Category: dance

The new team chose two of the six premieres City Ballet will present in the 2018-19 season, reaching beyond the traditional ballet world to commission works by Kyle Abraham and Emma Portner. They learned the puzzle-like intricacy of planning a year’s worth of ballets, which must be chosen so subscribers won’t see too many repeats and scheduled so the whole company — dancers, orchestra, costume shop and more — can handle the workload. And they learned to use analytic tools — think Moneyball, but for ballet — which forecast how well each dance will sell.

“The complaints were compiled in a survey conducted by Paris Opera Ballet’s internal ‘artistic expression commission’ and sent to 132 dancers. It found that some 77 per cent said they had either been a victim of harassment in the workplace or seen a colleague mistreated … The survey was also damning for dance director Aurélie Dupont as it found that almost 90 per cent of dancers felt that they ‘did not have a quality management’. ‘The current director doesn’t seem to have any management skills or any desire to acquire such skills,’ reportedly wrote one dancer.”

“More than 60 presenting organizations and dance companies from around the world are expected to participate, and the Royal Ballet in London will be one of several to tackle Cunningham for the first time. … A highlight of the centennial will be a ‘Night of 100 Solos’ to be performed on the evening of Cunningham’s 100th birthday, April 16, 2019. One hundred dancers will perform anthologies (called Events) of solos from the 1950s to 2009” in Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles.

He saw a dance performance by chance in his freshman year at the University of Iowa. He “was lucky to discover dance when he did, in the early 1960s — the tail end of the heroic age of American modern dance. The summer after his freshman year (1962), he headed to the American Dance Festival ‘to find out what dance was.’ His first class there was taught by Martha Graham; the second, by Alvin Ailey; and the third by José Limón.”

“The aptly named Unbound Festival runs at the War Memorial Opera House Friday April 20- May 6. The range of the choreographers is astounding to find all in one place, from Alonzo King, artistic director of LINES Ballet for 35 years, to Justin Peck and Myles Thatcher, who are still dancing in the New York City Ballet and S.F. Ballet, respectively; and from Christopher Wheeldon, who is creating his 10th work for S.F. Ballet, to David Dawson, Cathy Marston, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Dwight Rhoden and King, who are all premiering their first pieces for the company (though they have all created a prolific amount of work for other companies around the world).”

“On an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday evening, I found myself facing a stranger, swinging my arms back and forth, and hooting like an owl. … Ecstatic dances are essentially free-form dance parties, and the directions for the one I attended … were pretty simple: no shoes, no drugs or alcohol, no phones or cameras, and no talking on the dance floor. The only directive: Allow your body to move exactly how it wants to move.”

Neurologists and psychiatrists admit they still don’t fully understand OCD or how it works. The condition can’t be cured, but it can be managed, dialing down the barrage of obsessive thoughts — and the compulsive behaviors or physical tics that briefly relieve them — so they aren’t so overwhelming. And for reasons that also aren’t fully understood, some highly trained athletes and performers find that being onstage or on the field, in front of thousands of people — an environment most people find highly stressful — actually reduces their anxiety.

The crew defines “ill-ability” as “creating advantages from disadvantages” and “an adaptation of power, strength and creativity.” It’s clear from the video what they mean: The crew isn’t just breaking, they’re pushing the form by tapping into what makes them different.

“The choreographer, who turns 70 this year, will leave the London venue in November in order to concentrate on leading the Richard Alston Dance Company towards its 25th anniversary in 2020. He has been artistic director of the Place since 1994 and formed his company, which is resident there, in 1995.”

“Reality set in when news broke that the damage to the Wortham Center turned out to be much worse than first anticipated. The artistic and administrative team found out that the floodwaters had gone all the way up to the basement ceiling. Costumes from some 50 ballets, which accounts for 60 percent of the repertoire, were destroyed. The theater would remain closed until September 2018, and the company would need to find other venues for the remaining season. But as artistic director Stanton Welch made clear … hurricanes shouldn’t mess with ballet dancers. The company would get through this, and be stronger for it.”