Category: dance

“To be certain, the company’s January announcement that it was shutting down as a full-time performing troupe drew plenty of congratulations from some circles. But there was also a good deal of consternation about what this would mean for the folks in Boise.”

“Tutus have been replaced with bare chests and tights, pointe shoes have been tossed aside for slippers, and delicate décolletages have been swapped for beefed-up biceps. Once the traditional arena of lithe ladies, ballet is seeing an increasing number of all-male shows – in one of the biggest shake-ups in the history of the profession.” (includes video)

“While JR has been hard at work creating the piece” – an eight-minute theatrical dance for New York City Ballet – “he’s also been relentlessly documenting its evolution via Instagram.” Of course.

“Four out of five will suffer a severe injury during the course of their dancing career — and two out of those four will never fully recover. Injuries, more often than not, are the result of fatigue and repeated strain on muscles and joints, rather than unpredictable accidents.”

The ballerina who wants to bring dance lessons into the schools: “I have two young daughters and they’re growing up with such a facility for communicating online. It’s amazing the way they can communicate in so many different ways, but then they forget to communicate with their bodies.”

“Appropriation can be insensitive or disrespectful in all sorts of particular instances. But often, it is wonderful.”

“The estimated damage came to more than $4 million, a daunting sum for a company with an annual budget of just under $5 million that, in 2000, was forced to suspend operations for two years because of crippling debts.”

“The great majority of current dancers claim to be aware of the challenges that transition will pose (98 percent, 86 percent and 93 percent in the U.S., Switzerland and Australia, respectively), but many former dancers concede that they were in fact ill-prepared for this process.”

“Thanks to a collaboration between Gaumont Pathé archives, La Cinémathèque Française, and sound-recording expert Henri Chamoux, 34 of the original films [shown at the Exposition’s newfangled Phono-Cinéma] have been beautifully restored.” (includes clips)

Alastair Macaulay visits the “exuberantly diverse” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “Dancing the Dream”, which features everyone from Vernon and Irene Castle to Rudolf Nureyev to Shirley Maclaine to Isadora Duncan to Mark Morris to Twyla Tharp to John Travolta to Gypsy Rose Lee.