Category: dance

Alaska Dance Theatre’s Qug’yuq (the Yup’ik word for swan) retells the story [of the classic ballet] … This time, however, the swan and her swain come from a Yup’ik village. Their nemesis, intent on keeping the girl for himself, is no one less than the powerful trickster, Raven. The usual balletic pirouettes and plies are augmented by Yup’ik Eskimo drumming and dance.”

Judith Mackrell: “Critics scrutinise dancers’ appearances all the time. It’s as automatic for us to register weak feet, a stiff back, a short neck as it is to cherish the elegance of Sylvie Guillem’s proportions … [Yet some] of the greatest dancers have been far from perfect, and their ‘flaws’ have arguably been crucial ingredients in their art.”

“The dancers’ union has moved to block efforts by New York City Ballet to establish a smaller touring ensemble, saying it violates their labor contract. The union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, said that City Ballet was required to ask its permission if it wanted to tour with anything less than the entire company.”

“Margot Fonteyn once said that, if people knew the physical agony ballet caused its dancers, only those who enjoyed bullfights could bear to watch it.” In England, efforts to ameliorate the suffering are starting to bear some (small) fruit.

“BBC charity the Performing Arts Fund is to award bursaries to dancers for the first time in its seven-year history, but has revealed that its funding for musical theatre students is in jeopardy.”

“Specifically tailored for contemporary choreographers, the show-cum-contest grants $10,000 to a winner toward the creation of a new work and has stirred up some lively debates about the financing and subjectivity of evaluating the often underfunded medium of contemporary concert dance.”

The main subtext for this event is the group’s belief that Toronto dance is under-represented on both the national and international scene. “Toronto doesn’t have a major dance festival so we’re without an annual showcase for both local dance and visiting companies.”

“The reality is that U.S. companies have fallen behind their European counterparts – not in some subjective way such as repertory or artistic quality, but with the critical organizational iterative experience, marketing and advanced media-focused fundraising capabilities that are going to determine success over the next 10 years.”

“Over decades and across continents, ballet dancers in feature films have consistently been associated with hysteria, madness, torture, the supernatural and death. Former New Yorker critic Arlene Croce dubbed this a ‘tradition of morbidity’, and certain motifs crop up over and over again. Here are few of them.”

“For years, the Second City struggled to make it onto the list of Top 5 American dance cities. Milwaukee boasted a bigger ballet company. But no more.”