17 replies to this topic

[dirac]

A review of New York City Balletby Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

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“The Cage” pulls ferocious qualities out of its women: Ms. Krohn’s dancing, which can drift behind the music, was all sharp angles, while Ms. Taylor transformed the Novice from a newborn — slinky and weirdly innocent — into a feral, inhuman being.

As programs go, this one is a good mix. “The Cage” is bookended by George Balanchine’s jubilant Stravinsky ballet “Rubies” and Robbins’s “Andantino,” a 1981 pas de deux set to Tchaikovsky.

In “Rubies” Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz reprised familiar roles to playful effect, despite some strange partnering bumps.......

[dirac]

The ballet program of Friends University celebrates its 25th anniversary.

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Stan Rogers, who started the ballet program with Sharon Rogers in January 1988, choreographed both pieces. Based on Russian lore and set to music by Stravinsky, "The Firebird" follows the story of a prince who is lost in the woods and encounters the mystical Firebird. Audiences love the romantic story, said Stan Rogers, who's presented it four times during his Friends career. It's a 45-minute-long, one-act ballet.

( One of those ballets looks suspiciously Balanchinean, going by the photo....)

[dirac]

A YouTube video of an autistic girl performing passages from "Coppelia" continues to draw eyeballs and newsprint.

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A YouTube video of Clara’s remarkable performance of Swanhilde’s masquerade, an intricate routine from Coppélia, has garnered over 425,000 views — more than 200,000 in a 48-hour period. The video has been picked up by media in Great Britain, Taiwan, Australia and the United States.

Clara’s celebrity began after her therapists noticed that her dancing, which she frequently does around the house, closely resembled the movements featured in her Coppélia DVD, a gift she recieved last year and has on repeat.

[dirac]

A review of ProArte Danzain The Globe and Mail.

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Campanella’s Decorum (2005), an on-point work beautifully performed by Kristen Dennis and Tyler Gledhill and set to Arvo Part’s moody score, reveals the torn underbelly of a relationship. The gorgeous pas de deux is one of increasing tension as the superficial politeness is stripped bare. This passionate work is a classic of contemporary ballet.

Kevin O’Day’s enigmatic We will… (2008) is a tour de force for dancers Hata and Glumbek. The delight of the piece is the shifting landscape. Is the relationship beginning or ending? Is she stronger, or is he? Vigorous, muscular choreography dominates the piece.

[dirac]

A review of Aspen Santa Fe Balletby Toba Singer in the California Literary Review.

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Jorma Elo’s Overglow enunciates a parallel vocabulary that for this reviewer settles all mysteries, debates, and rants against and about his work, and places him in a benighted league of his own. The work begins with a series of rock ’em sock ’em chainé turns by a dancer costumed in the springtime green that we recognize as the ubiquitous environmentalist brand. Then come tours, not the kind that bob on top of the music like oversized vessels, but turns that deftly defy the traditions sewn into every point shoe by a Mendelssohn score such as this one is, though sharing the honors with Beethoven. Elo favors turning steps that are passive into active ones, and drives those that are active into the camp of the differently active. So his degagé becomes a squirrelly accent instead of a salvo....

[dirac]

The Saratoga Performing Arts Centeradds the National Ballet of Canada and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet to its 2013 schedule while cutting New York City Ballet's performances to seven.

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Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s Board of Directors said Thursday they are trying to get New York City Ballet back for two weeks beginning in 2014. After losing $1.1 million at SPAC this summer and burdened with huge debt, the NYCB will only be in Saratoga for one week in the summer of 2013.

[dirac]

More from Darcey Bussell on "Strictly Come Dancing"'s new season.

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Ballet dancer Darcey Bussell has said she will bring "girl power" to this year's Strictly Come Dancing as she replaces Alesha Dixon on an otherwise all-male judging panel.

She will be sitting with Bruno Tonioli, Craig Revel Horwood and Len Goodman this Saturday as the celebrities take to the stage to perform their first dance with their professional partners.

[dirac]

A date is set for Yvonne Mounsey's memorial service.

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A memorial for the late ballet dancer and teacher Yvonne Mounsey will be held at 3 p.m. on Oct. 14 at L.A.'s Wadsworth Theatre at 11301 Wilshire Blvd.

