Category: dance

“The executive directors of both groups now say the plan calls for an umbrella organization that would include Mr. Jones’s troupe. The new brand — with a new name and a new mission — would link the 28-year-old company of Mr. Jones … with an arts center that holds more than 110 performances annually by some 45 artists and companies.”

“The special sense of kinship among NBS alumni comes from having shared their formative years in a necessarily hot-house environment where striving for seemingly unattainable goals is a daily routine.”

“A single commission (often with an existing score) is reason to celebrate in any ballet company’s season. The ambition, effort and cost involved in creating so much new work in such a short period is staggering.”

“Joaquín Cortés, one of the biggest names in flamenco dancing, has been given a one-year suspended jail term for using €700,000 (£616,000) to fund a luxury lifestyle. Cortés was found guilty of ‘improperly taking’ the cash from a group of Argentinian investors.”

Phyllis Lamhut: “[L]et’s say he was working on how do you transfer your focus to points in space? How do you work with your body to indicate points in space? We would improvise and figure it out. … Or he’d say, ‘How would you use gravity?’ He didn’t tell us how to do anything. ‘Where is it? What would you do?'”

“‘Just before I die, I want to burn the bloody lot and make sure that no work I did is ever done again.’ Is Graeme Murphy serious? ‘Yes,’ he says, ‘it’s the only way you can protect your work.’ That would be one big bonfire for Murphy, who has choreographed more than 50 works for Sydney Dance Company and eight for the Australian Ballet.”

“Former New York City Ballet resident choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is to stage the world premiere of his new work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, early next year at the Royal Opera House. A co-production with the National Ballet of Canada, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the first full-length ballet commissioned by the Royal Ballet for 15 years.”

“A circular concrete barrier behind a tattered chain-link fence at the corner of 47th Street and Greenwood Avenue in the Kenwood neighborhood is all there is to show for once-ambitious plans” – by the nonprofit Muntu Dance Theatre – “to remake a struggling business corridor into a hub for African-American arts and culture.”

“First things first. It’s not a ballet company – its name refers to Spanish national dance, not classical ballet. But don’t equate Spanish dance with flamenco (or at least, not only flamenco): the company deploys a range of Spanish styles, and is dedicated to creating a repertory of stage works rather than to recreating traditional scenes.”

“Birmingham’s international dance festival will remain largely unaffected by the chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption, organisers said. … Many of the major dance companies such as Mark Morris and Ballet Nacional de Cuba are already in the UK on tour, and [others] … flew in just before the disruptions started.”