Category: dance

The dancer is Marcelo Gomes, who resigned from American Ballet Theater in December of 2017. Sarasota Ballet’s artistic director, Iain Webb, only wanted to talk about the former principal’s artistry. “Asked whether he had discussed the allegation against Mr. Gomes, he replied: ‘We didn’t go into the details. Whatever’s gone on, it hasn’t been made public, and he didn’t need to tell me.'”

Ashley Bouder isn’t OK with how few women get to choreograph, or become company directors, in the world of ballet. So the City Ballet principal is trying to change that through her own company, in her free time. But it’s not necessarily easy: “Ballet is both a largely nonverbal art form and one that prizes conformity. ‘We’re used to being told to shut up and get in line and point your foot and turn out,’ Ms. Bouder said, noting that this pressure tends to weigh more heavily on women, who are more easily replaced than men.”

“Shane Jewell, announced today as the new executive director of Orlando Ballet, says he’ll be sticking around. But he’s keenly aware that after a revolving door of ballet executives in the past few years, there’s no reason for Central Floridians to believe him. … [There have been] years of financial crises and leadership changes at the ballet, which has had six executive directors since 2011. It nearly shut its doors for good in 2015.”

“Union representation has traditionally been the purview of established companies, but many dancers working today are freelancers. As dance employment shifts away from the company model, how can independent artists advocate for themselves? Could unionizing ensure them fair treatment? Is a union for freelance dancers even feasible?” Evvie Allison considers the issues involved.

“We caught up with eight established choreographers, artistic directors, and instructors who mentored at this year’s Young Choreographer’s Festival to find out what mistakes new choreographers should be aware of — and how to avoid them.” (Our favorite: “You need dancers with the skill and ability to magnify your intention, and that group might not include your friends.”)

Claims of bullying emerged from dancers at the company last year, coinciding with the departure of a several dancers: almost half the dancers either left or did not have their contracts renewed over the space of about six months.

“‘The two means of expression, outside of being a member of the church, to mark you as an Armenian are dance and food,’ [dance historian] Gary Lind-Sinanian says. ‘Those are the two every Armenian family practices to some degree.’ Still, every village seemed to have its own style, he said. ‘When people make their pilgrimages to some monastery for a festival, they could see, when various groups danced to a melody, by the way they danced, you could tell where they came from. It still happens today at Armenian-American conventions. You could have a dance taking place, and someone familiar with regional dances could go through it and say, ‘Oh, that group is from Fresno, they’re from Los Angeles, that’s Chicago, that’s Philadelphia, that’s Boston.””

“It’s a style of dancing that’s both hidden and mainstream – simultaneously a part of everything from underground clubs to Beyoncé videos and dance routines, including her recent Coachella extravaganza. … The style was originally invented by women” – in fact, by the marching band’s dance team at a historically black college in Mississippi – “but bucking was soon adopted by gay men in the south, who took what they saw on the college sports field and moved it to the club.”

“This time last year, Catherine Conley was already living a ballet dancer’s dream. After an exchange between her home ballet school in Chicago and the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana, she’d been invited to train in Cuba full-time. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and one that was nearly unheard of for an American dancer. Now, though, Conley has even more exciting news: She’s a full-fledged member of the National Ballet of Cuba’s corps de ballet.”