Category: dance

“Morris dancing, one of those ancient traditions that seem to be cherished and derided in equal measure, is apparently on the verge of extinction, we learn today with a plea from the UK Morris Association.”

This May 18 is the centennial of Serge Diaghilev’s first evening of Russian ballet in Paris. “At this moment, audiences were shown a future for ballet far from the sterility of Europe’s opera houses and music halls. The next year came Diaghilev-inspired creations: Bakst’s parrot-cry colours in Scheherazade and the new theatre-music of Stravinsky’s Firebird.”

A young Welsh company called The Ballet Pod has created a 31-minute piece called The Ballad of Edward Owen, Miner, a “docu-ballet” about an 1880 mine explosion that killed nine men.

Claudia La Rocco meets Jane Goldberg, the “frizzy-haired Jewish girl” who, with a mixture of persistence, chutzpah and comedic charm, pushed the 1970s and ’80s revival of a then-fading dance form dominated by older African-American men.

The endangered Vancouver company has presented an offer to pay each creditor in full up to C$500 plus 22 cents on each dollar of additional money owed. If creditors accept the proposal, Ballet BC can re-employ some of its dancers and staff; if the plan is rejected, the company must declare bankruptcy.

“How about watching someone, blindfolded and wearing earplugs, move continuously in one space for 24 hours? How about doing it yourself? As of Monday afternoon there were still 19 spots open in ‘freedom of information 2008,’ organized by the choreographer Miguel Gutierrez in response to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“Last month the company was forced to lay off all 38 staff and dancers, saying survival would depend on its run of The Nutcracker, performed by the Moscow Classical Ballet. Strong ticket sales (more than 12,000) for the event averted immediate closure.”

The story of five young women, all professional ballet dancers and adult undergrads at Columbia University, who got together at a diner one night and dreamed up the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, which provides themselves and other dancers the opportunity to perform outside the established company system.

Royal Ballet star Edward Watson describes his typical day at work, from the early morning gym session to class and rehearsals, juggling more than half a dozen roles, living on sweets and McDonald’s, and getting teased by colleagues for his “redhead moments” – “Oh God! Look at how Ed’s acting this out. Has he killed someone before?”

While the Vancouver dance company has managed to avoid bankruptcy and is trying to save its local spring season, it has cancelled an April tour of its ballet version of A Streetcar Named Desire to Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Thunder Bay. “‘We just can’t afford it,’ said Ballet BC president Graeme Barrit.”