Category: dance

Wayne Sleep, 62 and a veteran of the Royal Ballet, was to return to Covent Garden after a 20-year absence to dance one of the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella. But he had so much pain in his right leg that he couldn’t even put socks on without help. He tells about getting a hip replacement and learning how to dance anew.

Applauding Sarah Kaufman’s Pulitzer Prize, John Rockwell notes that “there are two anomalies to her well-deserved win. First, she’s one of the last of a dying breed. Apart from her and Alastair Macaulay, my successor at the NY Times, who else is a full-time staff dance critic in American journalism anymore?”

“If anyone needs a demonstration of the stultifying effect that the national Balanchine obsession has had on new choreography, the Washington Ballet’s triple bill at Harman Hall is it. Minimalism reigns. Legs hit noses. Crotches — cranked open, screaming at you to notice — hit a new expressive high mark. But the choreography does not.”

“It’s strange to begin grappling with safeguarding your art while still honing your voice. But dance, more than any other form — and especially modern dance, that idiosyncratic tradition — compels questions of mortality early on. Like the people who make it, it is forever disappearing.”

“Three of Australia’s principal ballet dancers are … setting up a new breakaway ballet company. Laura Tong, 28, and Robert Curran, 33, from the Australian Ballet … [and] Andrew Killian have formed Jack Productions, a company they will run themselves.” The troupe debuts in Melbourne in July.

“Advocacy body Dance UK has launched a campaign to persuade politicians of the value of dance in the run-up to the general election. For the DanceVote 2010 campaign, people across the country are being asked to send e-cards to their local parliamentary candidates.”

“I was a little nervous because it was on national TV. It’s a lot different from just regular performance. You can see the audience very close to you and you can feel the energy. It’s not like in a [City Ballet] show, where they don’t start clapping or cheering in the middle of it.”

“A stagehand for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been charged in connection with a sexual assault alleged to have occurred at the Carolina Inn [in Chapel Hill] early Sunday.” The company had performed the previous evening at UNC.

“A small person with a huge presence, Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker combines the competitive edge of sport, the self-discipline of ballet, the freedom of modern dance and the daredevilry of circus into one big audience-friendly package.” (The critics aren’t always so impressed.)

The star choreographer, who has directed the Compañía Nacional de Danza since 1990, has declined to renew his contract for next season. He has given no reason for his decision, though observers say that Spain’s National Institute for the Scenic Arts and Music has been unhappy with Duato’s emphasis on modern dance over classical ballet.