Category: dance

“Balanchine is unique unto himself. I think the real heirs to Balanchine are [Alexei] Ratmansky and the upcoming Justin Peck actually. I think these people possess an extraordinary skill set that is far more aligned with Balanchine’s way of organizing. I was trying to work on another thing because I didn’t think Balanchine was very imitable. You can’t imitate Balanchine.”

“With today’s audiences having Twitter-like attention spans and where dances choreographed for TV shows like ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ generally encompassing about two minutes, Duckler said her goal — and main test — ‘was to make a dance work that lasts for five hours.'”

“The problem is far-reaching, especially among companies of NYCB’s scale. And yet, I want to believe that I work in a field that cares about the voices of women and people of color. I want to believe that an art form that fancies itself as progressive, and a company situated in one of the most forward-thinking cities in the world, isn’t complacent about racism and sexism. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any of this yet.”

Patricia Barker has been “instrumental in preventing the regional company, which is Michigan’s only professional ballet company, from shutting its doors. And, under her direction, both the size of the company and the breadth of the works it performs have grown.”

Says Washington Ballet artistic director Septime Webre, “It’s really taken some time for directors to feel comfortable talking about this subject, but now the topic is out in the ether. Misty is a big part of that. And people aren’t just talking now, they’re really trying to find ways to do something about it.”

“Feeling that critics and the public had long ignored work into which she had poured her heart and soul, De Mille found herself dispirited by the sense that something she considered ‘only fairly good'” – her choreography for Oklahoma! – “was suddenly hailed as a ‘flamboyant success.’ Shortly after the premiere, she met Graham ‘in a Schrafft’s restaurant over a soda’ for a conversation that put into perspective her gnawing grievance and offered what De Mille considered the greatest thing ever said to her.”

“What happens when the founding genius, the original voice, is gone? Martha Graham died in 1991, but her troupe survives, thanks to “contextual” presentations and new works by living choreographers; Paul Taylor, still actively producing work, is 85. His company, too, is making moves to widen its repertory. But the dance world often overlooks another company that has quietly gone about its business for decades in the absence of its founding choreographer, José Limón.”

“For the second year, five top ballet companies from around the world” – Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and San Francisco Ballet (plus pre-recorded half-hour programs by Houston Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet) – “are joining for a day of free live streaming of their work, rehearsals, and performances.”