Lula Washington: “[Director James Cameron] wanted them to have their own culture and … their own rituals and their own ways of greeting and own ways being intimate with each other and walking and sitting. He said, ‘Well, these characters are eight feet tall, how would they sit?’ So we actually got down on the floor in his office and sat in different positions.”
Category: dance
Merce Cunningham Co. Announces Final Tour
The company’s last tour before disbanding will begin Feb. 12 in Columbus, Ohio, and cover 35 cities in North America and Europe before ending in a New Year’s Eve 2011 performance at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. As Cunningham wished, tickets for the final New York performances will be $10.
How Dancers Audition For The Oscars Telecast
Academy Awards producer and choreographer Adam Shankman “separates the dancers by gender, lines them up and asks each to perform a pair of ballet moves – a double pirouette and an arabesque that take just seconds to complete. Instantly, more than half of the would-be performers are eliminated.”
Revisiting Diaghilev
“Diaghilev used the Ballets Russes as a vehicle for promoting synthesis of the arts in a bid to overcome the fragmentation characteristic of the 19th century. Diaghilev’s artistic vision was also a bridge between East and West, exemplified by the involvement in Ballets Russes of artists like Picasso and Henri Matisse and the composer Satie.”
Canada’s National Ballet Gets A New Star
“The ruggedly handsome Jiri Jelinek, who has been praised all over the world for his powerful stage presence and strong partnering skills, is the latest coup for National Ballet artistic director Karen Kain as she carefully crafts the company of her dreams.”
What Haiti Meant To Katherine Dunham
“It was the place and culture Katherine Dunham fell in love with, the place that helped her build her dance vocabulary and her spiritual, artistic self. If it weren’t for her research in Haiti, she wouldn’t have become the major American dance artist that she was.”
Ice Dancing World Champions In Hot Water Over Faux-Aboriginal Routine
Russian skaters Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin are being charged with tone-deafness, if not outright racism, over the original dance they’re bringing to the Vancouver Olympics. In a routine meant to pay tribute to Australian indigenous culture, they perform in brown face makeup and bodysuits with leaves and white markings that look more like frosting on gingerbread then Aboriginal body painting.
Figure Skating Costumes Have Gone Too Far
“Skating has reached the point where [the Will Ferrell comedy] Blades of Glory seems less like satire and more like cinéma vérité. Lilac vinyl jumpsuits, sheer tops, off-the-shoulder necklines, corsets, tassels, feathers and fur are all the rage. And then there are the women.” Says the famously flamboyant Johnny Weir, “Too much is never enough.”
Peter Gelb Makes Room For Dance At The Met
“The two most promising ballet choreographers in New York today are Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon. This season, Gelb tapped both.”
At Age 10, Miami Contemporary Dance Company Hangs On
In the past year, the troupe “has lost more than $100,000 in funding, three dancers and two administrators and has had to cut from 32 to 21 the number of paid weeks for its six dancers.” Yet founder/director Ray Sullivan’s “combination of serious themes, challenging technique and organizational ability has consistently drawn fine dancers, who usually stay for years.”