"Dance Now" to cease publication

[bart]

Notice to subscribers from David Leonard, publisher and co-editor of Dance Now:

[ ... ] I'm sorry to tell you that Dance Now will cease publication at the end of this year. At that time I shall have been working for Dance Books for forty years and shall be moving towards partial retirement, and in these circumstances I do not feel able to carry the burden of both publishing and co-editing Dance Now any longer.

Three issues remain. I will miss this publication enormously. I know I'm not alone in this. It's a reminder of the extent to which dance publications (and we who read them) are dependent on the efforts and sacrifices of a relatively few dedicated individuals.

[sandik]

Damn, damn, damn.

This makes me even more grateful to George Dorris and Jack Anderson, for finding a new pair of editors to carry on with Dance Chronicle, but I'm so sad to know that my subscription list will be smaller next year.

[Helene]

Mr. Leonard certainly has earned his retirement, but this makes me sad...

[Leigh Witchel]

Wow. What a way to find out I'm losing an employer

[Helene]

I just received my Spring 2008 issue, and it's finally hitting what we're losing. Apart from the dance writing, there is such beautiful photography, from Marc Haegeman's stunning color cover photo of Svetlana Zakharova and shots of Mikhail Lavrovsky coaching Nina Kapsova and Carlos Acosta to vintage photos of Lydia Lopokova to a lovely, relaxed ( uncredited) photo of Scottish Dance Theatre's AD Janet Smith (and Smith's photo of four of her dancers).

Sigh.

[bart]

Helene, you're right. It is an exceptional issue.

One of my favorite parts is BT's own Jane Simpson reviewing the Royal Ballet's Jewels. It's evocative writing, with 4 fine photographs. (I love the 8 happy jete-ers from "Rubies.")

Among the insights:

One definite advantage of Jewels over a narrative ballet of the same length is that we get to see far more leading dancers in the course of one evening.

That means that we get Simpson's impressoins of an awful lot of major performers in the two casts she saw.

Also:

The two casts proved to me beyhond doubt that the Balanchine Trust may make a lot of fuss about things like the exact colour of the costumes but they are far less presecriptive when it comes to interpretations. Carlos Acosta and Ricardo Cervera in the Edward Villella role, Sarah Lamb and Alexandra Ansanelli int he Patricia McBride role could hardly be more different from each other.

And the following almost makes me feel that the performance would be worth a trans-Atlantic flight:

Acosta, totally relaxed, looks as if he's making the steps up as he goes along and having the best time of his life in the process ...

But ... why no Acosta photo? A shot of him racing around the stage at the head of his pack would be guaranteed to enter ballet history. What a complement to the famous Villella photo.