Category: dance

“Denmark’s Queen Margrethe on Tuesday unveiled costumes she designed for a Christmas ballet based on the classic Russian folk tale [“The Snow Maiden”]… Margrethe, a prolific graphic artist and scenographer, has previously designed costumes and sets for several plays, including adaptations of stories by fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.”

“Nina Ananiashvili will give her final performance with American Ballet Theater as part of its spring 2009 program at the Metropolitan Opera House, it was announced.”

“Could Ronn Guidi really reclaim the troupe he founded in 1968 – the troupe that foundered and finally folded seven years after his 1999 retirement – and bring it back to life with its old plucky spirit? But Saturday at the Paramount Theatre, extra points for perseverance were no longer necessary.”

“The drama demands so much of a young performer–emotionally, vocally, physically–that it hardly seems sane to have tried telling it onstage. Billy goes full tilt for all but two scenes. There have been many injuries, and it has often happened, including to Trent in London, that a boy finished Act I but could not go on for Act II. Even leaving the role can be traumatic.”

Josh Beamish started his dance company at 15. “He created all the choreography, and mounted three successful productions at the local Creekside Theatre. In his senior high-school year, he choreographed a fashion show to raise money for his class’s prom.” Now 21 he’s working in Vancouver and has three shows touring Canada…

“As the company prepares to move across the Clyde to a purpose-built home at the Tramway arts complex next spring, many of these outfits – from stripey pyjamas worn in Peter Pan, to tutus designed by Jasper Conran – are being sold.”

“Dance group the Hofesh Shechter Company has become the first organisation to gain a three-year residency at the Brighton Dome. […] During its time at the Dome, the group will research and develop new works, present several pieces including a new commission and a major education project as part of Brighton Festival 2009, and premiere a new full-length work in May 2010.”

The style of movement, “which Naharin devised when he had back trouble,… is rooted in the dancers’ own movement patterns, making them conscious of their bodies in an extraordinary way, graceful and jerky at the same time, strong in balance and vivid in the articulation of every muscle and bone. The results are distinctive, but limiting.”

“The six-storey building [scheduled for completion in summer 2010] will feature seven dance studios, a 200-seat theatre, office spaces, a health suite and costume workshop. Alongside the two professional companies [Northern Ballet Theatre and Phoenix Dance Theatre], the site will eventually house a full-time classical dance school and Leeds Metropolitan University’s dance degree courses.”

After a harrowing couple of months in which it wasn’t clear that the Texas Ballet Theater would have a season, the company opened this weekend, but to a noticeably small crowd. “It was masterful from start to finish. But the applause these fine performances drew came from a crowd of only 1,165.”