12 replies to this topic

[dirac]

Mavis Staines is honored today.

Quote

Mavis Staines will receive the Diamond Jubilee Medal for her commitment to the education as well as well-being of individuals in the field of dance. Staines will receive the medal alongside with others of the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario. The ceremony will take place today at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.

[dirac]

A bogus statement from Sergei Filin surfaces on the internet.

Quote

The statement on a fake Facebook page which says it belongs to Sergei Filin says that the re-selling of tickets at inflated prices has become a criminalised business, and that Filin was most likely attacked due to his efforts to stop it.

[dirac]

A review of Smuin Ballet by Ann Murphy in The San Jose Mercury News.

Quote

Smuin's interest in crossing genre boundaries is alive and well, but other artists are now leading the way. Louisville Ballet's resident choreographer, Adam Hougland, set his "Cold Virtues" (2003) on the company this past fall, and on Saturday it hit all the right notes, and the company shined. Set to Philip Glass' plangent Violin Concerto No. 1, the dance embodied the kind of virtues a chamber company needs -- meaningful movement, inventive physicality and a complex understanding of the body in space and time.

[dirac]

Q&A with Sirui Liu of Cincinnati Ballet.

Quote

What do you love about Cincinnati?
It’s so different [than] China. In my city, Shanghai, it’s a big city, so there are a lot of people around. And it’s a lot of noise and it’s not clean. … In Shanghai every morning people are walking so fast, but here everyone is so calm. Also, here, I think it’s a little bit of a country style, and I’ve never seen that. Even [Cincinnati] has traffic, but it’s less crowded than Shanghai.

[dirac]

A review of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet by Toba Singer for the California Literary Review.

Quote

Now in its 35th year, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago appeared at Berkeley’s Zellerbach auditorium under the auspices of Cal Performances on February 1, in an innovatively configured program that it shared with San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet, in which dancers from both companies interpreted King’s World Premiere of Azimuth.

The dancers from the geographically separated companies rehearsed together by virtue of Internet imaging technology, and only had a scant number of live bricks–and-mortar rehearsals to prepare for opening night.

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times.

Quote

Last Friday night at the David H. Koch Theater the company introduced a new program called Art Series, with seats selling at $29. The orchestra took the night off; two of the evening’s four ballets were to taped music, two to piano. In the intermissions, the principal dancer Sébastien Marcovici served as D.J. — playing rock music from a sound system in the upstairs foyer. When Peter Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief, in front of the curtain, asked how many in the audience had never been to City Ballet, at least 30 percent raised their hands. Since some of those newcomers spoke at once of returning, the experiment is a healthy one.

[dirac]

More on backstage animosities at the Bolshoi. Story by Ellen Barry in The New York Times.

Quote

Mr. Iksanov has seldom spoken so frankly, and with the investigation into the acid attack under way his insights are far from casual. He has said repeatedly that he does not suspect Mr. Tsiskaridze in the attack on Mr. Filin. But to Snob, and in a separate interview with The New York Times, he said that Mr. Tsiskaridze had lobbied to be named artistic director and general director, and that there was “no doubt” that he was involved in the 2011 publication of erotic photographs that prompted Gennady Yanin, who was at the time the Bolshoi director, to leave the company.

[dirac]

The Colorado Ballet announces plans for its 2013-14 season and its new headquarters.

Quote

Located in a compound of buildings that formerly housed the Allyn International sewing machine distributor at 11th Street and Santa Fe Drive, the 30,000-square-foot project will provide the company with eight rehearsal studios — two as big as the stage at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House where the company performs. There will also be 150-seat black box theater, giving the Arts District its second significant performance space after the Denver Civic Theatre a few blocks south.

[dirac]

Orlando Ballet adds new members to its board of directors.

Quote

It's a key step toward stronger financial health for the organization, which has a history of debt but is currently running in the black. The ballet can have as many as 35 board members and in the early 1990s had 31 serving. "The board is making a concerted effort to raise funds," said Ava Doppelt, board president. "It's the board's role to be out in the community raising funds."

[dirac]

A story on FAILE's collaboration with New York City Ballet.

Quote

Even when paired with experimental, modern dance, introducing street art to an institution as classic as the NYCB may have seemed like a risky move. “I think it’s more that the old guard might look at this and find it more challenging than it is for our generation,” said Miller. “[The installation] relates to the way we grew up with advertising, [in] the quick pace of the [images in the] work.” But, he adds, “I think working together is a great opportunity because it brings a new audience to both them and us. That’s the great part about collaboration.”

[dirac]

A review of Armitage Gone! Danceby Martha Sherman for danceviewtimes.

Quote

As the work opened, Armitage founding member Megumi Eda, in her last season with the company, emerged from the group, lifting first a foot, then a leg, her angled body and limbs among the most graceful geometry of the program. Around her, several other dancers moved in and out of pairings; often the men were on their backs, holding or balancing partners on their upraised legs, as if in counterbalance to the arabesques. Tiny, athletic Masayo Yamaguchi threw a leg back in an arabesque that folded over her back, at 120º angle. The otherwise elegant port de bras of the dancers often ended with wriggling, impatient fingers.

[dirac]

Houston's Ballet Ball spotlights "The Rite of Spring."

Quote

Ball patrons in black tie attire will not be forced to dance themselves to death like Nijinsky's Chosen One, although sore feet will be encouraged after the catered dinner by Tony's, when the Richard Brown Orchestra entertains. Martin and Kelli Cohen Fein chair, and the evening honors Lynn Wyatt and Vinson & Elkins LLP. Tickets start at $1,000 and are available by calling 713-535-3230.

[dirac]

Reviews of Pacific Northwest Ballet in "Romeo et Juliette." Hat tip to sandik for the links!

Seattle PI

Quote

If there is a perfect story ballet, Jean-Christophe Maillot’s full-length Romeo et Juliette is it. Maillot makes emotional sense of this well-known story by paring the movement down to only those steps and gestures that convey character and the dramatic thrust of the plot. There are no extraneous variations here; every moment of every scene serves to move the action forward while simultaneously conveying the inner landscape of every character.

Seattle Weekly

Quote

Opening weekend, showing off the freshly finished sets and costumes, was full of drama—some intended, some not. Many in the cast were coming back to roles they'd danced before. Both Juliets—to use the English spelling—were building on previous experience, but with different perspectives. Kaori Nakamura has taken every extraneous element out of her interpretation, so that the ballet becomes a transparent set of cause-and-effect actions. From the first time she rushes onstage to her final suicide, we see each choice made, yet feel there is no alternative. Carla Körbes has a different approach to her Juliet: She's so caught up in the flush of young love that we're swept along, too. No matter how familiar we are with the story, the tragic ending comes as a surprise.