Category: dance

“This is not a competition. It’s a documentary about competition within the company. ‘We don’t have to create drama,’ said Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute. ‘The drama is there. All the drama and the joy and everything about being a part of a major arts organization is already there.'”

“Record numbers of people are subscribing to the Australian Ballet but box office takings have plateaued because the company can’t add more performances to its schedules or seats to its theatres.”

“The troupe’s first two years didn’t do much to dispel the idea that it was a rich woman’s whim: there was no headquarters and few performances … Nearly 10 years later, the 16-member Cedar Lake … [is] possibly the country’s most innovative contemporary ballet troupe with an A-list repertoire, and an accent on creation that few companies worldwide can match.”

“The new venture” – named the New Zealand Modern Dance Company – “has a long-term vision to create a permanent, high-calibre national contemporary dance company which from its Auckland base will represent New Zealand nationally and internationally.”

“35-year-old former English National Ballet dancer Stephen Moonesamy has been arrested and charged with fraud after allegedly falsely convincing some 75 children from a dance company … that they would get to take part in the closing ceremony of the forthcoming Olympics in London.”

Choreographer Amy O’Neal: “Is music a crutch for me? Why do I have to have it? Why can’t I just be up there alone? There’s an inherent tension and beauty in silence.”

A spring arts festival returns to Babylon, Iraq, near the infamous “Triangle of Death” – but without its previous singing and dancing. Is that to counter memories of Saddam Hussein’s festivals or to cater to religious hardliners?

“Proving yourself over and over: it never ends. I’ve been in the company for 11 years. It’s almost like [audience members] see a show, they’re thrilled, and then the next day their memory was erased, and you start from scratch.”

“People with dementia are constantly being told they can’t do this, they’re doing that wrong, but when they’re dancing they can suddenly move with much more confidence, they know the steps, the music triggers something in them. They might not remember the names of their spouses or children any more, but they haven’t forgotten how to dance.”

“This year, like every other, the big ballet spring season brings to America… a series of 19th-century classics almost all attributed chiefly or partly to the choreographer Marius Petipa (1818-1910). The list is short. It varies little. Yet most of these ballets, as staged today, are laden with cliché; and much of what now bears the Petipa brand name has actually been rechoreographed by his successors.”