15 replies to this topic

[dirac]

This 'n' that about San Francisco Ballet by Philip Mayard for the San Francisco Bay Times.

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Mark your calendar for SF Ballet's first-ever Nutcracker LGBT Nite Out on Friday, December 14 at 7pm, featuring a post-performance party in the Opera House Dress Circle bar, hosted by Donna Sachet. Mingle with friends and SF Ballet dancers and enjoy music, hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, and prizes.......

But perhaps the most anticipated work of SF Ballet's upcoming season will be the U.S. premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella in May. San Francisco Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet will co-produce this new creation........Both sets and costumes will be designed by renowned opera and theatre designer Julian Crouch.....Locally, Crouch served as associate director/designer for Shockheaded Peter, which was performed at American Conservatory Theater in 2000. Cinderella will be his first ballet, and certainly a production that you won't want to miss.

[dirac]

An item on Charleston Ballet's Ballet for All community reachout program.

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While the ballet has set aside 200 tickets for the program, it has never given out that many with the program.

"We would love for that to be a problem," Feola said, and the ballet's artistic director, Kim Pauley, has indicated she'd set aside even more if necessary.

[dirac]

New York City Ballet's residency is designated by SPAC as the beneficiary of a local restaurant's annual fundraiser.

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“My warmest thanks go out to Jasper and Beth Alexander for choosing SPAC as the beneficiary of this year’s Mardi Gras fundraiser. Hattie’s is not only a culinary landmark, but, under the leadership of Jasper and Beth Alexander, a champion for the quality of life in Saratoga,” said Marcia White, SPAC’s President & Executive Director.

“Upon learning of Jasper and Beth’s extremely generous decision, we immediately decided that all funds raised would be designated for New York City Ballet’s SPAC residency..."

[dirac]

Charleston Ballet and Columbia Classical Ballet join forces to present "La Bayadere."

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Eleven dancers from the Columbia Classical Ballet take the stage Friday and Saturday with the Charleston Ballet to bring the West Virginia premiere of "La Bayadere The Temple Dancer" to Charleston.

[dirac]

An obituary for Yvonne Mounseyby Jim Brunet in The Topanga Messenger.

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In 1958, she retired from NYCB, returned to South Africa, and married childhood friend Kelvin Clegg in 1960. She had two previous marriages to Duncan Mounsey and Albert Hall Hughey. While in South Africa, she co-founded South Africa's leading ballet company, The Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (P.A.C.T. Ballet).

[dirac]

Time Out London looks back on the career of Michael Clark.

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The Royal Ballet’s star pupil becomes a punk, drops out of the ballet world and graces Time Out’s cover as a mere 22 year old, with his bum out (this was to become a theme).

[dirac]

A review of West Australian Ballet by Jill Sykes in The Sydney Morning Herald.

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You don't see so much of Jiri Kylian's choreography these days, so the pleasure of West Australian Ballet's opening work in its 60th anniversary program was doubly welcome. Un Ballo, from 1991, is intended to be nothing more than the dance its title suggests – yet the combination of movement and music is so achingly beautiful that its impact is powerful.

[dirac]

An interviewwith Christopher Hampson and Fleur Darkin of Scottish Ballet and Scottish Dance Theatre, respectively.

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“My husband came home and high-fived me when I found out I had the job,” says Darkin, “because he felt he was out of the rat race. It’s a big undertaking, and I’ve been so grateful to my whole family for coming, but we’re all ready – for the land, for the fishing, for Scotland.”

For Hampson, who previously spent half the year travelling the world as a freelance choreographer, leaving London was no great hardship. “I’ve got a real connection with Scotland because my mum’s from Gourock,” he says, “and I spent a lot of time here as a child during school holidays. So I know the west coast quite well, and it’s been lovely to reconnect with those memories.”

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 'The Princess and the Goblin' by Robert Enright for the CBC.

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The Princess & The Goblin is, after all, a children's story and the bodies on stage are meant to be looked at and not desired. Which is why Irene, performed by Paloma Herrera, a leggy and easeful dancer who puts me in mind of Karen Kain, moves about the stage in a constant state of surprised discovery. Like all children, she is figuring out what the world is about and the charm of this ballet is that it lets us as viewers in on her wonder.

[dirac]

New York City Ballet MOVES comes to Minneapolis.

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"I think it's really a snapshot of what the company can do," said principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht by phone from New York. The compact rotating cast of principals, soloists, members of the corps de ballet (who have potential to move up the ranks) and musicians delivers what Ulbricht calls "a tasting menu" of the troupe's diverse repertory to audience members who can't make the trip to Lincoln Center for the glittery City Ballet seasons.

The vision for the touring program (launched in 2011) came from Artistic Director Peter Martins with the goal of bringing "our best to venues," said Jean-Pierre Frohlich, artistic administrator for MOVES. "Some companies don't always bring stars."

[dirac]

Deirdre Kelly offers some background on her new book, "Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection." In other news, death at 79 is "untimely."

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In the 20th century, the more menacing backstage peril became institutionalized starvation as ordered by artistic directors entranced by the thin ideal promulgated by the Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine when he helmed the New York City Ballet until his untimely death in 1983.

While my book lifts the curtain on some of the unsavoury practices that have tended to go unchecked in for the sake of art and beauty, it ends on a positive note, showing that ballet is now changing - and for the better.

[dirac]

Orlando Ballet brings back "Vampire's Ball."

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Using contemporary and classical music, "Vampire's Ball" weaves a visual spell encompassing an innocent couple, a mad scientist and his monster, and, of course, a dashing bloodsucker.

[dirac]

A review of the Mariinsky Ballet in "Swan Lake" by Paul Parish in The Bay Area Reporter.

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While in the original, Rotbart has outmaneuvered Odette with a brilliant intrigue, and cast a spell over his own daughter Odile to make her resemble our heroine, and brought her to court to trap Siegfried into proposing in front of the whole court to the false-seeming swan, and the rash promise cannot be undone, in Sergeyev's version the Prince can just fight the sorcerer, break his wing, and that will break the spell. Problem is, the music requires aGotterdaemmerung-scale disaster, a complete destruction and drowning of everything. This is why Matthew Bourne's all-male-swan version is the most powerful, since the stage picture matches the catastrophe we hear in the music.

[dirac]

A feature on Benjamin Millepiedand L.A. Dance Project by Brooks Barnes in The New York Times (published in pring Sunday).

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The first program from L.A. Dance Project, which made its debut in September in Los Angeles and opens at Montclair State University in New Jersey on Thursday, is an enormously ambitious one consisting of that new dance Mr. Millepied was rehearsing; Merce Cunningham’s sonically arduous masterwork “Winterbranch,” not fully seen since the 1970s; and William Forsythe’s “Quintett,” a haunting piece from 1993 that Mr. Forsythe has described as “a love letter” to his young wife, who was dying of cancer.

Mr. Millepied’s arrival in Los Angeles comes as its fine arts organizations are tackling adventurous and far-reaching projects in a way that makes New York look a little humdrum.

[dirac]

A National Public Radio interview with Michael Pink.

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This season marks Pink's 10th anniversary at the helm of the ballet - and he is now the company's longest serving artistic director. Under his leadership, the company and its school have both grown tremendously, and Pink himself has reached across the artistic aisles by choreographing three musicals at the Milwaukee Rep, as well as collaborating with other local arts organizations.