Category: dance

The Oklahoma-born Native American “became the first 20th-century American ballerina to hold a leading place on the European stage” and went on to direct the ballet companies at La Scala and the Paris Opera and to found one of Europe’s top ballet schools.

Two former principal dancers at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater are making waves in their native China. “The husband and wife team were hired as ballet master and mistress for China’s latest ballet company, only the sixth in this land of 1.3 billion people.”

“The Australasian Bolshoi Ballet Academy will open in Melbourne next year, to the benefit of dancers and audiences. The academy will be the only one in the world outside of Moscow training dancers in the highly-acclaimed Russian Bolshoi system.”

“The New York City Ballet will be spending only two weeks at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center next July, instead of the usual three.” The decision was made in response to the current economic turmoil: the company typically loses $1 million on its Saratoga residency.

“This autumn Richard Alston celebrates both his 60th birthday and his 40th anniversary as a choreographer. … If Alston now ranks as one of the great survivors in British modern dance, he was once one of its original rebels.”

“The main theater can be manipulated into eight different configurations, seating from 70 to 150 people. The lounge, which features a smaller stage for readings and acoustical music events, will be used for community workshops during the day. At night it turns into a bar, a way to generate income.”

“Once the life blood of Canadian ballet, touring has become – to borrow a phrase from Porgy and Bess – a ‘sometime thing,’ too costly to be a regular activity for the National Ballet in particular… According to the National Ballet, the simple problem is money.”

Alastair Macaulay: “Over the last few days marvels have unfolded at American Ballet Theater, conferring a kind of performance-by-performance mounting delight that ballet today too seldom has.”

The West Australian Ballet heads into its 2009 season with 10 additional dancers (for a total of 32), more rehearsal space and a budget increased by A$1.2 million.

The company gives its first performances in China next month at the National Center for the Performing Arts (a/k/a “The Egg”). The repertoire ranges from such classics as Errand Into the Maze, Night Journey and Appalachian Spring to Graham’s last work, Maple Leaf Rag.