Category: dance

“In a first for the air force and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, all of the ballet company’s sets, costumes and other essential material for its European tour in July will be flown for free to Britain. … Royal NZ Ballet general manager Amanda Skoog said the free offer would save the company about $20,000 in freight costs.”

“The Lawrence Arts Center recently announced the 940 Dance Company, formerly known as the Prairie Wind Dancers, would be disbanding because maintaining the dance company was no longer financially feasible.”

25 years ago, as Vancouver was preparing to welcome the world to Expo 86, the city found itself without a ballet company: Pacific Ballet Theatre, “considered little better than an amateur group,” had recently collapsed. But two indomitable impresarios acted quickly and managed to create Canada’s fourth professional ballet troupe in less than six months.

Even though he is the son of a major figure in Israeli dance (Margalit Oved of Inbal Dance Theatre), Marshall had expected to follow a nice-Jewish-boy career path as an attorney. He had no serious dance training. Then his beloved aunt died suddenly, and he found himself in a Tel Aviv dance studio, stomping out his grief …

Eiko and Koma are not so much a dance duo as an arts organization. She writes; he paints, etc.

Willy Tsao of BeijingDance | LDTX: “In China, one of the misconceptions is that dance is beautiful – it’s about a beautiful body, a beautiful appearance. We want to see something pretty. But dance is for expression, it’s not just something sugary. It can be sour, it can be healing too. We have the freedom to present different aspects.”

“You don’t need to speak a language to understand dance. For all that many cultures have a highly specific dance language, it arguably doesn’t matter if the dancer is French, Thai or Martian: you will be able to respond to it physically or emotionally, even if you wouldn’t be able to comprehend a word. But the moment that choreographers introduce language, all that changes.”

Dane Shitagi’s project is “a series of photographs showcasing dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet and other major companies in gritty urban environments such as subway platforms, brownstone rooftops and graffiti-covered walls.”

“Ballet is in crisis, with fresh talent and ideas struggling to break through and the major companies obsessed with 200-year-old productions at the expense of new work, according to the head of Sadler’s Wells.”

“Change is difficult, and if you’re a company with audiences as emotionally involved as the hordes who flock to see Alvin Ailey, you take a careful, creative approach when introducing a major transfer of artistic rule.”