Category: dance

This year’s nominees for Tony choreography “represent three separate genres of show choreography. The first genre features dance and movement that are perfectly in keeping with the rest of the show without exhibiting any distracting distinction of their own. The second, a rarer type, is choreography that actually becomes part of the show’s inner motor. The third — and rarest — occurs when movement, dance and choreography are right at the center of the image that the work puts across.”

“There is an odd disconnect between Mr. Ratmansky’s quiet, private persona and the It Boy status he has attained in the ballet world. He obviously is not drawn to the spotlight, yet he successfully ran the huge Bolshoi company, a famously difficult place to work.”

“While visiting Cambodia in 2000, American arts patron Anne H. Bass witnessed a rising star. Then 15 years old, Sokvannara ‘Sy’ Sar performed a dance at Cambodia’s famous Preah Kahn temple and caught Bass’ eye. Nine years later, Sar is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company, and Bass has documented his journey every step of the way.”

She “produced more than 40 choreographic pieces, founded the Mexican National Ballet in 1948 together with Guillermina Bravo … [and] was the director of the National Fine Arts Institute’s Mexican Dance Academy and the National Fund for the Development of Mexican Popular Dance.”

The Montreal company, which is setting out on a four-week tour that includes debuts in Egypt and Israel, “is short $150,000 because of the cancellation last year of Promart and Trade Routes, two government programs that supported the export of Canadian culture. … Alain Dancyger, Les Grands Ballets’ executive director, says corporate and private sponsors at home and abroad are bewildered that the Conservative government is not one of the tour’s supporters.”

“BBC3 is to broadcast a Strictly Come Dancing-style show featuring wheelchair users, called Dancing on Wheels. Each of the series’ six wheelchair users will be paired with a celebrity, including singer Heather Small and actress Michelle Gayle, to learn the art of Wheelchair Dance Sport, a popular international sport where at least one dancer is in a wheelchair.”

“Take a 5ft-10in, 36-year-old Frenchman with a degree in maths and economics and a history of hurdling. Jam him in a room measuring barely 10ft x 8ft x 7ft, with only an eerily inquisitive Anglepoise-style lamp for company. Oh – and ensure that the resulting spectacle is 50 minutes of pure, intense, even beautiful enjoyment.”

Chan Hon Goh, a star at the company for two decades, “never fully recovered from the injuries she sustained in [a 2006] car accident, and says it has forced her to recognize she can no longer push herself as she once did. ‘I need intensive physiotherapy and massage in order to dance,’ she says. ‘It’s a vicious circle; I push, and everything seizes up again.'”

“Seasoned balletomanes with long memories will argue that Lucette Aldous is one of the most beautiful dancers ever to have performed on the Australian stage. … Next month, Aldous’s contribution to dance will be recognised at the Australian Dance Awards when she receives its lifetime achievement award.”

“Especially in the years following the choreographer’s death in 1991, the fires set during the 65 years Graham headed her company have largely faded to embers. The diminution of Graham’s once-forceful presence in modern dance, at its peak during her heyday as performer and creator in the 1930s and ’40s, has come from a combination of factors.”