6 replies to this topic

[dirac]

An article on the Filin affair by David Remnick in the March 18 issue of The New Yorker.

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  ....His gaze was, it always seemed, confiding and unworried—despite the great change in his life. Nearly two years earlier, he had become the Bolshoi’s khudruk, its artistic director. He did not pretend to dictate policy in the Bolshevik style of Yuri Grigorovich, an imperious second-rater who ruled the company by decree for three decades, from 1964 to 1995. But Filin did control the crucial matters of scheduling, casting, promotion, and repertoire. The fortunes of more than two hundred dancers—many of them in a permanent state of anxiety about their mayfly careers—rested with him, with his judgments and his caprices.

[dirac]

A preview of the Royal Opera House debate on the topic of "Are opera and ballet elitist?" Video.

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On Monday 11 March, the Royal Opera House will host the first in a series of debates to be streamed live from the ROH in collaboration with the Telegraph.

[dirac]

Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearses "Concerto Barocco."

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“It’s like being shot out of a cannon,” explains corps member Jessica Anspach, who first danced "Concerto Barocco" in 2005 and appears in one of four casts PNB is offering this time around. “The physical challenge almost usurped any joy I might have felt [that first time]. But every time I perform it I progress and feel a personal sense of achievement. Very few other Balanchine ballets get you into shape like this.”

[dirac]

A review of the Russian Ballet Icons Gala: Celebrating Vaslav Nijinsky by Matthew Paluch for The Arts Desk.

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The farewell pas de deux for Masha and Vershinin from Kenneth MacMillan’s Winter Dreams followed, its Chekhov derivation a very slight connection to the theme, and the Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares executed the choreography’s expressive expansion well. Nuñez reconfirms the electrifying period her dancing is currently experiencing no matter what the night, work, or theatre she finds herself in.

[dirac]

A review of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatreby Jane Vranish in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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But "Serenade" was a generous, sweeping moonlit dance, so visually arresting, most likely because a great many of the women have probably performed the ballet before. (It has become a staple at fine ballet schools across the country, although New York City Ballet has never really stopped performing it as well.) So the comfort level was high, with the women, particularly Julia Erickson, in a tangible state of rapture.

[dirac]

The plot thickens(?) in the Filin affair.

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“He was pushed — the entire collective is certain of this,” Mr. Iksanov told “Vesti Nedeli,” a weekly current affairs program broadcast on Sunday night, of Pavel Dmitrichenko, the Bolshoi Ballet soloist who was arrested last week on charges of ordering the attack on Mr. Filin. “That’s why he’s not the actual instigator that he’s being made out to be. He is one of the perpetrators. There is a mastermind, and the investigation must find this person.”

[dirac]

A report on a lecture-demonstration at Pacific Northwest Ballet by Rosie Gaynor for The SunBreak.

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The reconstructions were a treat; they’re not something folks usually get to see. The first reconstruction presented was a courtly, couples-only excerpt from Les Élèves de Dupré. Fullington said it was the 19th century’s tribute to Baroque dance. It looked so foreign, with the “dance action,” as Fullington said, happening in the arms and below the ankles. The feet were often fast — crossing and recrossing. The shoulders were open — that beautiful épaulement that we still see in ballet today. Beautiful shoulders? Of course Liora Neuville (formerly Reshef) would have to be in this piece. She was joined by Jahna Frantziskonis, Price Suddarth, and Ezra Thomson. (It’s fun to see Thomson’s rugged, can-do energy dressed up and looking comfortable in this courtly dance.)