Category: dance

“Cunningham pioneered in the development of dance film, understanding the radical difference between the human eye and the camera lens, adapting his choreography for television while other artists still feared allowing their dances to be recorded. Some interesting pieces resulted from moving works originally made for film onto the stage.”

“Before Merce, American modern dance was dominated by the intense and inward creativity of Martha Graham. Her dances were morally serious and psychologically powerful; she was interested in narrative and mythology, and in unearthing the inner depths of human consciousness in movement. His dances were cerebral and abstract, rigorously formal designs with no story and no ‘meaning’ other than the dance itself. The movement was never confessional or impassioned but appeared instead organic and detached, an act of nature.”

“Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles, who was brought on in February to steer the company as interim executive director, has confirmed that he will not be renewing his contract with the organization.” Last month saw the departure of John Alleyne, for 16 years the company’s artistic director.

Congressman Joe Sestak “helped the Academy of International Ballet Classique [in Media, PA] send 10 large packages of ballet supplies to the Iraqi Music and Ballet School [through] the U.S. Embassy in Iraq … The Iraqi school will receive point shoes, slippers, leotards, tights, costumes and ballet CDs and DVDs.”

“It’s hard to think of anything less obviously appealing to your average primary school pupil than the exhausting and obscure art of bharatanatyam. Routines include separate movements for the eyes, eyebrows, neck, shoulders, wrists, arms, torso, thighs, knees and feet, to narrate the action and convey emotions.” With some similarities to ballet, it “is an ancient and integral part of southern India’s Carnatic classical music tradition.”

“One of Merce Cunningham’s final works of choreography, before his death on Sunday evening, was creating site-specific work for Rockefeller Park, in Lower Manhattan, where it will be performed this Saturday and Sunday as part of the River to River Festival.”

Just a few months after Oregon Ballet Theatre staged an emergency fundraising campaign that saved it from bankruptcy, the downtown modern dance studio Conduit “has reached the same situation. … [The center] needs to raise $15,000 by Aug. 31 to keep its doors open. That doesn’t sound like much. But Conduit’s yearly budget is only around $45,000.”

“In June, the choreographer announced an initiative called the Living Legacy Plan that would safeguard his work and provide for a smooth transition of assets in the event that he should no longer be able to serve as leader of his New York-based dance company. It was an innovative move in a career marked by innovation. But with Cunningham’s death Sunday, his foundation finds itself in the difficult position of having to fund the $8-million plan as it simultaneously goes into effect.”

From the Guardian archives, a quick and easy guide to “the Zen master of modern dance.”

“Leading the country’s third-largest ballet company requires serious backup. Now instead of one right-hand man, San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson has two.” Bruce Sansom and Ricardo Bustamante, “both 46, have just stepped into the ‘ballet master and assistant to the artistic director’ position vacated when Ashley Wheater became artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet in 2007.”