Yorgos Loukos, artistic director of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon was given six months in prison and ordered to pay €25,000 in damages for refusing to renew the contract of a dancer returning from maternity leave. (in French; Google Translate version here)
Category: dance
Watch David Hallberg Teach A Tech Guy To Dance
The ABT star shows a butch, slightly stiff video producer how to do an assured waltz and a gracious stage bow – and even gets him doing a changement. (video with transcript)
Taking Ballet Class With Misty Copeland In Harlem
“What started as a technique class – focused on turnout of the legs, placement of the arms, straightness of the back – became a larger kind of learning experience, when Ms. Copeland, 35, was joined for an after-class discussion by a trailblazing African-American dancer of another generation, the 86-year-old Carmen de Lavallade. The two spoke about breaking down barriers for black ballet dancers and honoring those who had done so before them.”
David Hallberg On His Struggle With Perfectionism
“As a young dancer, when approaching a step or lift or turn I deemed hard, I would say to myself, Don’t [expletive] this up. … At times I wondered if it was a form of superstition, that the very act of thinking Don’t [expletive] this up would protect me from any and all regrettable mistakes. But I had come to realize that the common thread among the disparate artists I admire most is that they do not protect themselves at all.” An excerpt from his new memoir.
The Bionic Ballerina
Despite what’s going on inside her body—and the scars that look like “the zombie apocalypse”—Bailey Anne Vincent dances. She glides across the floor with ease and grace, with extended lines and delicate movements that belie the medical battles within.
A ‘Bionic Ballerina’ Trying To Change The Discussion Around Dance And Disability
This dancer “formed the Fredericksburg dance group Company 360 eight months ago between operations, lung infections and doctor visits. … Dance takes her to another place, beyond the aches and pains and away from a body that causes so much grief.”
Cuba’s National Dance May Be Disappearing From The Island, But Not From Mexico [VIDEO]
Danzon began a long decline on Cuba after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, but the dance is kept alive, and even revived further, in the public squares of Mexico.
Why Twyla Tharp’s Best Dances Are ‘Classical’
“‘It’s a confirmation of sorts when the old pieces live,’ she says. ‘Back in 1973, people gave me flak because that work didn’t look classical enough. I said, ‘This may not be your version of ballet but ‘classical’ is simply what survives.'”
How London’s Top Dance Venue Increased Membership And Ticket Sales Even As It Reduced Discounts
The director of marketing and sales at Sadler’s Wells writes about how the theatre was losing tens of thousands of pounds in income due to discounts that had become too successful – and how it fixed that problem without alienating members and other ticket-buyers.
Brown Girls Do Ballet Movement Was Started By Dallas Mom Who Knew Nothing About Dance
“A few years ago, photographer Takiyah Wallace was searching for a dance studio in Dallas for her 3-year-old daughter, who had expressed an interest in ballet, when she noticed something. ‘One of the first things that jumped out to me in visiting local studios here was that there were not any faces that looked like her,’ she says.”