Tuesday, August 2

[dirac]

A long piece on the Dusty and Taylor Button sexual abuse scandal by Gretchen Voss for Boston magazine.

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Over several months, I spent hours listening to Sage tell her story. I spoke at length to her parents, who shared how they’d watched from the sidelines, powerless to protect their daughter, until one day they helped her make a daring escape from the Buttons’ clutches. I spoke to other dancers in the Boston Ballet. I sent emails and left voicemails for the Buttons’ lawyer, all of which went unanswered. I pored over reams of legal documents. I attended the ballet and watched Sage glide across the stage and perform to a full house. I tried to understand the exploitative, controlling relationship that multiple women said led to abuse and how it all happened. I asked tough questions. I made breakthroughs with my reporting that I didn’t fully expect, with consequences that I didn’t expect, either. In fact, the more I learned, the more elusive the truth became.

 

[dirac]

A preview of Scottish Ballet's new "Coppelia" by Kelly Apter in The Scotsman.

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Tasked with reinventing 19th century ballet Coppélia, Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple have returned to the company following the success of their dance films Tremble and The Secret Theatre. This time, however, they’ve set themselves the challenge of mixing film and live action.

 

[dirac]

A review of Taylor Stanley's evening at Jacob's Pillow by Gay Morris for danceviewtimes.

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The program’s title is something of a misnomer, since the five dances by five different choreographers didn’t deal in oppositions so much as in a range of elements that are part of a whole. The concert began with a solo from George Balanchine’s “Square Dance,” an acknowledgement of Stanley’s roots and his place in the ballet world. “Square Dance” (created in 1957) may have been Balanchine’s bow to his adopted American homeland, but it was couched in the form of an abstract neoclassical work with music of Corelli and Vivaldi. In his solo, Stanley somehow merged clarity with dreaminess, each movement etched with precision but delivered as if it held a secret only partially revealed.

[dirac]

 Smuin Ballet opens its season this month.

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Cuban choreographer Osnel Delgado's work captures the passion, cultural blending, and uncertainty that define life in Cuba and beyond. Smuin Artistic Director Celia Fushille first glimpsed Delgado’s work during a trip to Cuba ten years ago and has labored ever since to bring the acclaimed choreographer to San Francisco—a collaboration originally scheduled for 2020 but derailed by the pandemic. Delgado, who draws inspiration from Cuba’s rich and varied dance traditions—from Afro-Cuban rhythms to beloved Cuban ballet culture, to its vibrant modern dance scene—will set a new work on Smuin’s dancers.