dirac Posted October 2, 2021 Share Posted October 2, 2021 A review of English National Ballet in Akram Khan's "Creature" by Graham Watts for DanceTabs. Quote My biggest problem with Creature was the failure of its dramaturgical clarity with an intent that was difficult to discern without reaching for external assistance (ie programme notes). The whole of the over-long work takes place in a single space: a large room made of irregular wooden slats, which appears to represent the last bastion of human life after some catastrophic environmental disaster. The Creature is clearly being tested in some way and for some undefined purpose............... A lot of other people also came and went for no obvious purpose. They were, the programme told me, a brigade but nothing about their motivation or role was clear. The problem of length was in the extensive use of the corps, particularly in the first act, which would have benefited from an editor’s scalpel. Photo gallery of the production. Link to comment
dirac Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 The stars of the new Amazon Prime movie "Birds of Paradise" talk about training for their roles as ballet students. Quote Reflecting on the process, Silvers said: "I played really competitive tennis for 10-11 years so dancing on this for me was a lot of correcting my body, unlearning certain muscles and re-learning new muscles. Review in The Guardian. Quote Marine and Kate start, naturally, as bitter rivals and roommates at the Victorian mansion that houses the academy (I can’t speak to the realism of this ballet academy, but the set is sufficiently otherworldly, out of time save for spare use of text messages and FaceTime). They fall together quickly – into the bed they share; into a pact to split the prize or not at all (a tougher pill for Kate, on scholarship from Marine’s rich but loveless ambassador family, to swallow); into a daze of drug-induced hallucinations that uncork their undiluted love for dance and, more pressingly for the film’s nearly two-hour runtime, initiate several surreal sequences of jungle leaves, glitter, and bodies in rapture. Link to comment
dirac Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 Former ballet students at the University of Utah call for reforms at the school's ballet deaartment. Quote “We have the gift of perspective,” Johnson said. “Once you're out of the world, you can kind of look back with 20/20 hindsight and say: ‘Hey, that wasn't really ok, but I didn't know it at the time and now I want to say something.” Many students also said there's no clear system for lodging complaints with the department and described fear of retaliation if they reported directly to an instructor or another faculty member. Link to comment
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