Category: dance

“In life, he was a messianic figure to many of his dancers. Correspondingly, after his death in 1983, a quasi-religious reverence cropped up around items he had owned, which was enough to transform cuttings of a certain rubber plant into living relics.”

“I’m not a person who likes to stand still but it allows me to be still and my mind to be moving. It just conjures up emotions and is very powerful.”

“Ann Sholem, who co-founded the company formerly known as Diversions, with her husband Roy Campbell-Moore, quit as artistic director last year – months after Campbell-Moore left his post as artistic associate.” Gustavo Ramírez Sansano has been named the new artistic director, with Paul Kaynes as CEO.

“There are others who are actually my arms and legs. When I’m fantasizing about a new work, it’s not about me doing it, it’s about individuals in a community. […] The company is the world as we want to live in it, not as the world may be. But a social vision exists in a larger context. And we have to be aware of that.”

The gifted African-American ballerina and Internet heroine will perform the dual lead role in Swan Lake with the Washington Ballet next spring – and her Prince Siegfried will be African-American as well.

“After experiencing sound artist Ryoji Ikeda’s newest composition, Superposition, commentator Adam Frank says yes – but that it won’t just be science you’ll be learning.”

Some dancers rip them apart and glue them back together, some shellac them, some cut out the material around the toes, some yank out the sole lining. Everyone does it differently, and many spend hours at it. (includes videos)

Two principals and the artistic director of the Cairo Opera Ballet talk about the way factors such as the reactions of the audience, self-critique, and stage lighting affect their thinking process while onstage.

“Most bad dancers have nothing but their own awkwardness and self-consciousness to blame, but for a few, a complete lack of rhythm could have a biological explanation, suggests some new research published this week … It’s called beat-deafness, and it’s a sensory deficit analogous to being tone-deaf, or color-blind.”

“The dancers you employ will be highly skilled, qualified, experienced professionals who will have gone through a rigorous audition process to achieve their position. I’m sure you can understand how disheartening it is to then be valued so poorly.”