Sunday, August 21

[dirac]

A radio interview with Li Cunxin.

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Ahead of his return to the stage performing Kenneth MacMillan's 'Manon', he joins Songs and Stories with Brian Nankervis.

With his trademark eloquence and honesty, Li introduces an eclectic selection of songs that chart his rise from the poverty of the Shandong province to his current role as artistic director of Queensland Ballet.

 

[dirac]

A piece on the influence of the Ballets Russes by Rupert Christiansen in The Sunday Telegraph.

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How did Diaghilev do it? He was neither an intellectual nor a theorist, and he had no creative gift of his own – the ideas were harvested largely from others. Some even accused him of being a mere opportunist without genuine personal vision. There is some truth in this, but he was no fraud: if he jumped on to bandwagons, then he soon ended up taking the reins. His genius was simply to spot and gather the necessary talents, to render them effective, and to get results. “Success, my friend, is the one thing that redeems everything and covers up everything,” he lectured the designer Alexandre Benois, who later would give the most sharply illuminating summary of Diaghilev...........

 

[dirac]

A preview of the Alicia Alonso Havana International Ballet Festival.

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Chaired by prima ballerina and BNC director, Viengsay Valdés, the event proposes a series of performances of the classic Giselle, with guest stars in the leading roles, as well as galas with premieres of works created especially for the occasion.

 

[dirac]

Barbara Crockett, a co-founder of Sacramento Ballet, has died at age 101.

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Born Barbara Virginia Wood on Sept. 19, 1920, in Berkeley, Crockett grew up in Fresno and began to dance at the San Francisco Ballet’s dance school at 16. At the school, she met her husband, a teacher and dancer 14 years her senior, with the two marrying in 1942.