“The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami operates out of an old white mansion in Little Havana. Just like any company, the dancers are starting their day with ballet class. But what makes this company different is that it’s a holding station for dancers who defect from Cuba, a place where they can stay in shape and get help finding permanent jobs.”
Category: dance
Sergei Polunin, Ballet’s Prodigal Runaway, ‘Pretty Sure’ He’ll Show Up For Next London Gig
Last year he abruptly left his job as principal with the Royal Ballet; in April he abandoned a London adaptation of Midnight Express three days before opening. After apologizing for the latter incident (he blamed a “health issue … I couldn’t even explain”), Polunin says he does plan to appear in Coppélia at the Coliseum this summer.
Kansas City Ballet Names New Artistic Director
“Devon Carney, a veteran dancer and choreographer with ballet companies in Boston and Cincinnati, is the Kansas City Ballet’s new artistic director. … He succeeds William Whitener, who retired this month.”
Celebrating National Tap Dance Day (Yes, There Is Such A Thing)
Dean Barlow: “So much of tap dancing today, I love it, [but] it’s all pounding holes in to the floor in one place. … When you see Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly dance, they dance for the people. Today, dancers are dancing for dancers.”
Dancer Who Lost A Foot At Boston Marathon Makes Plans To Dance – And Run – Again
“Doctors had amputated her left foot and then decided the lower leg couldn’t be saved, either. Haslet still finds reason to be grateful. ‘They decided because of my dancing, they kept a lot of my calf muscle, so I’m very happy,’ she says, adding that she is eager to be fitted for a prosthetic so she can start dancing again.”
Can A Dancer Stay With Just One Company Anymore? Ask Ivan Vasiliev
“‘I would love to dance everything,’ he said, laughing. ‘I would love to make new work, too. I’m available. Can I leave my number? Choreographers, call me please.'”
Pina Bausch’s Successor Named At Tanztheater Wuppertal
This summer, four years after Bausch’s sudden death, dance educator and former company member Lutz Förster will take over as artistic director of the provincial German company that Bausch made world-famous. He is not a choreographer, and he says that “there will be no new productions until 2015.”
Was This Modern Dance Pioneer Forgotten Because She Got Too Cozy With The Nazis?
“Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Bronislava Nijinska are regularly invoked to recall a golden age of female creativity and power. These women … had a transforming influence on the language and practice of dance. And there is one more name that should also be added to the list: the German choreographer Mary Wigman.”
Images From The Birth Of British Modern Dance
“In the process of a move from [Rambert Dance Company’s] old London base in Chiswick to their new South Bank headquarters, photographs of their history have been catalogued for the first time, providing a fascinating record of how an artform was created – and an audience for it.”
Brazilian Dance Sweeps The Internet
“The Passinho dance style adapts elements of North American breakdancing and R&B with indigenous styles like Capoeria, Samba no Pé (“Foot Samba”) and Forró. The result is a sleek dance style that has quickly spread through the urban slums where it originated and, with the help of social media, is cracking into the mainstream, both in Brazil and abroad.”