Category: dance

“Forster and Kamino’s vision speaks to a larger debate on dance creation that pits the Canadian model against its European counterpart”

“There’s been heated disagreement over the past week about what’s right and wrong. Is the rocket-propelled ex-Bolshoi enfant terrible Ivan Vasiliev ‘right’ for Swan Lake? Is English National Ballet right to accept such huge thighs in this of all classics, when the sizeist cohorts of the Russian establishment always said nyet to the sturdy, forceful Belarussian?”

“Being 47 years old, what can I still do, and feel potent and active and alive and challenged?” says the recently retired NY City Ballet principal. “There’s plenty out there, it’s just a matter of making it happen.”

“The Bolt,” choreographed in 1931 by Fyodor Lopukhov to a score by Shostakovich, with designs by Tatiana Bruni, has a strange history. Despite an unimpeachable narrative – an idle saboteur plans to throw a bolt into factory machinery but is prevented from doing so by worthy workers – the ballet was banned after one performance.”

“Men’s ballet technique, unlike women’s, finds its expression in short bursts of extreme but controlled athleticism. … There are so many things to think about at once: the position of the feet, the torque of the turns, the composure of the upper body, the shifting gaze, the placement of the arms.” Marina Harss watches one master, Ethan Stiefel, pass on secrets to ABT up-and-comer Calvin Royal.

“I’ve tried to do some hip hop and it is so difficult. You need so many things to be able to do hip hop – extraordinary strength and ability. … Asian dance, with the arms especially, couldn’t be more similar to classical ballet: those emphases on the tiniest amount of detail, just where a finger is.”

“If you’re inferring that there is racism in America, it’s not just a black problem, it’s everybody’s problem. For me it’s important that a company looks like the world, or at least reflects its community. Which you don’t see. I hire people based on their talent, and in 30 years this company has looked like everything.”

Animation dance is “a sub-category of popping [a hip-hop subgenre] that combines a range of skills like strobing, robotics and gliding, and claims inspiration from film animation in its use of splashy dramatic poses and jerky, freeze-frame dynamic.”

The Kandyan and Ruhunu forms of the genre do have similarities with India’s Bharata Natyam: “The body is held squarely upright in a vertical axis, holding a tight bend in the lifted elbows and knees, the foundation for intricate footwork patterns and expressive, flowering hand gestures. Repetition and sharpness of movement is a central feature of this ritualistic style.” (includes video)

“‘There are many people who have come with their wives who wouldn’t go to the (Sydney) Opera House or the State Theatre in Melbourne,’ says Artistic Director David McAllister. ‘Interestingly this is something that can change people’s minds, and it’s a great relationship-building exercise”