Monday, July 31

[dirac]

A story on Celia Fushille's departure from Smuin Ballet by Janos Gereben for San Francisco Classical Voice.

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Asked if she is retiring, Fushille told SF Classical Voice:

“I am not thinking of this as retirement per se, as I’d like to have the bandwidth while I still have the energy to go and stage Michael’s works at other companies. It’s been difficult to do that with the full responsibilities of the company on my shoulders. This seems a good time for me to step aside, now that the company is solid and we have a fabulous successor ready to assume the helm.”

 

[dirac]

Louisville Ballet needs millions in support to keep going.

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These changes come on the heels of artistic director Robert Curran’s abrupt resignation on July 14 after nearly 10 years with the ballet. Former Louisville Ballet artistic director Bruce Simpson and Helen Starr, who has nearly four decades with the company, are filling in the gaps, while the organization conducts a global search for its next artistic director. That search is expected to take eight months to a year.

 

[dirac]

The Royal New Zealand Ballet presents "Lightscapes."

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How to begin to describe the incredible diversity and excitement of Lightscapes, presented in this, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's 70th anniversary year? The bill featured four separate pieces, imagined by choreographers from George Balanchine, widely regarded as the foremost choreographer of contemporary ballet, to Alice Topp, Resident Choreographer of the Australian Ballet and former RNZB alumnus.

 The program is eclectic but perhaps over-stuffed, with two intervals of 20 minutes between the four sizable pieces of choreography, summing up to nearly three hours. There is a mixture of old, new, homegrown and international talent in the choreographic pool, and this makes for an exciting and mercurial performance.

 

[dirac]

An interview with Mark Morris.

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Today, shorter performances of various styles and themes are something of a cultural cachet as live art conforms to the tastes of audiences raised on the internet. While Morris says he has no interest in accommodating “the contemporary short attention span,” he has come to acknowledge a post-COVID ill, which is that larger, evening-length commissions are becoming increasingly rare. 

 

[dirac]

Benjamin Millepied returns to the stage.

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After years of chasing each other with dream projects (and many never came to fruition), the two French artists meet again at the Roman theater in Spoleto for the meeting that closes the first weekend of the festival dei Due Mondi. This evening, Sunday 25, they present “Unstill Life”, a duet “where something dances in the way [Alexandre] Taro moves his hands across the keyboard, and the movements on stage are inspired by the songs we have chosen together,” Millepied explains. born in Bordeaux and raised in Senegal, was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and later choreographer at the Paris Opera.