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[dirac]

A preview of the Chicago Dancing Festival by Michelle Meywes for Chicagoist.

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Some of the CDF’s indoor performances below, while still free, require tickets which have already “sold out”, but you can still score entry by waiting in a standby line at the venue. All tickets that are not claimed 15 minutes before start time will be up for grabs. (That should also serve as a note to those holding tickets: arrive early.)

Since we’ve got six full days of performances, films, panels and more to get though, we’ve decided to take it day by day. Let’s get started with Harris Theater’s opening night program.

[dirac]

An interview with Aurelien Scannella, the new artistic director of the West Australian Ballet.

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The mood was upbeat today as the Belgian-born Scannella met the dancers and inspected their spacious new studios and administrative base in Maylands after being appointed to replace Cavallari, who returns to Europe at the end of the year.

Unlike Cavallari, Scannella is not a choreographer but his talents lie in coaching and rehearsal after four years as a freelance ballet master and director. He said he was relishing the chance to take the reins over the next three years of its development.

[dirac]

A review of Smuin Ballet by Robert Johnson in The Star-Ledger.

Later other couples faint and struggle, but the dance’s generally upbeat tone assures us we don’t need to take it seriously. In a culminating solo, John Speed Orr unaccountably sticks his hand through the leg of his running shorts, demonstrating just how contrived McIntyre’s inventions can be.

Michael Smuin’s “Medea” has more impact, directly recounting the familiar Greek legend. Its elements—lust, betrayal, jealousy and revenge—are lurid and easy to read. The sorceress, Medea, dispatches Creusa, a rival for her husband, Jason’s, affections; and Medea presents Jason with the bodies of their sons, whom she has murdered to spite him.

[dirac]

The NYT Week in Cultural Pictures slideshow includes a photo of Smuin Ballet.

[dirac]

A letter to the editor of The Miami Herald from Nicholas Goldsborough.

I was troubled by the way in which Edward Villella was characterized as being reckless with money in Jordan Levin’s July 15 story, Behind the curtain: Edward Villella’s firing as Miami City Ballet boss.

In my brief time as executive director of the Miami City Ballet, I found that not to be true. When I asked him to change programming last December in order to reduce the fiscal year 2012-2013 budget, he was pragmatic and cooperative.

[dirac]

Q&A with Darcey Bussell.

Who was your mentor?
Sir Kenneth MacMillan. He gave me all the opportunities I might not have had if he hadn’t been around.
How physically fit are you?
I’d never be able to keep up the standards I had when I was a dancer. I injured my knee last year, which made me very depressed. I do a Zumba class at least twice a week, which entertains me and keeps me fit, and I have two dogs that I walk regularly.

[dirac]

An interview with Martha Leebolt of Northern Ballet.

“My first ballet was A Streetcar Named Desire and I had the smallest part. But what’s great is that I feel I’ve actually grown with the company, especially since I came to Leeds when we were up at the old school in West Park and now, here we are, based in our fantastic new headquarters on Quarry Hill.”

The fledgling dancer crossed the Atlantic from Ohio where she had been a student at BalletMet, a company which was then run by David Nixon and his wife, Yoko Ichino, who trained Leebolt. When, in 2001, Nixon and Ichino came to the UK to head Northern Ballet, as artistic director and ballet mistress respectively, they brought their protégé with them to Leeds.

[dirac]

A feature on the Balanchine-Stravinsky collaboraton by Carlton Wilkinson in The Asbury Park Press.

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New York City Ballet leaps into the new season with a tribute to 20th-century master Igor Stravinsky or, more precisely, choreographer George Balanchine’s many interpretations of Stravinsky’s music. The career-long collaboration between these two men, both natives of Russia, helped define expectations for modern music and dance, particularly in the U.S.