Category: dance

“So about this time last year, an oddly fascinating video came out entitled ‘Cows and Cows and Cows’. The video went on to become something of a viral hit, and has now inspired a modern dance company to perform an interpretation of it.”

“New York City Ballet fans accustomed to sitting in the lofty fourth ring of the David H. Koch Theater are a hardy band of passionate balletomanes, and they’re angry that the company has decided to stop selling most of the low-priced nosebleed tickets.”

“The four daredevils … used a wind tunnel to simulate free-fall at the facility in the Czech Republic. Demonstrating impressive physical control and timing the quartet proceed through a complicated routine that sees them spin, swoop and flip around the wind tunnel.”

“The shake-up of Brisbane’s arts scene has continued with yesterday’s resignation of long-term Queensland Ballet artistic director Francois Klaus. Mr Klaus has been with the state company for more than a decade and has been recognised as a creative and innovative leader.”

Luke Jennings: “In [outgoing head Monica] Mason, … the Royal has enjoyed 10 years of safe, conservative leadership. This was the moment for an appointment that would seize the imagination of the public and the wider art world.” The actual choice, Kevin O’Hare, “currently the company’s administrative director, is a famously nice guy …”

“The idea was to bring the ballet to the masses, so it was perhaps inevitable that the masses would bring nachos, beer and hot dogs to the ballet.”

Critic Ismene Brown leads the opposition: “Sweet packets rustled behind my ear, fish and chips were wolfed nearby … People were still entering in droves 30 minutes after the start, obstructing the view of Juliet’s first scene. … Yes, there’s much … [that] could inspire people to fall under ballet’s spell, but the O2’s who-cares audience policies lead to dismayingly antisocial behaviour.”

“He has arguably had one of the most challenging jobs in mainstage arts in the country, having to juggle not only competing creative and managerial demands but carefully negotiate a complex web of black politics and sensitive cultural protocols, including seeking permission from traditional communities to tell their stories.”

“Going from long to short marks a drastic change in any woman’s life, but for ballet dancers it’s almost a political act. Long hair means femininity and a certain degree of submissiveness; cutting it all off flies in the face of tradition and of how a ballerina is perceived.”

“By day, they are corporate lawyers and bankers, teachers and doctors. By night, they are practicing members of a dance troupe, gearing up for the highly anticipated Coney Island Mermaid parade on Saturday.”