Category: dance

Forty-two years after its founding, Cloud Gate Dance Theater “has become a roving, bounding symbol of this island. … If you travel on China Airlines, Taiwan’s flagship carrier, you may even fly on the Cloud Gate Liveried Aircraft, adorned with dancers’ likenesses. The airline unveiled it last year, saying the troupe represented the ‘pinnacle of Taiwan culture.'”

Ballet Ouest de Montréal has had to cancel almost half (so far) of its December Nutcracker performances for school groups – which make up a hefty part of its income – because teachers staging a work-to-rule action are refusing to supervise field trips and extracurricular groups.

Kyra Nichols, long one of Balanchine’s muses at New York City Ballet, and former ABT and City Ballet primcipal Charles Askegard (who is also Mr. Candace “Sex in the City” Bushnell), have joined the company as ballet masters.

Born in Nairobi in 1992 to an English father and a Kenyan mother (she won’t talk about her parents), Hayward came to Britain aged two and was brought up by her paternal grand­parents, John and Diana, in Sussex. ‘They didn’t expect to have a child sprung on them and they couldn’t remember what to do, so they sat me down in front of a video of The Nutcracker,’ she says. ‘That was it.’

“As part of the relationship, which begins this month, Bard will have rights to rehearse and perform selections from Ms. Brown’s repertory. … Artists from the troupe will embed in the faculty, teaching classes and shaping the school’s course offerings to reflect … not so much Ms. Brown’s technique as her way of thinking.”

Evgenia Obraztsova: “Many people think that Giselle just dies and her ghost is a shell. I personally think it is a soul.” Anastasia Stashkevich: “I opened my eyes when the curtain closed and I just didn’t understand. I died with my heroine and couldn’t imagine how I could compose myself and perform the second act.” (video)

“In these showings, which I’m in the middle of now, I acquire new sets of eyes. I know what I think of the works, but having an audience gives me other points of view, some of which are radically different from my own. I have been doing this long enough to know that everyone comes with specific agendas and will probably leave with those same biases intact, and that not everyone loves me, though I wish they would.”

“Ten years ago Dana Fouras gave up a feted career dancing with her husband, the choreographer Russell Maliphant, to look after their young family. Now she’s back, and here they talk about being a couple both on stage and over the kitchen table.”

“It pumped water out at full strength for nearly 30 hours before it was detected. Hallways, offices, and important studio space were all under water. … The flood also attacked something far more difficult to fix – the ballet company’s history.”

“Whereas break-dancing is about getting down on the floor, litefeet is all jumps and fast floaty footwork performed to dance music and chants. Joyful to some commuters, irritating to others, it now gets performers arrested. But the creators have moved on.”