Category: dance

“Oregon Ballet Theatre is cutting its budget 28 percent. The ballet will go on. Just don’t expect a live orchestra at any OBT performances or quite as many dancers on stage next season. Approved by OBT’s board of directors last week, the almost $2 million budget cuts kick in with the new fiscal year in July, reducing the annual budget from $6.7 million to slightly more than $4.8 million.”

“Evdokimova, who was also a gifted ballet teacher, began her performing career in 1966 with the Royal Danish Ballet. But it was at the Berlin Opera Ballet that she became a star, joining the company in 1969 and reigning as prima ballerina there from 1973 to 1985. She was also a guest star with the Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paris Opera Ballet and other companies.”

Theodore Kosloff’s “efforts to promote ballet in L.A. stretched over decades: He ran schools, trained dancers, performed in vaudeville and was a key producer at the Hollywood Bowl. The 7-acre dacha he built in Sunland boasted wood-carved interiors, an indoor-outdoor pond, a gazebo, kennels and a six-car garage.”

“Rumor confirmed: the 2009 season will be one week shorter than usual, covering five and a half weeks from June 18-July 25. The festival has also cut the number of marquee main-stage presentations this year from 13 to 10, a reduction of almost 25 percent.”

“The American Dance Festival will award distinguished dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin with the 2009 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement,” which carries a $50,000 stipend. Naharin is artistic director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company.

Eduardo Vilaro, a Cuba-born, Bronx-raised dancer and choreographer, will succeed Tina Ramirez, the company founder and artistic director, who retires in June after 38 years. Vilaro himself danced with Ballet Hispanico from 1988 to 1996 and went on to found the Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago.

Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director David Bintley: “The great thing about his characters is that there is just enough of a framework to tell you who the character is, but enough leeway as to how you portray them.”

“I’m standing in Pineapple Studios in central London, clad almost entirely in Lycra, and writhing for all I’m worth. … This is the warm up to the beginner-level Bollywood class, and it is tremendous fun. It is also, it would seem, fast becoming the Next Big Thing in fitness.”

“In the face of an abysmal economy, Momentum Dance Company this week [at the Miami Dance Festival] offers a sign-of-the-times performance with a humorous bent: Obamanomics takes on Fannie and Freddie Mac, golden parachutes, budget stretching and belt-tightening. Audience participation is encouraged.”

“A series of New York Theatre Ballet performances will screen exclusively in select movie theaters nationwide beginning in August, under a deal that NCM Fathom, the alternative entertainment division of National CineMedia, has struck with MarQe Entertainment.”