BIRTHING A CLASSIC

A year ago Northeast Magazine held a contest to come up with a new “holiday classic” set in Connecticut. The winner features Elvis, dancing martini glasses, The Jetsons and insurance elves. Hartford Ballet took up the idea, and decided to produce it this Christmas. The story’s author followed the process of turning her work into dance… Hartford Courant 12/16/01

THE PREGNANT DANCER

“Ballet dancers are among the leanest, fittest women on the planet. Their professional success is won by exerting phenomenal control over their minds and bodies. They are a completely different species from the gently swelling mother-to-be, whose world is ruled by hormone rushes, heartburn, bloated ankles and piles. While a few dancers embrace the mad biology of motherhood with pleasure, most will confess that it’s hard to ditch the habits of a lifetime.” The Guardian (UK) 12/12/01

SKIN TIGHT

Some ballerinas from the Australian Ballet posed in bikinis in a popular magazine. But “some patrons of the Australian Ballet, the country’s premier ballet company, have cancelled their subscriptions in protest at the pictures in the January issue of the Australian edition of FHM magazine.” The Independent (UK) 12/12/01

SAN JOSE A YEAR LATER

It’s been a year since Cleveland San Jose Ballet left the midwest to reform in Silicon Valley. “Ballet San Jose now operates on a $6.5 million budget, making it one of the 14 largest ballets in the United States. Among the 40 dancers now listed on the Ballet San Jose roster, only 14 performed in Cleveland. More than 20 members of the former Cleveland troupe moved to California last year when the company collapsed. But several departed at the end of the season to pursue other careers or join ballet companies in less expensive cities.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 12/09/01

HARD NUT

Going to The Nutcracker is supposed to be fun, right? Nothing serious. Nothing important. A San Francisco woman takes her kids to a performance and finds the audience full of Grinches. “Their grimaces said it all: Life is a chore and going to the ballet is serious business.” San Francisco Chronicle 12/10/01

LOSING DANCE

“The issue of preservation is uniquely difficult for dance. A performance vanishes with the closing curtain. Afterwards it cannot comprehensively be recaptured either from notation or video. The camera often misses key detail, concentrating perhaps on the central action to the detriment of what may be happening elsewhere on stage. This is true even of companies’ specially commissioned video-records, some of which fail woefully to document work properly. As a result, much still depends on dancers’ memories; without them it is harder to make a piece come alive.” Ballet.magazine 12/01

LOOKING FOR HOMEGROWN

“A quiet revolution is taking place in British ballet, a revolution that has seen the future of dance at the highest level entrusted – almost entirely – to overseas choreographers.” Now, as another British company looks for a new artistic director, will the job be entrusted to a Briton? The Independent (UK) 12/06/01

SCOTTISH BALLET BOARD REFUSES TO QUIT

The board of the Scottish Ballet has refused to resign after a parliamentary committee condemned the board’s inept management of the the company. “Chris Barron, chief executive of Scottish Ballet, described the report of the education, culture and sport committee as ‘a classic of inaccuracy’ and said there were no grounds for any resignations by board members.” The Scotsman 12/06/01