Category: dance

“In Britain, dance has historically regarded itself as the Cinderella of the arts, excluded from the glitzier levels of publicity and funding enjoyed by film, theatre and music, and lacking a voice in more than one respect. But perceptions are changing…”

“This weekend, dozens of dancers in brilliant costumes will leap across the stage of [Philadelphia’s] Merriam Theater, before digitally projected Chinese landscapes. An orchestra will perform original scores melding Western and Chinese instruments; the violin will befriend the two-string erhu.” A great cross-cultural experience? Not if you’re the Chinese government. China’s Communist Party “has called the production ‘an insult and distortion’ of [its] culture.”

The company’s board of directors has just held an emergency meeting to discuss “ways to keep the ballet alive through the current season.” Weak ticket sales for this fall’s two productions, including Nutcracker (every company’s cash cow) “have put the company’s future in peril.”

“Cincinnati Ballet has canceled a performance of The Nutcracker for the first time since it began mounting the holiday classic in 1974.” Only 140 people had bought tickets for the Dec. 26 presentation.

“In their final collaboration, Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg produced a work that buzzed with ideas, not the least of which was a fierce and disquieting notion of the eternal. And given the lifetime of insight these artists and frequent creative partners bring to bear, it is wise to take heed.”

“Already on the brink of collapse, Ballet BC was dealt another blow this week when Scotiabank froze almost $17,000[Can] of the company’s money. The funds were used to pay off $16,749[Can] owed on Ballet BC’s Scotiabank Visa cards.”

Utah’s Odyssey Dance Theatre has built up an unpaid liability of nearly $700,000 in payroll taxes and penalties over the past decade or so, even as it has continued to use federal and local funding to expand its programs rather than settle its public debts. Now (as with the rest of us), those debts are catching up with the company.

“A few of us, though, have been living in such privileged conditions that it is still a shock to realize that live music is negotiable. This shock, I know, is illogical… [Yet you] need to be a regular dancegoer to know quite how much difference a conductor and orchestra can create between the same cast’s performances of the same ballet on Wednesday and on Thursday. Where there is taped music, sooner or later you’re likely to see taped dancing.”

Last month the Sydney Dance Company’s incoming artistic director let nearly half of the current dancers go. Now he has revealed his new dancers and his plans for the upcoming year. “I will create a group of dancers who will be unique. A group who will inspire choreographers and make them want to create work for us.”