Category: dance

Ah HAH: “It was to identify song features that could be predictive of mega-hits. Researchers found that top-ranked songs tended to have more difference from past hits than lower-ranked songs, defying the trope that popular songs are just copies of other popular songs.”

Jacques d’Amboise told the story – with mime – at an opening gala for this summer’s Dance on Camera festival at Lincoln Center, and filmmaker Maia Wechsler recorded it for the rest of us. (video)

“The National Choreographers Initiative in Irvine seek[s] to emphasize the creative process and take the pressure off producing a finished, polished product. The three-week summertime workshop — now celebrating its 15th year — will culminate with a public performance July 28 … Unlike formal, completed dance productions, the show will start with four choreographers introducing their pieces, 16 dancers presenting what they’ve learned, and a question and answer session with the audience concluding the program.”

Here is some real-world data for dancers, choreographers, costumers, stage managers, costumers, etc. It’s not scientific. Dance Magazine asked readers to share what they earned (anonymously, of course) and more than 200 readers responded.

“You’d think the Paris Opéra Ballet would be in damage-control mode after a leaked dancers’ survey, in April, brought up worrying reports of harassment and mismanagement. But instead of addressing these issues internally, the French company is suing one of its own dancers in order to strip him of his union representative status and subsequently be free to fire him.”

The general public known him as the auteur behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Her. But some of his best work has been in dance-heavy music videos for the likes of Björk, Fatboy Slim, and Weezer. Jonze has even created for himself a dancing alter ego with an, er, inimitable styke.

“Graham, always on the lookout for ways in which people use their bodies to make meaning of the air around them, observes that Keller ‘could not see the dance but was able to allow its vibrations to leave the floor and enter her body.’ … She has taught herself to pay attention using the vibrations around her and is still able to see and hear by following the directions of sound waves created by voices, bodies, and instruments.”

An Afro-Brazilian phys-ed teacher keeps her free program running through funding cuts, building closures, negotiations with drug gangs, and the ever-present threat of violence, all to give her students discipline and a taste of things beyond the slums.

Judith Mackrell talks about counteracting the powerful forces of discipline/submissiveness, competition, ego, and tradition with Royal Ballet artistic director Kevin O’Hare (“We had issues with one guest coming in recently who was behaving in ways that we aren’t used to any more”) and Scottish Ballet artistic director Christopher Hampson (“We have 40 dancers, and there are still about 15 who would rather I shouted at them and tell them what to do.”).

Theresa Ruth Howard: “There are the … dance feeds that I find myself simultaneously intrigued and horrified by: the hyper-elastic, hyper-extended, gumby-footed girls always at the barre doing developpés to six o’clock. There are the multiple turners, the avid stretchers and we can’t forget the endless balancers. … This is a slippery slope. Surfing Instagram is like watching the virtue of dance as a high art deteriorate in real time. Who and what goes viral is a reflection of a newly-forming value system. With each ‘like’ and ‘follow,’ we vote on the future of our field.”