Sunday, April 9

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A preview of Sarasota Ballet's next season.

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With a new contract extension that will keep him as the artistic leader of The Sarasota Ballet for 10 more years, Director Iain Webb has put together a new season that will include two world premieres, hoped-for company premieres and new looks at past productions designed to challenge a growing and changing company.

 

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The dance critic Alexandra Tomalonis, the founder of this blog, has died. Appreciations below.

Alastair Macaulay

Leigh Witchel

Lisa Traiger

 

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Tulsa Ballet will appear at Jacob's Pillow for the first time.

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Marcello Angelini, Tulsa Ballet artistic director, said he has been trying to take the company to Jacob’s Pillow for more than two decades.

 

“Sometimes, it was simply a matter of logistics,” he said. “We really can only afford to do one tour a year, and if you do a tour in the spring, it’s difficult to get ready to do another in the summer. And then there were times when the people in charge of the festival just weren’t interested in the works we had ready to perform.”

 

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 Lauren Anderson writes an op-ed for The Houston Chronicle pleading for arts funding for public schools.
 

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I'm a product of HISD, and my first true love, besides dance, was the violin. Because my father was the first assistant principal of the High School for the Performing Arts, he picked a public school for me that had music classes and was near the ballet. I was fortunate in that I had access to an arts education that is noticeably absent at many of the area high schools I’ve since visited as a guest speaker. These schools often have a “cafegymatorium,” a place with a stage and a basketball court where students eat lunch. Visual arts classes with specially trained teachers, music lessons, and dance are rarely offered. 

 

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A preview of the Korean National Ballet's new "Don Quixote."

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Dancer-choreographer Song Jung-bin’s adaptation of “Don Quixote” will kick off Wednesday at the Seoul Arts Center's Opera Theater in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. The show will run until Sunday.

“It started with the question, ‘Why isn’t Don Quixote the main character in the ballet piece of his own name?’” said Song during a press interview at the Seoul Arts Center, on April 5. “I mainly focused on transforming Don Quixote into a more dynamic character, and refining the story to flow more naturally in the eyes of today's audience.”

 

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A review of the Bolshoi Ballet in "Don Quixote" by Ilona Landgraf in her blog, "Landgraf on Dance."

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From the first moment that the goateed Don Quixote (Alexey Loparevich) and his loyal, oft-gluttonous squire Sancho Panza (Georgy Gusev) set off on their chivalrous journey, Valeriy Levental’s set transported us to the sizzling cauldron of the jam-packed port of Barcelona. Everything is perfect: the turquoise Mediterranean Sea glints under the bright summer sun; fresh fruit is piled sky-high; and the local youth remain in the merriest of moods. The happiest of all, Kitri (Elizaveta Kokoreva) and Basilio (Alexey Putintsev), quickly bring the scene to a boil. Kokoreva’s Kitri sweeps onstage like a torpedo, her fleet-footed legs and teasing fan leaving a trail of sparks. Klinichev’s brisk conducting seemed to spur rather than challenge her. I especially admired Kokoreva’s rock-solid balances – from which she descended only to hurl herself into a battery of snappy pirouettes.