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Friday, February 11


dirac

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A review of San Francisco Ballet by Janice Berman for San Francisco Classical Voice.

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He’s back, with Blake Works I, a company-size, plotless ballet set to music by the British rap artist James Blake, that is a huge change from earlier Forsythe — and yet not. The choreographer whose earlier work always felt like an adventurous head-on encounter with the unknown is still dealing with it, but in a gentler way. Blake’s music has elements of Willems’s but the rhythm, the beat (influenced by dubstep) and the repetitiveness of music—and lyrics, which I can’t recall in previous Forsythe ballets — is more like a mantra than like a call to action. It’s quite soothing, in its own electronic way. Of the collection of seven songs from Blake’s The Colour in Anything, only one felt hard-charging. Not that there isn’t action. There’s plenty, but it’s smoother and more various in moods and imagery.

 

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A $10 million settlement in a class action suit against the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is approved by the court.

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The lawsuit alleged Bruce Monk took nude, semi-nude and intimate photos of students, some of which he published, sold and disseminated online.

The action was brought on behalf of students who attended the ballet school between 1984 and 2015 and were alleged to have been photographed by Monk in a private setting.

Related.

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The lawsuit didn't allege Monk's conduct was criminal. It focused on allegations he abused a position of trust and power.

 

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A review of the Russian State Ballet of Siberia in "The Snow Maiden" by Lyndsey Winship in The Guardian.

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The choreography by artistic director Sergei Bobrov and Mark Peretokin is unspectacular, although it has some nice lifts. There’s a general lack of brio – even on a small stage you can dance with energy and joy – and the tragedy is slight. They’re hindered by the score, made of incidental music Tchaikovsky wrote for a play of the same title (plus some other choice extracts); it’s missing the composer’s magnificent melodies and the magical affinity between music and steps. In the first act especially the sound is sometimes turgid, very much the mood of an orchestra midway through an 84-date tour.

 

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The Louisville Ballet announces the schedule for the remainder of its season.

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The ballet is launching its Dysart Award which is an annual prize that recognizes up-and-coming choreographers. “Program 4” includes new work by the inaugural Dysart Award winner, Anne Jung. “Program 4,” in addition to having choreo from the Dysart Award winner, includes choreography from the Louisville Ballet’s Brandon Ragland as well as performances from some notable local musicians and artists (Hannah Drake, Isiah Fish, Lance G. Newman II, and Carly Johnson). 

 

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A review of Washington Ballet by Lisa Traiger for DC Metro Theater Arts.

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Lee and Perez frequently dance together, yet their partnership felt surprisingly bereft of electricity and passion. Lee projects a cool and calm presence on stage — I’d say more of an ice princess than a hot-blooded dancer — so that first meeting between Siegfried and Odette in Act Two takes a while to warm up. Lee is far more reserved than many of my own past favorites in the role, among them Gillian Murphy, Nina Ananiashvili, and the gorgeous Russian-trained Natalia Markova.

 

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Ballet West's costume designer David Heuvel is retiring after three decades with the company.

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“I have a tendency to mix fabrics that you wouldn’t normally use together to get the texture that I want,” he said. “So there would be an overlay or an underlay or something else … to move the character along.”

Shopping for fabrics has been harder during the pandemic, Heuvel said. “I couldn’t fly to New York or to L.A. to do in-person shopping for fabrics, so everything we did was done online,” he said. Buying fabric became a “two-week process,” he said, because of the problem all online shoppers face: Things don’t look the same when they arrive as they did on the website.

 

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