Category: dance

A century after the Ballets Russes took Paris, London and Berlin by storm, choreographer Andris Liepa talks about recreating Mikhail Fokine’s Russian Seasons repertoire for 21st-century audiences.

“By one estimate there are now one hundred million public dancers in China, and the number is growing rapidly as the country ages. The “dancing grannies”, as they’ve been dubbed by the Chinese media, are facing an urban backlash. Younger city-dwellers see them as a nuisance, and are demanding they turn down the volume.”

“‘Another thing I knew I didn’t want was Romeo and Juliet in bed in their tights and ballet shoes pretending they are naked,’ says [choreographer Alexei] Ratmansky.”

“In the 12 years since [Mathew Pokoik] and his wife and co-founder, Aynsley Vandenbroucke, a New York City choreographer, bought 114 acres along an idyllic country road, Mount Tremper Arts has become a quietly thriving offshoot of the city’s contemporary performance world: a magnet for adventurous urban artists and a devoted local audience.”

“No one knows nerves like dancers, no matter if they’re in high tops or pointe shoes. Though the rest of us may want to move like dancers and look like dancers, the performers themselves don’t always feel so enviable.”

“The art form, collectively, receives a 9.4% increase in NPO funding, upping its slice from 11 to 12%. Better yet, there are signs that ACE is formulating a strategy for building a more secure network for dance across England, brokering relationships between large and small organisations, creating links between individual companies, theatres and regional dance agencies that should give the still-fragile dance ecology a firmer base.”

Xander Parish “mov[ed] from ballet class in a salmon-pink-painted former church school to the gilded grandeur of the old Imperial Theatre, named after an empress and home to the most famous stars in dance … 1,222 miles as the bird flies – and an entire world away.” (includes video)

“The New York Police Department is cracking down on the subway showmen who use the tight quarters of the nation’s busiest transit system as moving stages for impromptu – and illegal – pass-the-hat performances. More than 240 people have been arrested on misdemeanors related to acrobatics so far this year, compared with fewer than 40 at this time a year ago.”

“By the end of the 12 weeks, those who danced had less pain in their knees and hips and were able to walk faster, said Jean Krampe, an assistant professor of nursing at Saint Louis University and lead author of the study. The use of pain medicines fell by 39 percent among seniors in the dance group but rose 21 percent among those who did not dance, she noted.”

“Artistic director Sergei Filin, 43, has recovered from an acute allergic reaction to an eye treatment that sent him to the hospital Friday … Filin, who was nearly blinded in a 2013 acid attack, wasted no time getting back to the theater for rehearsals.” Several Russian media reports over the weekend stated that he was in critical condition.