Category: dance

“Two decades ago, the ballet company almost went out of business. It was drowning in debt and could no longer afford to keep its building at Broad and Washington, or maintain its own school.” This week the troupe broke ground “for a $17.5 million project that will feature five dance studios, offices, and facilities for a soon-to-return School of the Pennsylvania Ballet.”

“When Suzanne Farrell arrived in Washington a decade ago to launch a ballet troupe at the Kennedy Center, it was as momentous for the arts as when basketball great Michael Jordan moved here to run the Wizards. The greatest ballerina this country has produced … was moving into a new sphere as a leader.”

“Death concentrates the mind wonderfully, as they say. In the wake of the demise last week of Alexander Grant, who owned the choreographer Frederick Ashton’s world-wide hit ballet La fille mal gardée, the Royal Ballet has announced that it is launching a foundation to ‘perpetuate the legacy and work’ of the distinguished choreographer 23 years after his death.”

“[The dancers are] skittering, you know, like water bugs moving across a pond. Sure, it’s hard to remain standing with that much speed across the floor, it’s difficult. But that’s how it should be. You think it’s easy for a bug to walk on water? If they stop, they go down.”

“Does Beyonce’s exemplification of de Keersmaeker’s ideas enhance their value, or diminish them? Is there a legal case to be made here? I leave that to the legal experts. But about this question there can be no doubt: Beyoncé did not commit plagiarism.”

“The Adelaide-based Leigh Warren & Dancers company has had its triennial federal funding, worth almost $250,000 annually, discontinued following a meeting of the Australia Council’s dance board in August to assess the funding needs of the country’s small-to-medium dance sector.”

When a student whom he had told to sit out and watch rehearsal because she was unprepared left the studio in a huff, Tibor Horvath followed her out, grabbed her arm and physically dragged her back. Horvath pled guilty to “assault occasioning actual bodily harm.”

“[The] choreography in the video for Beyoncé’s new single ‘Countdown’ … shows a number of similarities with work by the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker” – who says, “I’m not mad, but this is plagiarism. … Am I honoured? Look I’ve seen local school kids doing this. That’s a lot more beautiful.” (Oh, snap!)

Luke Jennings: “But has De Keersmaeker’s work or career been damaged in any way? It would be a hard case to make, even if her copyright has technically been infringed. Works of art often reference other works of art.”

Jean Grand-Maître: “We’ve done three pop ballets now, but they’re completely different from each other; they don’t even remotely resemble each other. If it’s formulaic to use pop music, then wouldn’t it be formulaic to use classical music all the time?”