Category: dance

“The ballet pipeline used to run mainly in one direction. Russians — Baryshnikov and Balanchine, Godunov and Nureyev — went (or defected) to the West. But now a handful of young Americans are venturing the other way, apprenticing themselves at the academy here, which has long been the sweat-and-tears training ground for many of Russia’s ballet greats.”

“The mechanics of balancing an adult female body on tiptoe for long periods requires a daunting combination of strength, balance, control and alignment. The satin-covered toe shoes are tough taskmasters. Girls are warned that they will get blisters until calluses develop and their skin toughens up. The shoes work foot and ankle muscles differently, too, and soreness is the expected result.”

“The Australian Ballet had a 12 per cent surge at the box office last year, thanks to increased ticket prices and an additional 15,000 tickets sold in the tough economic climate.” Audiences increased by 5% in Sydney and 10% in Melbourne.

“‘Balanchine’s last ballerina,’ [Darci] Kistler is called. It is not an easy tiara – or leotard – to wear. But when she retires June 27, having just turned 46, Ms. Kistler will indeed be the last of the dancers chosen by Balanchine – the greatest dance master of the 20th century.”

“When the Place recently staged its 40th anniversary gala, some of those present had been involved with the building for most of their careers. These days, that degree of attachment is rare. Dance today is rapidly reinventing itself – and dancers want to experiment with as wide a range of choreographers and styles as possible.”

“Eight alumni recounted their life journeys before and after Dance Theatre of Harlem” at a California African American Museum exhibition that features photos and videos of the company’s 40-year history as well as “tights, toe shoes and boxes of RIT dye calibrated to every skin shade.”

“The story of [Pichet] Klunchun and khon, a form that represents legends, can sound like a legend itself: A misunderstood teenager becomes apprentice to an outcast master, sets himself on a mission of vindication, faces humiliation, takes a journey of self-discovery in a far-off land, and returns home to resistance then triumph and fame.”

“They met in 1971 in Tatsumi Hijikata’s dance studio in Tokyo and are now two of the most venerated artists in the dance world. While the moving-painting quality of their choreography is profoundly arresting, … [you] connect to their world not by watching, but by imagining that you are living inside their bodies.”

“The high-kicking UK production, the most successful ever lottery-funded project, leaves [Disney] blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time beached.”

So said Stephen Petronio during a panel discussion among six former Brown dancers about how her ideas informed their own choreography.