Category: dance

“His legacy is so abruptly divided between Broadway and ballet. I really think that inviting Robbins to be an associate choreographer Balanchine knew very well his Broadway work and the level of the talent, and especially Jerry’s immense desire to work with him and admiration. Balanchine took him as an apprentice and trusted him. I think that was one of Balanchine’s great qualities as a leader. But who took from Robbins? I don’t know, I don’t know, I really do not know.”

The resort town of Blackpool has revealed plans to create a “festival and events zone”, with a capacity of 30,000 on the seafront in the Tower Headland area, which would spearhead the town’s “ambition to become the capital of dance”

Although some found her irritating, nobody thought her faux. Lydia Lopokova was the real thing, possessed of what Virginia Woolf described as ‘the genius of personality’.

San Francisco Ballet is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a whopping ten world premieres in three nights. “Since the choreographers include Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, James Kudelka, Jorma Elo, Stanton Welch and Yuri Possokhov, the season is automatically of national and international significance.”

Prokofiev’s original version offered a happy ending. “This version, written in 1935, was censored by Soviet authorities, who insisted on the reinstatement of Shakespeare’s ending, but has now been recovered thanks to documents unearthed by the Princeton University musicologist Simon Morrison.”

In an interview with the Spanish daily El Mundo, Tamara Rojo, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London, said good ballet had not been seen in Spain since Russian dance troupes toured it in the 1940s. “It is not this [elitism], nor the price of tickets – it is more expensive to see football. No, the real problem is lack of creativity and the lack of support from authorities makes dance distant from most people.”

“Russian ballet watchers are in for a good spring with the Kirov’s tour. But a depressing future awaits if the factions in St Petersburg and Moscow start to harden and a cold war of dance ideologies starts to brew.”

The Prometheus Dance Elders Ensemble’s youngest member is 55; the oldest, 85. “Nearly half of the Elders are or were professors – of medieval literature, social work, education, the arts. They are also painters, models, activists, therapists, mothers, grandmothers, and widows. Most of all, they are very much themselves.”

“New Jersey Ballet, a company that takes pride in its local roots, will kick off its 50th anniversary season with a tour of Russia in June… Seventeen of the troupe’s 20 dancers will join the tour, performing a repertoire largely set to jazz, blues and electronic music that highlights the company’s American character.”

“Tecktonik” is the word that scores of young clubbers across Europe use to describe a dance that is a mix of rave and breakdancing. Dancers sport mullets and 1980s muscle shirts. They practice moves such as “Le Brushing” or “Le Pot de Gel,” which mimic the motions of brushing and putting gel through hair.