth Wistrich’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The tragic love story of “Romeo and Juliet” is known worldwide and continues to emotionally resonate with audiences regardless of the format it’s received. However, there is rarely an art form more beautiful than ballet and City Ballet of San Diego knows that combining the heartbreaking love story of “Romeo and Juliet” with the unimaginable beauty of ballet is a sight to behold.

[dirac]

West Australian Balletcelebrates its sixtieth anniversary.

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Rather than present a full-length ballet to celebrate its 60 years of existence, the Maylands-based company — it moved into new premises last month — dips into that vast reservoir of classical and contemporary choreography for its creative inspiration.

There will be a number of ballet sampler pieces of varying lengths, ranging from a recreation of Anna Pavlova's 1905 solo Dying Swan (not to be confused with anything from Swan Lake) to works by John Cranko, long-time director Barry Moreland and current director Ivan Cavallari.

[dirac]

A review of the Birmingham Royal Ballet by Richard Edmonds for The Stage.

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But David Bintley’s three-part programme gives us a taste of everything. Holder’s 9-5 contrasts succinctly with the strangely beautiful Lyric Pieces, in its first performance by Birmingham Royal Ballet and co-commissioned for this year’s dance festival by BRB and International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012.

Jessica Lang has created a ballet of dreams and romantic moods which succeeds beautifully, since it provides the dancers with lyrical partnerings and solos, involving discreet but subterranean emotions, which both touch the heart and delight the eye.

[dirac]

An interview with Kelley McKinlayof Alberta Ballet.

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“In a way, the ballet takes you on this wave and you just kind of soar through it.”

But don't let him fool you. Ballet is hard on your body, your mind and your emotions. “You feel like you're 80 yrs old because your back hurts, your knees hurt, your arms hurt, you've got cuts and bruises everywhere,” says McKinlay.

[Helene]

Michael Popkin reviews New York City Ballet in "Serenade,” “Firebird,” and “DGV:  Danse à Grande Vitesse” for danceviewtimes.

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At this point, “Firebird” is so familiar that it’s difficult to see. The most impressive thing about Friday night’s performance was how freshly it made you appreciate it. Overcoming the effects of habit, you actually listened to the score again and noticed the subtle way the staging frames the music and makes Stravinsky’s composition and Chagall’s décor equal participants in the drama.  The trend of ballet has been towards star based, thrilling, individual performance.  Balanchine’s initial version of the ballet was a star vehicle for Maria Tallchief that implicitly acknowledged this. But as he continually tweaked the work over the years (revising it as often as he did “Apollo”) “each successive production . . . diminished the stars role,” as Jacques d’Amboise put it in his recent autobiography, and work as it exists today reverses the trend and is one of Balanchine’s most understated and tasteful inventions.  

[dirac]

A review of Alonzo King Lines Ballet by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

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You see lines, but you seldom see line: a single coherent connection from finger to toe. The dancers very frequently stretch one leg outward, but far more often to the side or front than backward in arabesque. Often upper body is opposed to lower body. The spine, often plunging forward, is highly active.

And only occasionally are lines produced by formations of bodies. If you think of choreography as the organization of changing patterns in space — and many people do — these two ballets are seldom rewarding.

[dirac]

An  interview with José Navas on his revised ballet "Bliss," for Ballet B.C.

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So, now, Navas is on a roll. He’s developed Bliss into a full evening of work, adding two new sections to run before it. He’s just accepted a commission for another ballet piece for a company in Seoul, South Korea, and next season, he’s taking on the monumental task of creating a new full-length version of Giselle—the ultimate en pointe classical work—for Ballet B.C.

“This has been wonderful, because at 47 years old, after 30 years in contemporary dance, I find myself still learning things and still being surprised at how you can work with the human body in different ways,” says the artist, who grew up in Venezuela and trained in New York with icon Merce Cunningham. “This is very exciting because, in the world I come from, the contemporary world, we have tried everything: we have twisted techniques, we have put people upside down, we have made people fly and fall on the ground.”