Category: dance

“The new effort, already under way, presents an opportunity for more dance companies, both local and international, to perform at the prestigious New York address–on a historic stage designed by George Balanchine.”

“Mariafrancesca Garritano, 33, has been fired for ‘damaging the image’ of La Scala after claiming that one in five ballerinas suffered from anorexia.”

“I think that needing to translate into words to tell the story of a ballet is a problem. The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language. That the emotions can be felt, I think, that’s another thing. Abstract can tend to be very sterile, and the so-called narrative has the capacity for an emotional connection.”

“This is Tharp’s first collaboration with the Atlanta Ballet and represents a major milestone for the dance company as it seeks to shape a distinct repertory profile featuring some of the nation’s most influential choreographers. … [Working with Tharp is] pushing the company through a growth spurt that’s not without a few real-life trials.”

Choreographer Russell Maliphant was moved to create his Rodin Project by his visits to the sculptor’s museum in Paris. Yet he realized that his typical fluid style didn’t capture the size and weight of Rodin’s bronzes. He found a solution to this problem at, of all places, a London street dance festival.

“This is torture,” moaned the immobilized choreographer in his South London home, his bandaged leg recovering from the snapped Achilles tendon he suffered in January. Yet his company has gone ahead with its winter US tour, dancing Khan’s acclaimed work around a country where it’s little-known.

Judith Mackrell looks at the few, short surviving video clips of Baker at work – and is thrilled at how Baker animates and subverts her often stereotyped material with wit, precision, keen timing, and her “rare freedom, vigour and joy.”

Joan Acocella: “Sometimes, when it happens, you’re not sure at first that it really did happen. Even if the dancer crawls offstage (I’ve seen it), it could be part of the choreography, no? … For the audience, shamefully, an onstage injury is not just a misfortune. It’s also an adventure, like something in a movie.”

In The Misinterpretation of the Ring, or Hacking Wagner, choreographer Saar Magal (the grandchild of Holocaust survivors) “put[s] on stage the argument about hearing Wagner – and the whole issue of artistic-political censorship – as well as the issue of tendentious art, since the Nazis misused his music.”