Friday, March 25

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Ballet by Lyndsey Winship in The Guardian.

Quote

 

Without seeming as if he’s trying too hard to be new or different, choreographer Kyle Abraham fills the stage with dance that feels effortlessly fresh. The American draws on movement from ballet, contemporary dance, hip-hop and everyday life to create work that connects with the world outside the theatre. In work for his own company, AIM, Abrahams has dwelt on subject matter from street violence to the American prison system. The Weathering, his first big piece for the Royal Ballet (he made a short, Optional Family, last year) is informed by the idea of losing the people we love, but it comes in the form of glowing remembrance, transported to youthful energy and hopeful connections, opening to Ryan Lott’s score sounding like twittering spring birds.

Graham Watts reviews the RB for Bachtrack.

Quote

Pite and Wheeldon are uppermost in the current generation of international choreographers and on this evidence, whilst already well established, Abraham lacks their consistency of output and has yet to forge his own unique style. The Weathering, while enjoyable in many ways, is a sort of Tupperware ballet – open the plastic lid and out pops a diverse range of movement that, although recently created, is not particularly fresh. At times it seemed like a ‘Ballet 101’ compendium of movements, randomly connected and not always aligned with the music, a sequence of nine pieces by Ryan Lott that were intended to render feelings of life, vitality and a sense of loss. I suspect that it is music that needs to be heard a few times to be fully appreciated.

 

[dirac]

An interview with  Jacob Ashley and Ja’ Malik of Madison Ballet.

Quote

The two men contrast in many ways; Ashley has been familiar to Madison audiences for 15 years, while Ja’ Malik had never set foot in Wisconsin before interviewing for this job. Ja ‘Malik started dancing at 4 or so; Ashley was a teenager before he took a ballet class. But both say they hope to build a more diverse company, broaden the audience’s horizons and create something truly special right here in Madison.

 

[dirac]

Reports of changes being "suggested" for the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theaters.

Quote

According to the Russian state-controlled news agency Tass, Putin advised conductor Valery Gergiev, a noted Putin loyalist, “to think about” founding a joint management of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and its St. Petersburg rival, the Mariinsky Theatre, which Gergiev now leads.

 

[dirac]

San Francisco Ballet opens its season with “La Grande Fete."

Quote

It was an evening anchored by 19th century showstoppers, as nearly all ballet galas must be. Yuan Yuan Tan, still the company’s unofficial prima ballerina assoluta as she marks her 27th year here, offered the poetic climax with a liquid-armed rendition of the white swan pas de deux, exquisitely partnered by Tiit Helimets and capped with a trembling serré — that little foot flutter that suggests both a bird’s feathers and a woman frighteningly in love.

Related.

Quote

..........The night was Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson’s final gala before his retirement at the end of the season after 37 years, but it also marked Danielle St. Germain-Gordon’s first as the Ballet’s new executive director, a role she had filled as interim for nine months after the abrupt exit of Kelly Tweeddale. In an amazing comeback for the event, St. Germain-Gordon reported “La Grande Fête” was the highest-earning gala in the ballet’s 89-year history, making more than $3.3 million to benefit artistic and educational programs, including helping to cover housing costs for student dancers.

 

[dirac]

Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy talk about coming to American Repertory Ballet.

Quote

“I can tell you how it happened in three words,” said Gillian, whose path to professional dance was more predictable than that of her husband. Born in England and raised in Florence, South Carolina, Gillian’s mother was a dancer, encouraging and mentoring Gillian, who at the age of 17 joined American Ballet Theatre's corps de ballet in 1996.

“The three words are Julie Diana Hench,” explains Gillian......