Category: dance

“Being the daughter of a former star ballerina when you’re just starting out in the competitive field of classical ballet isn’t easy. … The sacrifices and pressures are real, but having a mom who knows what it takes to succeed helps.”

“We look at ballet as this thing that was about the past. We really need to understand that if we’re going to be a real vital part of the current dialogue of our time, we have to actually bring forward what our current time looks like.”

Oh, choreographing and coaching in Japan, Russia, Uruguay … rewriting her autobiography in Russian … She explains (“I am all booked up until 2014”) in a Q&A with Allan Ulrich.

For starters: the baby Princess Aurora is a puppet (three different ones, in fact, including one they call “the Exorcist puppet”); the three fairies are named Tantrum, Ardour and Feral; the Lilac Fairy is male (what’s a Matthew Bourne ballet without gender changes?); and Beauty goes to sleep in the Edwardian era and wakes up after 100 years – in the present day.

“On or about November 21st the Ballet Boyz official Twitter account posted an image of the company’s dancers. Taken in what appears to be a dressing room, all but two of the dancers are completely naked.” (Their privates were not visible.) “A caption attached to the message read ‘Wouldn’t you just like to be a fly on the wall …?'” (Let the pearl-clutching begin.)

After a tumultuous year that saw both financial difficulties and the rancorous departure of founder Edward Villella, the company seems to have received a vote of confidence with a $5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Katie Colombus, after having interviewed Matthew Bourne: “I’m going to be at Sadler’s Wells on press night, covering Sleeping Beauty as a review, and it suddenly struck me – what if it’s shit? Would it sway my judgment of the piece, having talked to Bourne all about the show, having a little choreo-crush on him and a better understanding of the intricacies of the performance?”

“The new biggest name in dance is Glorya Kaufman, who shook up the arts world last month when she gave the University of Southern California a gift that despite its undisclosed amount, has been called one of the largest donations in dance history.”

“This company has become to a remarkable extent a reflection of its artistic director. And in a month, Stowell will be gone.”