Category: dance

Strictly Come Dancing‘s Anton Du Beke: “For two decades he doggedly pursued his unfashionable passion, working variously as a baker, a painter and decorator and a furniture salesman, to fund himself on the amateur circuit.”

Rachel Rawlins goes out as the white swan.

“[Some] of the costumes, most of which are made of wool jersey, may simply need a good spin in the washing machine … More worrisome are Noguchi’s painted wooden sets and the paper archives dating back to [the] company’s first days. Mold is a major concern.”

“But [traditionalists’] snorts of ‘this isn’t dance! I didn’t see a single pas de bourrée!’ shouldn’t be taken lightly. Do they have a point when they opine that many contemporary choreographers have removed themselves so far from the notion of dance in a traditional sense, that the remaining performance qualities should perhaps be considered as something else altogether?”

For his adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” for Ballet West in Salt Lake City, choreographer Val Caniparoli “decided that when the villagers draw lots, the performers really are going through a chance procedure … to find out who is the ‘chosen one’ that will be stoned to death.”

“While the Korean women speak basic English, the in-depth dialogue of rehearsals required an interpreter, Ben Chon. ‘I felt like I had to be the most obnoxious mime,’ Mr. McIntyre said with a laugh, ‘and over-articulate to show what I was trying to get at.’ Mr. Chon ‘has kind of turned into a ballet master. He really has to get in there and demonstrate’.”

“For [the piece], he went back to 1991, to reimagine the film Boyz ‘n the Hood, about gangs in South Central Los Angeles, which was released that summer. … He also wanted to look at the history that had preceded the strife represented in [that film] and found a pertinent source in The Souls of Black Folk, the 1903 book by W. E. B. Du Bois.”

“USC currently doesn’t have a dance school — or even a dance major. It does offer individual dance classes, such as ballroom, hip-hop, tango and tap, through its theater school. Kaufman’s donation will help develop all aspects of the new dance school, from designing a contemporary and classical dance curriculum to hiring faculty and constructing a brand-new building.”

“The much-tipped British choreographer” – aged 26 – “has just stepped down as a dancer with London’s Royal Ballet to become its artist in residence.”