9 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Central West Balletpresents "That's Showbiz."

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Francesca Bavaro, 2011 winner of the Gallo Center's Valley's Got Talent competition, will sing Barbra Streisand's "People." Two dancers also will show off their vocal talents. Brittnie Cudo will sing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and Erikka Reenstierna-Cates will sing "Get Happy."

All 35 ballet company members are participating in the show and have been working hard on learning the variety-show style. It's more difficult than it looks — they are rehearsing nine hours a day. Daveluy has had them watch DVDs of vintage footage for inspiration.

[dirac]

Twin City Ballet presents "Talk of the Town."

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The evening will offer something for everyone, beginning with "Broadway on the Bayou." "Broadway on the Bayou "» a Salute to the Masters!" is a retrospective of works done by the most celebrated choreographers of the Great White Way giving a glimpse into each master's signature, stylistic point-of-view and genius.

This piece celebrates the great choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, Michael Bennett, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and many others.

[dirac]

A Louisville man is arrested after allegedly harassing dancers of the Louisville Ballet.

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Officers say Johnson is "well known" by the police and has been told to stay off the property numerous times by employees of the Louisville Ballet.

Johnson was arrested shortly after 5 a.m. on Oct. 11 and charged with criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct, harassment, terroristic threatening and indecent exposure.

[dirac]

Charles Berry, formerly of the Stuttgart Ballet, joins the glamorous world of accountancy.

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There’s a difference, however. Berry didn’t make a career switch voluntarily. It was prematurely forced on him by injury, the nightmare scenario that lurks darkly in the corner of every dancer’s consciousness. Even so, Berry has made a remarkably smooth transition and emphatically does not share Michael Palin’s grim assessment of his new profession.

It’s already taken Berry on an exchange assignment to Australia and he enjoys learning about clients’ businesses. “I’m still counting numbers,” jokes Berry, referring to the way ballet dancers often count musical beats, “only I’m counting in 10s now, not eights. And I’ve got a licence to use a calculator.”

[dirac]

A review of Colorado Ballet in "The Sleeping Beauty" by Ray Mark Rinaldi in The Denver Post.

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Three ballerinas are dancing the lead role of Princess Aurora, and each will bring her own personality to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House stage. Last Sunday, Chandra Kuykendall performed as Aurora and showed that the Colorado Ballet's young dancers can move in ways that rival their more experienced peers.

[dirac]

The Korean trouple Lee Won-kuk Balletpresents "Eyes of Dawn."

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The TV drama starred actress Chae Shi-ra and actors Park Sang-won and Choi Jae-sung, all top stars of the time. The show was a TV adaptation of author Kim Seong-jong’s 10-volume series novel of the same title, which was published in 1977. The novel and the TV show brought attention to Japan’s war crimes, including the sex slavery, and the tragedies triggered by Korea’s ideological divisions.

“I’ve always wanted to create a drama ballet that features the tragic modern history of Korea,” said Lee, who read Kim’s novel when he was a teenager and was touched by it.

[dirac]

Reviews of the Royal Ballet in "Swan Lake."

The Telegraph

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She astonishes in all the ways you would expect of her. For Osipova is not merely a world-class, instinctive technician (though she is supremely that), but specifically a performer who, by some strange magic, appears to find it easier to be off the ground than on it: the air welcomes and embraces her like no other female dancer I have ever seen. The tiniest skip seems to send her soaring, and yet – however high, far, or fast she jumps – she miraculously manages to land in complete silence.

The Guardian

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Osipova's dancing is supported by excellent performances at soloist level, and Carlos Acosta's Siegfried has acquired a new refinement. But while these performances deserve to be garlanded, the production is sliding into a bad joke. First staged in 1987, the designs of this Swan Lake have always looked chaotic. But over the years, more random stuff has appeared, as if it has become a lost-property room for old scenery and props. Meanwhile, the minor roles are being vamped and mugged to a preposterous degree: everyone on stage in a desperate competition to see and be seen.

[dirac]

A review of the Mariinsky Ballet in "Swan Lake."

The San Francisco Chronicle

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This Mariinsky visit brings us a mixture of veterans and new faces; casting changes widely from performance to performance. Wednesday, Ekaterina Kondaurova introduced herself to Bay Area balletomanes.

The Moscow-born dancer, now 30, seems at the height of her powers. Kondaurova's magnificent extension, molded instep and port de bras conspired to give us an almost heroic Odette, defiant, yet free of sentimentality.
Her fierce Odile adds up to a series of nonstop thrills

The San Francisco Examiner

Danila Korsuntsev was an underwhelming Prince Siegfried, due more to wooden theatrics than technical failing. Karen Ionnisyan, a corps member who set the stage alight in Act 2’s Spanish Dance, or Zverev, might be more interesting dramatic choices for the part. On the whole, the female corps was more in sync and gave warmer performances than the men, many of whom seemed stiff.
Though "Swan Lake" would benefit from being staged in a larger space, the Mariinsky Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's iconic score to rousing, subliminal heights made up for  Zellerbach’s cramped atmosphere.

[dirac]

A review of the Mariinskyby Ann Murphy in The San Jose Mercury News. Many thanks to pherank for sending in the link!

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Décor and costuming were a problem that signaled a larger confusion about which Russia was being presented, and that anxiety about identity filled the program notes, where nationalism curiously riddled the text. It may be just such anxiety that allowed camp to creep into the regalia of the Prince's mother, the queen, who appeared in Acts I and III wearing what looked like giant abalone shells on her head, or the get-up for the evil sorcerer Rothbart in Act III, who took his place beside Prince Siegfried's mom like a terrifying drag queen from the "Vampire Diaries." The "Swan Lake" rolled out in St. Petersburg in 1895 for Tsar Nicholas II slipped quietly toward self-parody.

[dirac]

Dayton Ballet celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary.

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With help from the Dermot Burke Premiere Fund, established to honor of the organization’s former executive and artistic director, the Ballet was able to commission an original piece for its opening program.

The honor went to Amy Seiwert, a Cincinnati native who is artistic director of the San Francisco-based ballet company Imagery and choreographer-in-residence for the Smuin Ballet based in San Francisco. Seiwert’s work is represented in the repertory of 11 ballets across the country.