17 replies to this topic

[dirac]

An interview with photographer Yuri Kozyrev and photo gallery of his shots of the Bolshoi Ballet.

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That was before Kozyrev got a call from TIME’s photo editors asking if he could be back in Moscow on Sunday evening, February 3, to photograph Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake at the famed Bolshoi Theater (to read the TIME magazine story, which is available to subscribers, click here). Last month, Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, was assaulted with acid thrown in his face, an attack officials suspect may have come from a rival dancer. “I had heard what happened in Bolshoi when we were in Afghanistan,” Kozyrev says. “It’s a story right out of the movies. The gossip, the power struggles — the story of the Bolshoi has more twists than a soap opera.”

[dirac]

Oregon Ballet Theatre presents "Swan Lake."

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Stowell resigned abruptly as artistic director late last year, leaving the company’s direction and leadership in question. And while the remainder of this season is playing out as planned, and interim artistic director Anne Mueller has studded next season with old and new works by Stowell, it’s unclear how much of the corps of dancers Stowell hired and trained will stay here to carry his vision forward. At least one of the troupe’s top talents, principal dancer Yuka Iino, is leaving, retiring after the final “Swan Lake” performance on Feb. 23.

[dirac]

A review of the Joffrey Ballet by Sid Smith in The Chicago Tribune.

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The return of Jerome Robbins' "Interplay" is cause for celebration, a seminal work from 1945 that warmly gleams with his innovative mix of ballet and pop dance, jazzy and yet crammed with fiendish technical demands. Long overdue for a good role, John Mark Giragosian is terrific in the lead, razorlike, winsomely charming and immaculate in delivering the work's showy turns.

[dirac]

Ballet San Jose presents "Don Quixote," with reachout to the kiddies.  Item in brief.

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The activities include arts and crafts, story-time with a ballerina and an introductory class with a faculty member of the Ballet San Jose School (each family gets to take home a "ballet workbook," too.) While ticket buyers will be able to take part in all that fun, Ballet San Jose has also given away about 800 tickets to students and families from its partner schools for this season: Empire Gardens, Grant Academy and Lowell elementary schools. Big round of applause to the Sharks Foundation and the Comerica Charitable Foundation for their sponsorships.

[dirac]

A feature on the doctors who treat the dancers of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

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"They can have torn ligaments. I have seen Achilles injuries. I have seen shoulders dislocated, even some concussions," said Fu, the chairman of Pitt's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

This marks the 30th year that Dr. Fu and the staff have been providing medical care to the dancers. They're at the theater for every rehearsal.

[dirac]

A preview of Ballet Austin's new program, with video.

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The second piece, Allegro Brillante, features choreography by George Balanchine (a frequent Stravinsky-collaborator) and music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. This ballet is known for its "expansive Russian romanticism" and demands quick, precise technique from its two principals and corps of eight dancers.

[dirac]

A preview of Nashville Ballet's new program.

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The first work in "Attitude," choreographer Sarah Slipper and composer Michael Kurek's Ploughing the Dark, was created in 2004 in partnership with the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt. A passionate duet, Ploughing the Dark was originally performed in the ballet's Emergence series, a program that profiles new works from emerging artists.

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Next week, Nashville Ballet will bring its production of “Carmina Burana” to the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center in a Dance St. Louis presentation.

The company will share the spotlight with the University of Missouri-St. Louis Orchestra & Singers, the Bach Society of St. Louis and the St. Louis Children’s Choir. MADCO will open the show with a performance of “Bach Cantata No. 10,” choreographed by Michael Uthoff, artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis

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[dirac]

A preview of the National Ballet of Canada's 2013-14 season, with video.

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The season will open with a well known 'Swan Lake' in November 2013, followed by The National Ballet of Canada's 'Innovation' series which will present 3 world premieres by Canadian choreographers Robert Binet, Jose Navas, and James Kudelka in one programme of dance.

[dirac]

A preview of James Kudelka's "From the House of Mirth."

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“We call it a music, dance, theatre piece,” says Laurence Lemieux, co-founder of Coleman Lemieux and Compagnie. “It’s really a mix of all these art forms.

“The seed is James [Kudelka]’s, the choreographer, but he approached the work more as a theatre director.”

[dirac]

A Reuters story on the state of play at the Bolshoi.

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"Having all these people backstage and in our classes is a bit different," said Joy Womack, the first American to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet's main training programme. Her words are not without a touch of understatement.

She does not conceal that competition for roles and for influence over productions is intense at the Bolshoi and says people with different artistic visions "will butt heads"; but, in that, she sees it as not unusual in the ballet world.

[dirac]

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

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The evaluation of individual dancers does become vital here, but what matters more is how Pacific Northwest makes Balanchine’s choreography appear. His ballets still look wonderfully right at City Center, which was City Ballet’s home from 1948 to 1964 and where “Agon” had its premiere in 1957. So why on earth did City Center make the mistake of giving Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Balanchine triple bill only one performance? (The company will dance its “Roméo et Juliette,” by Jean-Christophe Maillot, on Friday and Saturday.) All levels of the theater were full; discussion was intense.

Edited by dirac, 17 February 2013 - 05:51 AM.
Company misidentified in original posting. Thanks to abatt for pointing out the error!

[dirac]

Social notes from a party promoting the new issue of CR Fashion Book, featuring insights from David Hallberg and other attendees.

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The dancer said that working on the shoot in Paris was a fabulous experience. “It was a great kind of collaboration, in a sense, that she had just as much respect for the dancer as I had respect for what she does as an editor in the fashion world,” Halberg told us.

Others appearing in the magazine include model Irina Shayk, whose feature was with busty Mob Wives star Big Ang. “She’s major, oh my God! She’s major, I’m telling you,” Shayk gushed. “She was wearing this tiny swimsuit, and she was rocking it. Her boobs and her body, I mean.” Shayk added that Big Ang is a lot of fun, as was the whole photo shoot.

[dirac]

Reviews of the Hamburg Ballet in "Nijinsky."

Tri-Valley Times

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But Neumeier trots out small armies of Nijinskys as the lead, danced by Alexandre Riabko, dances with himself in his famous roles -- the Dionysian Faun, the fragrant Rose, the larky boy in "Jeux." Diaghilevs multiply more ominously, like darkly expressionistic figures, and a blitz of music from Nijinsky's various ballets runs through the night, creating auditory overload. The effect is of an uproar in a vast psychological space.

San Francisco Chronicle

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But Neumeier is a garrulous choreographer, somewhat trapped by his musical choices, which include Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade," Shostakovich's late Viola Sonata and his entire Symphony No. 11. The trio for Nijinsky, Romola (their marriage precipitates the break with Diaghilev) and the faun (Thiago Bordin) runs on for a small eternity, simply because the music does.

[dirac]

A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Apollinaire Scherr in The Financial Times.

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Apollo and Agon did not prove so revelatory. These ballets depend not only on physical amplitude but on musical wit and dramatic flair, eccentricity and extremity. Apollo, after all, depicts supreme creators, with their ambitions, insecurities and untempered experiments. As Apollo, Seth Orza – a deeply sweet dancer with New York City Ballet for several years – flickered between muteness and eloquence until lush, musical Carla Korbes, another NYCB alumnus, joined him as muse Terpsichore, tutor to the appealingly uncouth youth.

[dirac]

A report on Pacific Northwest Ballet's reception in New York by Lynn Jacobson in The Seattle Times. (Thanks to sandik for the link!)

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Oh, and here, just for fun, is a press photo of Balanchine's "Concerto Barocco" from a "Dance in America" broadcast in the '70s: