Category: dance

“I came to Australia with a shaved head and a swollen foot. … It’s been extreme hard work, extreme dedication, and also extreme loneliness. This isn’t my home. But it feels so comfortable and I’ve been made to feel so welcome.”

“The 27-year-old Ukrainian … has been cast in two hot upcoming titles: Kenneth Branagh’s all-star adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express and the spy thriller Red Sparrow from Fox, appearing alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton.”

“This year we celebrate four extraordinary dance heroes: New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck, choreographer Lar Lubovitch, activist/teacher Carolyn Adams and historian Lynn Garafola.”

“Michelle Dorrance is a new kind of tapper. Classically, tap is a matter of a cool, contained upper body suspended over a huge clatter down below—a contrast that is supposed to be witty and, in a great or even good tapper, is. (“My feet are producing twenty taps a second, in alternating rhythms? Gee, I didn’t notice.”) Dorrance supplies plenty of action in the feet, but meanwhile the rest of the body is all over the place. Her elbows fly out; so do her knees, in great, lay-an-egg squats. She looks like a happy little tomboy vaulting around in a tree. Now and then, she’ll put on the mood-indigo, darkness-in-my-soul expression sometimes seen in tappers, or, alternatively, the Vegas-y let-me-entertain-you expression, but both of them fall off her face pretty fast, because she is fundamentally unaffected.”

Callum Linnane didn’t have a contentious relationship with his dad, though: “It’s been a quick rise to public notice for the country boy, who began tap-dancing classes at the age of seven and started ballet classes when he was 11. His father reportedly learnt to love ballet and even made the sets for his performances as a child.”

“In the last year as many as 12 dancers and other staff have left the national ballet company … Three or four left directly because of the way they were treated by Francesco Ventriglia, sources told RNZ.”

“The 35-year-old [plaintiff] accuses former dance instructor and photographer Bruce Monk of sexual assault, child exploitation and human trafficking, among other offences.” Monk allegedly pressured the young woman to pose for nude photos when she was 16.

This preview of the documentary Dancer gives a good overview of the story of “ballet’s James Dean” – with quotes like this one about his troubled period in London: “At first, I didn’t want to talk to the media, I feel like I was shaken into talking to them, then they became [a sounding board]. … I started using the media as psychiatrists, I guess, they were someone to talk to.”