Category: dance

“Being a ballerina of color in New York City has never been easy. In 2012, young minority women looking to make a career in this still very white art form face a daunting choice: Do they look to follow Misty Copeland, the lone African American dancer of rank at Manhattan’s two major companies? Or do they hold out hope that District native Virginia Johnson successfully revives Dance Theatre of Harlem, the historically black company slated to debut next year?”

South Africa Ballet Theatre principal dancer Burnise Silvius: “In 2010, South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup. The FNB Stadium, now renamed Soccer City, hosted several big matches there. … Presenting classical ballet in such a venue would do a lot to expose our art form to those who have not had the opportunity to enjoy it.”

Yes, it’s for an advertisement, and the men aren’t super with the barre work – but it’s fun anyway.

“After creating pop ballets featuring the music of Joni Mitchell, Elton John and Sarah McLachlan, Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître is teaming up with a native of the province for his latest contemporary collaboration. Balletlujah!, set to the music of k.d. lang, will have its world premiere in May, 2013.”

“Malaysia on Thursday denied reports that the Muslim-majority country blocked a performance by a Singapore ballet troupe due to squeamishness over tights-wearing dancers and said the show could go on. However, the Singapore Dance Theatre had earlier said it was too late to stage the performance.”

Alastair Macaulay makes that proposition to his fellow New York Times dance critics, who have some things to say about the matter.

“Malaysia has denied a permit for a Singapore dance troupe to perform The Nutcracker and other ballet works due to concerns about ‘indecent’ costumes.”

“Mr. Corella, 36, was born in Madrid and joined the company as a soloist in 1995. He has danced leading roles throughout his career from the company’s stable of story ballet classics.”

“The idea that modern dance is trivial or dead is like the idea that ballet, post-Balanchine, is dead; a perspective from those who no longer like or can find recognizable referents in what they see. The company model has almost gone, which changes the way that choreographers work, and might be one of the reasons that they seem less interested than a previous generation was in developing a physical vocabulary.”

“An injury steals from the body and gives to the soul. The net gain for one component of the self should be in direct proportion to the other’s loss: The more arduous the physical ordeal, the greater the spiritual strengthening. That’s what I like to tell myself, at any rate.”