Category: dance

“Berlin’s state ballet has teamed up with a leading techno night club to produce a dark, avant-garde show with bondage masks and a bus wreck set in a former power plant that showcases the city’s vibrant alternative cultural scene.”

“Saratoga Performing Arts Center does not yet have an agreement with New York City Ballet for the company to return next summer. … Because the company still is negotiating union contracts, it cannot estimate costs for 2014 or commit to two weeks .”

“The British paid for their houses with Nureyev and made their careers out of him. But, when he was past his best, they simply threw him out. … They get rid of everyone: It’s a kind of British mafia. So I thought that, in a few years’ time, someone young would come along – someone who was easier to manage and who didn’t need to be paid as much.”

“Gemze de Lappe first danced in Oklahoma! in 1943 as a member of the Broadway hit’s first national touring company. Seventy years later, at age 91, she’s still with it – choreographing a production of the musical at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.”

“Dancers in Toronto will sometimes be in front of the screen, sometimes behind it for a translucent effect, with the performers in Amsterdam posing a “question” physically and the students in Toronto creating an answer. Then, the piece finishes with all the dancers on stage, moving in unison with those on screen.”

Franklin was “a charismatic British-born dancer and ballet master who was known for his stylistic versatility and his inexhaustible energy — he performed into his 90s.”

“‘It’s like walking in someone else’s footprints, in a way,’ Kathleen Marshall, who has choreographed 12 Encores! shows, said of creating new steps to the pre-existing musical arrangements. ‘You have to find a way in there for yourself.'”

An extensive new report, including much information never before made public, details how the decision to close the company and create a Merce Cunningham Trust to preserve the choreographer’s works was made – and how it was implemented.

“Dancers United UK, a campaigning body that has been founded by working artists in the industry, wants to put a stop to unpaid work, which is often advertised as ‘good exposure’, and to establish guidelines for minimum rates of pay. The founding members also want to tackle issues such as guaranteed lunch breaks, the availability of drinking water on sets and payment for overtime.”