Friday, October 1

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet by Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

Quote

This year, Sidra Bell teamed with the designer Christopher John Rogers in “Suspended Animation,” and Andrea Miller collaborated with the Colombian American designer Esteban Cortázar in “Sky to Hold.” Both of these contemporary choreographers created digital works for the company earlier in the pandemic. And while they took different approaches for the gala — austerity for Bell, melodrama for Miller — both ballets had a way of sliding into a hole of reductive mediocrity.

Marina Harss' review of NYCB in DanceTabs.

Quote

This year’s edition falls somewhere in the middle. Neither Bell nor Miller hit it out of the park, and neither piece seems likely to stay in the repertory for long. But both used the costumes well, creating distinct atmospheres and moods. Despite dim lighting, both were bathed in deep, rich, saturated colors, a welcome change from the drab palette of so much contemporary ballet. Both created spaces in the imagination, though neither managed to carry through or develop their ideas in interesting ways. Both suffered from a feeling of formlessness.
 

 

[dirac]

A story on the sexual abuse lawsuit against Dusty Button and her husband by Derek Hawkins in The Washington Post.

Quote

Dusty Button and Mitchell Taylor Button, who goes by several different aliases, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment at publicly listed phone numbers. An attorney representing them, Marc Randazza, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. The couple’s defense team has previously denied the allegations. “We look forward to clearing both of their names in court,” Randazza told CNN this week.

 

[dirac]

A look at the history of Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet as the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet prepare to open their seasons with the production.

Quote

 

Once again, Soviet cultural politics intervened. Lavrovsky had fallen out of favour, supplanted as director of the Bolshoi Ballet by Yuri Grigorovich. In any case, the Soviet authorities had no intention of enabling the Royal Ballet to duplicate one of the Bolshoi’s renowned money-spinning productions – especially not on tour to the United States. Once the Royal Opera House Board realised that Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet was unlikely to happen, they and Ashton determined that a new, in-house production was the best option. Kenneth MacMillan, by then 34, was to be given his big chance.

 

[dirac]

A story on Russian mothers who sell pictures of their daughters performing gymnastic and balletic feats online.

Quote

Ryazhkina is a single mom—just like a third of Russian families—and says she is now supporting the family with thousands of dollars generated from images of her daughter’s body. She created an Instagram account after Anfisa was crowned “Little Miss Siberia.” In 2019, Ryazhkina began posting pictures and videos of Anfisa wrapping her leg around her neck. Starting from age 10, the child was posing for her mother’s camera in high heels. From there, the photographs arguably became more and more sexualized. The hashtag #anfisa_siberia sent viewers to an advertisement for the girl’s website, where the photos are sold for $10 to $110 a piece.

 

[dirac]

Ismene Brown writes on the life of the late Colin Jones and reprints an interview.

Quote

 

When you got into the ballet company, was it a family? Were you seeking affection, in a sense?

Oh yes, it was like a closed community, a convent. You knew lots of secrets that outsiders don’t know but they’re curious about. I was never very good in communities - even now I wouldn’t join Magnum [the photography collective], because I feel unable to cope with communities, my brain won’t work like that. Some photographers only talk about photography. I’m quite political now, for a dancer. I mean, the Opera House is very right-wing and conservative but in those days they used to get away with murder. I mean, it was illegal to be gay, but nobody took any notice of it, and abortion was illegal too - most of the dancers had abortions, and nobody  officially knew about it. It was about who you were, a bit corrupt in a sense, but protective.

 

An obituary for Jones in The Guardian.

Quote

One line that always produced a laugh from audiences watching the film Billy Elliot was: “What’s best, to be a ballet dancer or to be a miner?” The photographer Colin Jones, who has died aged 85 from Covid-19, would not have thought this such a funny question. He had worked in one of those worlds as a dancer touring with the Royal Ballet and had documented the other with superb photographs, published in the Observer and the Independent magazines and in a book entitled Grafters (2002). He also did important work for the Sunday Times, in particular The Black House project in the 1970s, leading one critic there to describe him as the George Orwell of British photojournalism.

 

[dirac]

A piece in Vogue on New York City Ballet's Fall Fashion Gala.

Quote

At dinner, the audience heard from the company’s artistic director, Jonathan Stafford, and associate artistic director, Wendy Whelan. The latter pointed out just what a significant night the evening was. Bell’s contribution to the program marked New York City Ballet’s first-ever commission from a woman of color and Pimienta’s performance also signified the first female composer of color to create a piece at City Ballet.

 

[dirac]

A recent book tells the story of ballet dancer Nina Anisimova.

Quote

Published in August 2021 by Elliott & Thompson, Dancing for Stalin, a book by Soviet cultural politics and Russian ballet historian Christina Ezrahi, is now shedding light on this neglected facet of Anisimova’s life. It charts the dancer’s life from her bright debut at the age of 17 with the prestigious Leningrad Kirov Ballet ensemble, to her sudden fall from grace and subsequent exile. It also recounts the horrors that Anisimova witnessed at Karlag, and how the dancer was only able to survive thanks to the performances she organised for prison guards. It also recounts how the ballerina’s husband fought for her release from Leningrad, mobilising previous colleagues to testify in her favour.