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[dirac]

NPR picks up the "Are opera and ballet elitist?" debate from The Telegraph.

Streaming video of the debate from the Telegraph website.

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Turnage, who composed contemporary opera Anna Nicole in 2011, said that the debate wouldn't even be happening in France or Germany, but was a product of British anti-intellectualism.

[dirac]

Scottish Ballet's "A Streetcar Named Desire" wins a South Bank Sky Arts Award.

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A Streetcar Named Desire Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Director Nancy Meckler, Scottish Ballet dancers Eve Mutso and Tama Barry, who performed the roles of Blanche and Stanley respectively, and the company’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson attended the glittering awards ceremony at The Dorchester hotel in London today, and they were thrilled to be recognised at the prestigious event.

[dirac]

Ten top ballet stars: a photo gallery.

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Sylvie Guillem: the most complete and significant artist of this generation, with thrilling technique and heart-stopping dramatic presence. A great ballerina she has now become a great contemporary dancer, still performing the most interesting, challenging work at the age of 48.

[dirac]

The lineup is announced for the Edinburgh International Festival 2013.

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Following Glass’s appearance at the festival in 2011, the Philip Glass Ensemble return to perform the artist’s reimaging of the score of Cocteau’s film Le Belle et la Bête; Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied (aka Mr Natalie Portman) brings his LA Dance Project; and video artist and French choreographer José Montalvo inspires using blue screen technology in Don Quichotte du Trocadero.

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Two things jump out of this year’s Festival dance programme: one is the size and complexity of Scottish Ballet’s Dance Odysseys, and the other is the absence of a big, full-length, guaranteed crowd pleaser. Neither of which is a problem, just a different way of viewing dance.

[dirac]

Bolshoi dancers come to the defense of Pavel Dmitrichenko.

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On Tuesday, 300 Bolshoi dancers, crew members and administrators declared they couldn’t believe that Pavel Dmitrichenko could have committed the crime. They accused the police of pressuring him to confess. They suggested the evidence looked fake. And, in a letter to President Vladimir Putin and the public, they asked for an independent inquiry that would find the reason someone threw acid in Sergei Filin’s eyes the night of Jan. 17.

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Moscow police issued a statement saying they "have deep respect for the work of the artists of the Bolshoi theatre and respect their opinion".

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Mr Dmitrichenko, an experienced dancer who is known for playing the title role in Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible and the evil sorcerer in Swan Lake, admitted in court last week that he had disagreements with Mr Filin, and said they were over grants to dancers. The soloist said that he paid for the artistic director to be roughed up, but claimed he did not ask for acid to be used.

[dirac]

Associated Press report on the Filin affair.

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Dmitrichenko's lawyer, Alexander Barkanov, didn't make any allegations of police abuse in the case when he attended a court session last week. Moscow police insisted in Tuesday's statement that they have been honestly doing their job and pledged to conduct a fair probe.

NPR.

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The Bolshoi Ballet dancer suspected in the acid attack on the theater's artistic director could keep his job if a court acquits him, according to the Bolshoi's director. New Yorker editor David Remnick provides a glimpse into the hypercompetitive world of the famed Russian ballet.

[dirac]

A review of the Joffrey Balletby Paul Hyde for Greenville Online.

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In particular, a pas de deux by Wheeldon from his ballet “After the Rain” (2005), set to Arvo Part’s minimalist “Spiegel im Spiegel” (“Mirror in the Mirror”), may be remembered as one of the finest single dance performances we’ve ever seen in the Peace Center.

At once flowing and breathtakingly acrobatic, the piece spotlighted dancers April Daly and Fabrice Calmels in Wheeldon’s sinuous choreography, punctuated by a series of stunning lifts executed with the utmost grace

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