Category: dance

“Singing, chanting and calling on local and national officials for more compassionate immigration policies, more than 200 immigrants and their allies marched Wednesday through San Francisco’s City Hall, startling the tuxedo- and ball gown-clad guests arriving for the opening night gala of the San Francisco Ballet.”

The company founded and led by Edward Villella, Mr. B’s biggest male star at New York City Ballet, is making its Manhattan debut at City Center, the theater where Villella and NYCB had their glory days. The MCB repertoire for New York includes five ballets Villella learned directly from Balanchine.

“You may not have heard of Hester Santlow; she is mentioned in few histories of dance or theater. Yet for 27 years in the early 18th century she outshone all other female dancers on the London stage and sparkled beside numerous visiting French male stars.”

“Toronto-born Jason Reilly studied at the city’s National Ballet School before jetting off to the Stuttgart Ballet for a 12-year stint, where he leapt from the corps de ballet to demi-soloist to principal dancer.” He begins as a principal dancer in Toronto as of the 2009-10 season.

“Everyone’s asking the question: how do you make ballet current, how do you make ballet relevant? I think you just have to make it resonate with people, emotionally resonate. People want to feel connected. I think we alienated people a little bit with that extreme physicality, where you’re not seeing the person behind the leotard, you’re just seeing the bodies.”

For Peggy Baker, 56, “the choice to become a solo dancer has been the secret to extending her life onstage. ‘I would not be dancing for as long as I have if I were in a company. No company could put up with the way I have to take care of myself now. But because I’m totally in charge of myself, I can decide how hard I’m going to push myself on a given day.'”

The Salt Lake City Ballet Company, “which is the performance branch of the Salt Lake City Ballet Conservatory, features dancers ages 14-20.” Artistic director Cristobal Marquez says that “We decided to make the company a ‘pre-professional’ company that would give the dancers a taste of what a real company is like.”

Good news at last for the troubled company: its board is two-thirds of the way to completing “a campaign to raise $14.8 million toward purchase and renovation of a new headquarters on Marietta Boulevard west of downtown.” Among the pledges is $3 million from the Carlos Foundation, the largest single gift in the company’s history.

“Two princes who recently left politics have expressed their desire for the Royal Ballet of Cambodia to be removed from under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and returned to the Royal Palace… [one of the princes] said he believes the Royal Ballet has suffered both in quality and popularity during nearly four decades of control by the ministry, adding that moving it to the Palace could reverse its decline.”

“Yet for all the attention and accolades that have been lavished on the three young actors who take turns playing Billy, let us pause for a moment to praise the Sisterhood of the Tumbling Tutus that is seriously upping the charm quotient of Broadway these days.”