Alastair Macaulay: “I don’t like to sit close to dancing in theaters: I have to feel the whole stage space around and above the dancers. It matters to me how even tiny effects of dancing can register in the depths and heights of a vast space. The marvel of Liberty is that her stance and her gesture radiate for miles. The emotion she generates keeps changing, according to angle, distance, time of day, weather and light.”
Category: dance
Miami City Ballet Board Fires Executive Director
“Executive Director Nicholas Goldsborough, hired last fall to improve fundraising and management, is out as of Saturday. … ‘Apparently that is correct,’ Goldsborough said upon being told of a Thursday email announcing his resignation. … And staff at the company and its school have been told they will receive pay cuts and unpaid furloughs in the face of serious financial troubles.”
Is This Really The Best Way To Motivate Ballet Dancers?
Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute, on the CW reality TV series Breaking Pointe: “The best recipe for creating a hardworking and well-functioning dancer and artist is if all the dancers know that they are special, but also that they are expendable.” Dancer Kimberly Peterson begs to differ.
Dancer Left Paralyzed After Mugging Ready To Return To Stage
“Jack Widdowson, 19, was told he might never dance again after suffering serious spinal injuries in an attack in Cardiff in November. Now he is rehearsing for his first public performance on stage on Friday.”
Bolshoi Invites French Choreographer To Loosen Up Its Dancers
“Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has invited the modern choreographer and artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo” – Jean-Christophe Maillot – “to teach Moscow’s more conservative dancers how to let loose on stage.”
Russian Weaponmaker Hires Choreographer For Tank Ballet
“In the opening movements, the T-80 and T-90A tanks maneuver to techno music. There is a brief tango interlude. For the classical portion, the Russian arms company enlisted a ballet director from the Bolshoi Theater, Andrei Melanin. … The Russian tanker crews seem to coax their machines into delicate, even coquettish advances on other tanks. … At one point, two tanks twirl in a creaky, diesel-smoke-belching embrace.”
How’s The Twin Cities’ New (Well, Restored) Dance Venue Doing?
After a year, the Cowles Center for Dance has sold almost 30,000 tickets – and played to less than capacity on many dance nights. Still, say dance groups, it’s a fabulous space. Now can they do better next year?
Retiring At 36 (From The American Ballet Theatre, That Is)
“Looking at Angel Corella in his jeans and hoodie, it’s hard to imagine he’s 36. Dancers always seem to look younger than their age, and Corella has an especially boyish demeanor. But the body doesn’t lie, and 36 is only four years from 40, by which point many have moved on, either by choice or necessity.”
When The Set Starts Moving On Its Own, Dancers Get A Little Nervous
“Presently situated backstage at the Royal Opera House, this is a massive, tripod-mounted entity, several tonnes in weight, with an articulated, illuminated proboscis. ‘I’m not going to call it a robot, it’s much too feminine for that,’ says [Conrad] Shawcross, eyeing the huge, raw-steel creation as it waits behind its safety ropes. [Edward] Watson, who will share the stage with it, is suitably respectful. ‘It’s dangerous’ he says. ‘You could kill someone if you went near it.'”
Minnesota Ballet Scrambles To Save Flood-Damaged Scenery
“The Minnesota Ballet was maybe the hardest-hit local arts organization, with an estimated 90 percent of sets and backdrops affected by last week’s flood.”