12 replies to this topic

[dirac]

The founder of the Israel Ballet is fired (subscription only).

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Berta Yampolsky, who founded the Israel Ballet in 1967 and has been its artistic director ever since, told Haaretz she was fired recently by the company’s supervising accountant.

[dirac]

The Sarasota Cuban Ballet School wins top prize at the Youth America Grand Prix regional competition in Atlanta.

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The Youth America Grand Prix is the world’s largest ballet scholarship competition. Regional finalists will compete at the New York City finals at the end of March.

[dirac]

In praise of Bunheads, by Boer Deng for The Atlantic.

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Making that point is one of the other strengths of the show. The four young stars of Bunheads all do their own performing. Their dancing is admirable, but what's even better is that these girls look just as they are: dedicated students. So their steps aren't always pristine, they do not all have ideal arms and legs and midriffs; and the show isn't about that either. It's just about the dancing.

[dirac]

A review of the Joffrey Ballet by Kim Carpenter in The Omaha World-Herald.

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In French, the original title was Le Sacre du Printemps, with “sacre” perhaps more accurately translated as “consecration.” That's because the ballet is about a pagan tribe ritually sacrificing a young maiden to usher in spring. The dancers' movements were jerky and primitive, yet perfectly and exactingly controlled. There was something terrifying about how they moved in a predatory tribe toward their Chosen One, danced with alternating resignation and panic by Elizabeth Hansen. Her brutal physicality was a wonder to watch, and she executed close to 100 jumps in her pivotal scene.

[dirac]

Dancer photo gallery.

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Ballet meets painting in these creative long-exposure photographs of dancers participating in a photocall ahead of the “Emerging Dancer 2013″ competition final at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in central London. The competition is now in it’s fourth year and will pick one of six English National Ballet School graduates to become Emerging Dancer 2013.

[dirac]

A review of Miami City Ballet by Jordan Levin in The Miami Herald.

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Delgado and Renan Cerdeiro stood out among three artful couples, and the corps danced with the precise drive we expect from MCB in Balanchine works. But the climactic seduction felt messy and unconvincing, with Reyes so uniformly menacing it was hard to understand why Albertson would be drawn to him.

Rebello was impressive in the title role of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, a Balanchine bauble based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, conveying both humor and yearning while sharply executing the difficult turns and jumps. Jennifer Lauren needed more stylistic delicacy and technical precision as the paper doll he falls for.

Edited by dirac, 05 March 2013 - 11:30 AM.
Edited to add correct link. Thanks to Jack Reed for flagging the error!

[dirac]

Haute Living asks Ashley Wheater about some of his favorite places and activities in Chicago.

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Best Sunday brunch:
The Gage is located half way between the Joffrey Studios, where we rehearse, and the Auditorium Theatre, where we perform. The Gage has become my drop-in stop. I had the best Eggs Benedict ever at Bistro Zinc in the Gold Coast.

Haute Night Club/Lounge:
My neighborhood favorite is the Violet Hour. I exercise real discipline in not spending more time there.

[dirac]

Dance listings in The New Yorker's Goings On About Town (March 11):

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Edward Villella:

In this informal dialogue, he talks about growing up in Queens, his unlikely decision to become a dancer, working with Balanchine, and—perhaps his greatest achievement—building a company from scratch

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[dirac]

A review of Diablo Ballet by Mary Ellen Hunt in The San Francisco Chronicle.

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Happily, "Flight of the Dodo," set to Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, does not look like a ballet created by committee. Four women - Mayo Sugano, Hiromi Yamazaki, Rosselyn Ramirez and Jennifer Friel Dille - were kitted out as explorers tracking giant dodos - Dekkers, Edward Stegge and David Fonnegra in costume designer Christian Squires' drab tutu skirts, bare-chested except for a blue jabot.

As a dancer, Dekkers is a graceful classicist, as evidenced by the courtly line of his arms and bearing in Trey McIntyre's "The Blue Boy," seen earlier in the program. His dodos were ungainly, yet rather endearing as they cavorted exuberantly in Jack Carpenter's warm lighting. But Dekkers offered less choreographically for the women, whose steps intermingle posturing with antic Keystone Kops chases.

[dirac]

Reviews of the TITAS annual Command Performance.

D Magazine

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The second of four couples to perform, Wendy Whelan and her partner Desmond Richardson brought back Christopher Wheeldon’s “After The Rain,” a piece danced on the Winspear stage just over a month ago when TITAS presented the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The Joffrey dancers were outstanding, but there was a mesmerizing quality in the dance this evening that gave a rare depth of interpretation. No doubt, NYC Ballet’s, Wendy Whelan shines in this abstract work, filling emotionally empty slates with defiance, power, and longing.

TheaterJones

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[Yuan Yuan] Tan's supple body and articulated movement made Among the Stars all the more arresting, but it is her performance as Odette in the pas de deux from Swan Lake that is so riveting you felt you were seeing Swan Lake for the first time. She is a marvel at capturing the Swan's desire, fear and ultimate surrender to Prince Siegfried (Mr. Smith)—her trembling arms, fast-beating feet, and languorous backward falls into his arms executed with heart-stopping clarity. While he rotates her in arabesque, it feels as though time is now moving in slow motion, so defined is every angle and gesture.

[dirac]

A review of the National Ballet of Canada in "Nijinsky" by Paula Citron in The Globe and Mail.

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Côté as Nijinsky showcases these contrasting views – his flamboyant, virtuoso, imperial-style showstoppers are interspersed with the flat, angled and flexed positionings of contemporary ballet. By the end, when Nijinky’s madness takes over, Côté’s emotional outpouring is heartbreaking, both as an actor and a dancer.

[dirac]

Alberta Ballet embarks on its second collaboration with Joni Mitchell.

CBC News

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The reclusive Mitchell will reteam with Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître to create the new piece, which will feature a libretto, set design and soundtrack by the celebrated singer-songwriter.

The as-yet-untitled new Mitchell work will debut in Calgary, running May 1-3, 2014. It will then move on to Edmonton, from May 9-10, 2014.

The Globe and Mail

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Alberta Ballet premiered an earlier collaboration with Mitchell, The Fiddle and The Drum, in 2007. Grand-Maître’s subsequent “pop” ballets include Love Lies Bleeding, created with Elton John’s music; Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, created with the participation of Sarah McLachlan; and Balletlujah!, set to the music of k.d. lang, which will have its world premiere on May 3 2013 in Edmonton.

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[dirac]

A review of the Royal New Zealand Ballet by John Daly-Peoples in The National Business Review.

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Javier de Frutos’s work The Anatomy of a Passing Cloud is the one work which has the most obvious local connection. It is danced to the music of the Pacific and the costumes are strongly influenced by Pacific designs. While de Frutos has been inspired by his growing interest and love of Pacific music he is also aware of the political dimensions of colonization as they have affected both New Zealand and the Pacific. But he does not look at these aspects as some sort of social anthropologist, there is a personal dimension for him. “I was born in a former Spanish colony and Venezuelans have the habit of turning their backs on the indigenous and local and looking to Europe where they think things are better”