dirac Posted August 27, 2023 Share Posted August 27, 2023 An interview with Alexei Ratmansky about Ukraine and Russia by Lyndsey Winship in The Guardian. Quote One of Ratmansky’s biggest hits was his wry re-creation of The Bright Stream, a 1930s ballet set on a Soviet collective farm. It’s a rollicking yarn, full of broad humour, spirited dancing and inventive choreography, and it helped to make his name internationally. “When I choreographed it in 2003, the Stalinism, everything from this time, seemed to be something of the past,” he says. And thus it could be spoofed in retrospect, as a postmodern reading of what used to be called “tractor ballets”. “Then in a few years, it became the new reality. We’re back to that time now: the arrests, the killings, the invasion.” That makes it impossible for him to think of returning to it: “I don’t think I ever want this ballet to be staged again. It’s dead. It’s done. It’s very dear to me because I think it’s a good ballet and it’s very much part of me, but it’s cut. The door is shut.” Link to comment
dirac Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 A biographical article on Ninette de Valois by Abby Connolly for msn.com. Quote Unfortunately, her time with them was interrupted in 1924 when doctors discovered her body had suffered damage from an undiagnosed case of polio during her childhood. Ninette decided to go down a different path and used what she had learned during her years performing to establish the Academy of Choreographic Arts for Girls in London in 1927. She also opened the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet in Dublin. Link to comment
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