10 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A review of Northern Ballet in "Ondine" by Louise Levene in The Telegraph.

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The stage pictures are exquisite and Nixon, who has an innate flair for blocking an ensemble, furnishes Kaplan’s magical spaces with great skill. Northern Ballet may not be a premier league company but his choreography – particularly for the Act 3 wedding celebrations – makes no compromises, with densely written group displays and firecracker solos for young talents like Kevin Poeung.

[dirac]

A story on Christopher Hampson' s plans for Scottish Ballet by Samantha Tse for ARTINFO.

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He has secured the exclusive license to stage Matthew Bourne's production of Highland Fling, which is a nod to the Danish ballet, La Sylphide. This is the first time a full-length Bourne ballet has been staged outside of the choreographer's own company, New Adventures. Bourne, who has won several awards for his choreographic works, is perhaps most well known for his reinterpretations of classical works, such as "The Nutcracker" and an all-male cast of "Swan Lake".

[dirac]

A look at "The Rite of Spring" by Richard Taruskin in The New York Times.

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There has always been resistance to the troubling, antihumanitarian scenario. Stravinsky gave permission to detach the work from its subject when he wrote, in a late memoir, that seeing Diaghilev’s post-Nijinsky revival, “I realized then that I prefer ‘Le Sacre’ as a concert piece.” That is how the New York Philharmonic will celebrate it on Thursday, as will the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Sept. 28. Stravinsky’s later claim that his first thought of “The Rite” took place not in his mind’s eye (imagining the sacrifice, as he originally said) but in his mind’s ear in the form of a musical theme was typical of a man who spent the second half of his life telling lies about the first half.

[dirac]

Ballet Magnificat! performs this weekend.

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Titled “Prodigal's Journey,” the production will open with act one — “Basic Instructions” — an upbeat performance with flamenco guitar and African-Cuban rhythms of the band Burlap to Cashmere.

The second act, “Prodigal's Journey” is a spin-off from the well-known Bible story of the “Prodigal Son.” Set in the early 1900s, the piece — set to a medley of classical ballet, jazz, modern and swing dance — is about a husband who leaves his family and then returns.

[dirac]

A preview of the fall season in dance by Paul Hodgins in The Orange County Register.

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Every avid fan of dance in Southern California has been repeating one name over and over for the last few months like a mantra: Benjamin Millepied.
The 35-year-old choreographer and former New York City Ballet principal dancer is better known as the creative force behind the movie "Black Swan" and the husband of its star, Natalie Portman. But soon he could be known as the man who brought serious dance back to Los Angeles.

[dirac]

A story on Natalia Makarova' s selection as a Kennedy Center honoree by Olga Bugrova for Voice of Russia.

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....But it was not until Gorbachev’s “perestroika” that the “first lady of the world ballet” reappeared on the St. Petersburg stage in 1988. Her first words were the words of gratitude to her Vaganova Ballet School and her theater.

"One thing I know for sure is that without the baggage I had received here, first at the Vaganova School and then at the theater – without that, I would have never made a career in the West."

[dirac]

Two more Cuban ballet dancers defectto the United States.

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The pair left the Camaguey troupe, the most important in Cuba after the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, while it was on tour in Ecuador and traveled to the United States via Mexico.

“We are seeking greater artistic opportunities and personal freedom,” Garcia said in a statement released by the festival. The two dancers are staying with relatives in Miami, and reached out to festival director Pedro Pablo Peña, who frequently presents Cuban dancers in exile, often in their U.S. debut.

[dirac]

A preview of the Fall for Danceseason by Leigh Witchel in The New York Post.

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On Oct. 2 and 3, three of the TV show’s seven dancers will be in New York: Christiana Bennett and Tilton leading the cast, and Beckanne Sisk, a recent winner of dance’s Princess Grace award, performing a solo.

Sisk says she sometimes found the show hard to watch. “If I said I was 19 one more time, I would have reached into the TV and strangled myself,” she says. “The Beckanne you saw dancing — that’s the real me.”

[dirac]

Kathryn Morgan will dance with the Mobile Ballet while recovering her health.

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That was excellent news indeed. “Swan Lake” was Morgan’s first public performance after an 18-month hiatus because of a thyroid condition that left her weak and unable to dance. For the young ballerina, a soloist with New York City Ballet, taking the stage in a challenging role was a blessed relief.

Even better news is that Mobile Ballet has Katie Morgan for its entire 25th anniversary season. Morgan, 24, will dance the lead in Winthrop Corey’s original “Snow White” next spring. She will also dance Sugar Plum in “The Nutcracker” for the holidays.

[dirac]

Alberta Ballethonors the memory of Peter Lougheed.

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For another, tonight’s was the first performance by the company since the passing of former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, who, along with his wife Jeanne, was a great patron of the ballet – and a fan.

Grand-Maitre made the usual gracious introduction prior to the performance, but then, before the lights went down, added a little coda.

[dirac]

A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet at the Guggenheim by Tobi Tobias in her blog, "Seeing Things."

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The six dancers involved were indeed good, if nowhere near as stellar as the artists New Yorkers see regularly at City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.  But neither are they what used to be called (damning with a label) “regional”—good enough for second-level troupes but not for the big time.  PNB’s men are especially distinguished by an air of having thought long and carefully about their roles.  Still, Carla Körbes was unquestionably the most important among the performers.  She’s a born ballerina, world-class, who has an unfortunately shaky career behind her.  Just now, with PNB, she seems, finally, to have come into her own, fusing superb technique with potent personality and an accompanying delight.  Ironically, she was first discovered by Boal in her native Brazil, at the age of 14.