After seeing New York City Ballet this weekend, Siobhan Burke posted a photo of her annoyed self on Instagram with the caption, “No more gang rape scenes in ballets, please.” Among the first responses she got: “Did you see Odessa?” As a matter of fact, she did – and, she argues, that new work by Alexei Ratmansky is but one part of a long pattern in contemporary ballet choreography.
Category: dance
Elizabeth Streb On Fear (Which Is Something Her Dancers Would Know About)
“[Fear] is a messaging system that we have more work to do before we try something. … You can’t hedge your bets.” She also says, “Failure of flight is the most exciting moment.” Wow. (video)
Dancer Amy Aldridge Bids Farewell To Pennsylvania Ballet After 23 Seasons
“Two by two, her fellow dancers, mostly in street clothes, walked on stage and placed single red roses at her feet as the audience gave her a standing ovation for more than 10 minutes.” (And, happily, this departure was entirely voluntary.)
This 12-Year-Old Is Relatively New To Ballet And Is Already Rising In The Ranks
The girl started late for a classical ballerina, and her teacher doesn’t usually send in kids so young for the Joffrey summer program – but Dayanara Villanueva is heading to the summer intensive in New York.
Egypt’s National Ballet Is Rebuilding And Planning For The Future
Things went badly wrong for the National Ballet during the Arab Spring and the conservative religious backlash that followed. “The company is still recovering from the turmoil. Most foreign dancers fled amid the 2011 uprising. Foreign ballerinas are back, but now the company — like the rest of Egypt — struggles with austerity measures imposed by the government to repair the damaged economy. Funds are tighter. After devaluations, even the best paid dancers make the equivalent of only a few hundred dollars a month.”
Should Dancers Have To Pay A Fee To Audition?
“In other industries, paying a future employer for an interview would be considered unethical. Yet in dance, it is common practice. Many companies offer the explanation that it is expensive to hold open calls and in exchange for that fee, they are providing a class. Now, cash-strapped dancers and even some company leaders find themselves questioning this norm.” Candice Thompson looks at the two sides of the debate.
A Woman Takes Over From A Man In New York City Ballet’s First Gender-Neutral Role – How’s It Working Out?
Justin Peck selected his old friend (and company star) Robert Fairchild to dance the lead in the premiere run of his The Times Are Racing. But he conceived it as a unisex part, and he chose Ashly Isaacs to take over from Fairchild for the current season. Alastair Macaulay reports on how she looks in the role. (Very good.)
£2.3 Million Funding For Using Dance To Improve Health
“Previous Aesop research showed how the Dance to Health programmes could address a problem that costs the NHS £2.3bn a year, as the rates of completion for dance-based alternatives to NHS exercise courses are 55% higher. An evaluation of the Dance to Health pilot programme in February 2017 also concluded that dance artists could be trained to deliver classes which were an enjoyable artistic challenge, faithful to healthcare objectives, and would deliver measurable reductions in loneliness for participants.”
Sergei Polunin Cancels His Return To London’s Royal Ballet
Two performances in Marguerite and Armand at Covent Garden in June were to be his first performances with the company – which trained him and where he became a principal at age 19 – since he walked away without warning five years ago.
Australian Ballet May Be Headed Toward Strike
The company’s dancers have reportedly notified both Australia’s labor commission and their union that they may begin a work stoppage if negotiations, which have continued for several months, grind to a halt. At issue is pay, which dancers say is too low for a workload that has risen to more than 250 performances a year.