Friday, June 10

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet by Leigh Witchel for dancelog.nyc.

Quote

Ramasar had danced most of the season, and was a cornerstone of casting amidst all the other injuries, but it caught up with him by the end. He was coping with a minor knee injury, but it was serious enough to have Andrew Veyette do the entree of the second act divertissement with Sterling Hyltin, who looked slightly (and understandably) thrown in the unsupported turns she did.

A review of NYCB at the Kennedy Center by Sarah L. Kaufman in The Washington Post.

Quote

The ballet was cast from strength on Thursday, with Sara Mearns as a warmly regal Titania, not so much a fairy queen as a vital creature of nature, capable of changing the weather with a sweep of her arm. As Oberon, Daniel Ulbricht skimmed the stage with quicksilver lightness. He managed to grab his bay leaf crown from the stage floor with the same effortless grace, after the headpiece flew off from the force of his turns. Taylor Stanley’s Puck was a master of otherworldly control and earthy comic timing.

 

[dirac]

An interview with Steven Melendez, the new artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet.

Quote

Melendez was a product of "Project Lift," a community service outreach program that finds at-risk and underserved New York City children and introduces them to ballet. It is the brainchild of Diana Byer,  Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of the New York Theatre Ballet. 

 

[dirac]

A review of Kids Dance by Brian Seibert in The New York Times.

Quote

Feld’s idea is alive, and so is he, though you might guess otherwise from the in memoriam tone of a hagiographic video segment. He is old enough, 79, to have been in both the original 1957 cast of “West Side Story” and the 1961 film, a fact honored on this program with “West Side Story Dance Suite.”

 

[dirac]

Q&A with Karen Kain.

Quote

I understand this new version has been inspired by Erik Bruhn’s 1967 production for the National. What made you want to do it?

For sentimental reasons. I was still at the ballet school when I first saw it, and later, it was the first Swan Lake that I danced in. I had no idea at the time how contemporary and advanced it was. In the original 1877 Petipa/Ivanov Swan Lake, the prince isn’t very important. Eric gave the prince a storyline that runs through the whole ballet, which made his version very special and forward-thinking at the time. I felt his concept needed to be seen again. In fact, I’ve longed to see it again. It was created on the National by one of the greatest dancers in the world, who would later become the National’s artistic director. Swan Lake is an homage to him.

 

[dirac]

The Kansas City Ballet Association is sued for racial discrimination.

Quote

Griffin alleges the program’s director of education said he should be teaching choreography like Garth Fagan, a Jamaican modern dance choreographer, instead.