Category: dance

“What is it they say in fashion? Sex sells,” said David McAllister, artistic director of the Australian Ballet. The same is true in ballet. We have beautiful, healthy and talented dancers, so it’s not difficult to make them look good.”

School of Ballet Artistic Director Peter Martins: “When people decide to teach when they retire, it’s too late. … You have to keep constantly finding people who will be the teachers for the future.”

“A Russian theatre has put on an experimental ballet in a local factory involving both professional dancers and factory employees. The one-act ballet, called ‘H2O’ was performed at a local car factory, as part of the second Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art” in Yekaterinburg.

“After months of negotiations, The CW has ordered a second season of Breaking Pointe, the docu-drama set inside Salt Lake City’s Ballet West dance company. The show was not exactly a hit in Season 1. It averaged fewer than a million viewers during its six-episode run from May 31 to July 5, which is a weak showing even for The CW network. But Breaking Pointe did have a large online audience, and that was enough for the network to bring it back.”

“What’s really fascinating is when you are in a dance company for so many years you are taken care of as a dancer. You are told where to go, you are given money to do it, you take your classes and then go to the theater. Your life is laid out for you in a very particular way. So, when I left and began the process of having a group of dancers that worked for me I realized how much of life I had missed as an adult.”

“Tutus mixed with hard hats as the first sod was turned on the Australian Ballet’s $12 million production facility in Melbourne. The 12,000 square metre facility in Altona North, to be finished early next year, will be a work space and home for the ballet company’s props, scenery and costumes.”

“After a tough year, Miami City Ballet is suddenly coming back strong. First, the troupe announced $3 million in new donations, a lifesaving influx of nearly a quarter of its $13 million budget. And Tuesday, MCB announced the hiring of a top fundraiser at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington as executive director” – 40-year-old Daniel Hagerty.

In fact, by all reports, the six dancers in the company were terrific and Walt Disney Concert Hall was a congenial venue. What’s more, the program included important revivals of two challenging modernist works, William Forsythe’s Quintett and Merce Cunningham’s Winterbranch. Millepied’s new piece, Moving Parts, however …

“In a sign of financially challenging times, the ballet will not hire a live orchestra for the traditional holiday production. Over the past two years the company has run a cumulative $320,000 deficit, said Greg Smith, executive director of the Sacramento Ballet.”