Category: dance

“The NYC Dance Project was born — ‘out of love’ — and the couple started posting their images to social media. They would treat each dancer like a celebrity, doing an interview in addition to the photo session.”

“I found the best way to engage with these kids was to see if they could jump higher than me, run faster than me – physicality is what stimulated them. … Kids are required to take PE, so they could be encouraged to consider dance, too. The way in would be through dance generally, and now would be a good time for this, as hip-hop and ballroom clearly have a following.” An essay by Royal Ballet soloist Eric Underwood.

The company manager of England’s DANCE SIX-0 writes about how the project started, the needs it’s fulfilling, and its activities from full-fledged public performance to dance for dementia patients.

“Chinese-Australian members of the Australian Values Alliance … are drawing up a petition against four Australian performances of The Red Detachment of Women by the National Ballet of China in February at the Melbourne Arts Centre. … The alliance says The Red Detachment was orchestrated by Jiang [Qing, Mao’s wife] ‘to brainwash civilians during the horror of the Cultural Revolution’.”

“His movement style, born of his fascination with extreme physicality and hyperarticulation, has redefined the look of today’s dancers and virtually turned their bodies inside out. … Sometimes it looks as if he’s putting his dancers through a very painful wringer. No way, he counters. ‘These dancers are not stupid – they won’t do whatever I say. They are phenomenally bright individuals who are interested in changing the nature of technique, and with our joint intelligence we want to test the limit of what’s possible.'”

“Equity has revealed plans to draw up a contract especially for small-scale dance companies in a bid to improve pay and conditions in the independent sector. The union is working with the Independent Theatre Council on a contract that will be similar to the current Equity/ITC performers contract, but will be tailor-made for dancers, with their needs and requirements in mind.”

“We won’t sell one more ticket if we have live music in the orchestra, and it’s about $100,000 a week. We have to move forward strategically and sensibly, and use the money for the orchestra where we can get the most out of it.”

“I think sometimes dance is very segregated,” Acosta said at the UK launch of his new company. “This is an experiment; not many people have done it before. When you create half the company from ballet and half from contemporary it creates an energy, it could be a bomb … it is like two different animals.”

“Movement Afoot is just one of several startup dance ensembles to emerge in the past five years in central Ohio. The groups – also including Oyo Dance Company (contemporary), New Vision Dance Co. (jazz), and Columbus Modern Dance Company and Columbus Moving Company (modern) – represent a variety of styles. Most have fewer than 10 dancers. Given the popularity of Columbus’ primary companies – BalletMet and Columbus Dance Theatre – the proliferation of ensembles raises an obvious question: Will the community support so many groups?”

“In his early years, Sehgal” – now famous for his “constructed situations” – performed for the French choreographer Jérôme Bel, working also with Les Ballets C de la B, a highly conceptual contemporary dance company in Ghent.” Earlier this fall, he created new works for a very un-Sehgalian setting: the Paris Opera Ballet at the stupefyingly lavish Palais Garnier.