Category: dance

“She was scouted at her graduation from St. Petersburg’s Vaganova school and coaxed down to Moscow, where she spent exactly one day in the corps de ballet before being offered a series of high-profile solos. … You might think the speed of her ascent would leave Smirnova slightly breathless and giddy, but of course ballerinas are nothing if not poised.”

Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky explains what the music of Shostakovich means to him – and how he creates ballets for the composer’s sounds of humor and destruction.

Within weeks of each other, new artistic directors have begun their jobs at three major companies: Kevin O’Hare at the Royal Ballet, Tamara Rojo at English National Ballet, and Christopher Hampson at Scottish Ballet. “All three took over from long-standing predecessors, raising the expectation that they will review what is danced and where it is performed. However, choosing repertories and venues is an evolutionary, not revolutionary, process, and more difficult than it sounds.”

“A Louisville man has been arrested after police say he harassed dancers at the Louisville Ballet to such an extent that they feared for their safety.”

“A life of creation is the one that I want. Choreography is a way and it works. … But I think in the end you don’t choose anything in your life, it’s just how it is going to happen. I don’t mean that in a spiritual way, it’s chemical; just how I am set up.”

“At age 23, Ella Havelka has become the first Aboriginal dancer to join The Australian Ballet. A descendant of the Wiradjuri people, Havelka graduated from the Australian Ballet School in 2007, joining Indigenous troupe Bangarra Dance Theatre the following year.”

“In the US, the dance mainstream has long been dominated by the pure-movement aesthetic of choreographers such as George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris. Under the artistic directorship of Benoit-Swan Pouffer, however, Cedar Lake began presenting work that was almost entirely from Europe, and from a far more theatrically experimental tradition.”

“I get a lot of people saying: ‘You’re a white girl from the country, how are you working in hip-hop?’ At first I thought that was fair enough, but now I’m like: ‘It’s been 10 years, let’s move on’.”

“There’s a lot to argue about. We find ourselves in the midst of an ephemeral art explosion: the moment of performance, of dance in the art world, is happening.”

“I admit anger can be the driving force behind my work. The anger erupts like a volcano during the creative process. I try to share the anger with the audience. Through anger, they find a connection to my work.”