[dirac]

American Ballet Theatre will perform at Bard College.

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Accompanied by music by Philip Glass, Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room is full of exhilarating locomotion, ranging from precise geometric patterns to seemingly free-form motion. It was first performed by Tharp’s company in 1986 at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. The principal dancers performing in the three dances are Roberto Bolle, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, Julie Kent, Veronika Part, Xiomara Reyes, Polina Semionova, Hee Seo and Cory Stearns.

[dirac]

A tribute performance will be held in memory of Eric Hampton in Washington, D.C.

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Friends and former company members have teamed up for a tribute concert, “Eric Hampton . . . With Us, Again,” on Oct. 13 and 14 at Dance Place, site of frequent Hampton programs when he was alive. The weekend also will launch the Eric Hampton Dance Foundation, whose trustees include Harriet Moncure Fellows, Hampton’s close friend and colleague. Hampton left his works in the care of Fellows,and she has overseen their occasional performances by local troupes. But to mark the 10th anniversary of his death (the anniversary was last year, but ironing out the details took time), Fellows is aiming to get his work seen nationwide.

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet'sBalanchine/Stravinsky performances by Ryan Wenzel in The Brooklyn Rail.

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Agon’s abrupt changes of rhythm and fast canons create an atmosphere of tension, which was heightened in the ballet’s first performances by the dancers’ unfamiliarity with the material. Rarely does Agon, now a ballet standard, thrill at City Ballet these days. (This might also have something to do with the counting of the steps. The Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s dancers, who count differently, retain more of an edge.)

Maria Kowroski was instrumental in bringing some of that risk back to the pas de deux (with Amar Ramasar on September 23 and Sebastien Markovici on September 24). As she pulls her leg back into penchée on point, the audience holds its breath. Other standouts included Teresa Reichlen, hostile yet flirtatious in the “Bransle gay,” and Sean Suozzi, who brings the right amount of bluster to the first pas de trois.

[dirac]

Social notes on American Ballet Theatre's "Stars Under the Stars" fundraiser.

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The purpose of the evening? Supporting ABT. These are lovely affairs (I recall another fab evening at Avery and Andy Barth’s home in San Marino). I admire ballet. The work that goes into a dancer’s body, the artistry of a good performance. ABTers put on a show that was both classic and modern. After each performance, one of the Pritzkers' girls (barefoot and in her pjs) would walk up and give the lead ballerina flowers. As night fell, the performances (Don Q, Act III, The Garden of Villandry, Swan Lake/ Act II Pas de Deux, and Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suite) got even more magical. “It’s a setting that you simply cannot have in the theatre,” said ABT’s Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, looking up at the stars.

[dirac]

The National Ballet of Canada brings back "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Giselle."

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What engages a contemporary audience are the strong emotions conveyed by the leads. Albrecht, Duke of Silesia, a role elevated by dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and more recently the National Ballet’s then-principal Zdenek Konvalina, pairs with Giselle — a part for gazelle-like dancers such as the company’s beautiful Xiao Nan Yu — for pure ballet bliss.

[dirac]

The Royal Opera House expands its cinema programming.

The Stage

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The programme will begin on October 23 with Swan Lake from the Royal Ballet, which will include Zenaida Yanowsky and Nehemiah Kish in the title roles. The Nutcracker and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will also feature and all three will be screened live.

The Evening Standard

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There were initial doubts on whether people would watch productions at the cinema — but ROH audiences for operas and ballets doubled to about 300,000 in the last year. The ballet La Fille Mal Gardée was No 3 for UK cinema box office takings on its live release day in May and No 10 for the week.

[dirac]

Deborah Jones chooses the best in Australian dancefor 2012.

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Gemini was the centrepiece of a program tagged ‘Icons’, featuring two short narrative ballets that have been important to the Australian Ballet: Robert Helpmann’s The Display and Graeme Murphy’s Beyond Twelve. The Display was more historically interesting than persuasively performed and Beyond Twelve was touching and engaging but is a minor work. Nevertheless, together they asked the audience to see a company in context and in forward motion – a valuable task.