dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 A review of the Viviana Durante Company by Jann Parry for DanceTabs. Quote The first Brahms waltz, played by Russian pianist Anna Geniushene, sets Cao’s reclining Isadora tossing imaginary pebbles with one hand: Rambert remembered Duncan simulating a children’s game of jacks, then chasing after an invisible ball. Cao is plausibly impulsive, swiftly veering in each of the five dances from playful skipping to striking heroic poses, trailing a swathe of billowing silk behind her. Every gesture is electrified to the end of her fingertips, powerful rather than prettily graceful. Finally, petals tumble from her hands in a blessing for her audience, for whom ten minutes are over all too soon. According to Rambert. Duncan’s admirers would shout for her to repeat her dances, longing for more. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 Ballet West announces its 2020-21 season. Quote The 2020-21 schedule includes six productions, one more than Ballet West normally performs. In addition, a seventh production will feature members of Ballet West II and Ballet West Academy. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 San Jose's New Ballet has a new home. Quote Since its start, New Ballet had been conducting classes and using the studio space in the old North First Street home of Silicon Valley Ballet — the last iteration of the company that started in 1985 under Dennis Nahat as the San Jose Cleveland Ballet. The four-story building, with an often-wonky elevator, had charm but plenty of challenges, as it was surrounded by construction zones and empty buildings. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 An interview with Esteban Hernandez. Quote The eighth-born of Hector Hernandez’s 11 children (10 surviving), Esteban Hernandez just last year ascended to the top rank of principal at San Francisco Ballet. With his powerful jump and cherubic smile, he is in practically everything this season, but audiences can get a double dose of Hernandez these coming weeks in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as he’ll alternate between two career-benchmark roles: the mischievous Puck, who goes around creating mix-ups for Shakespeare’s young lovers, and the stately King Oberon, taxed with arguably the hardest dancing in George Balanchine’s adaptation of the play, which is returning to the Ballet’s repertoire for the first time in 34 years. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 A review of Houston Ballet by Molly Glentzer in The Houston Chronicle. Quote With just the opening overture of “The Sleeping Beauty,” thoughts of the day’s political mayhem, viral contagion, tanking financial market and surprise floods evaporated. I was enveloped in a world so glittering and orderly that the show’s nearly three-hour length seemed a blissful escape, a blessing rather than a curse. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 American dancers talk about why they chose to pursue ballet careers in Europe. Quote Zarina Stahnke, a dancer with Dresden Semperoper, explains that in Germany “It’s within the rights of Germans to have access to and support for culture and the arts, so every city over a certain size has an official state theater.” Having access to the performing arts has been so skewed in the U.S. as to seem like such a privilege, it almost sounds absurd to think of culture in the context of being a human right. Link to comment
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