Category: dance

“Natalia Bessmertnova, a Soviet-era prima ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for decades, died Tuesday… Bessmertnova died at a Moscow hospital after suffering from a grave illness,” reported by Russian media to be kidney failure.

“Nina Ananiashvili, like the titanic 20th century choreographer George Balanchine, hails from the former Soviet state of Georgia, and in 2004 her now-independent homeland summoned her to direct its national company, long established but also, because of civil hardship, long dormant.”

“The task of running a ballet company is far more onerous today than it used to be. There are now a number of such leaders whose initial talent for choreography (which helped to get them the jobs) has lost its inspiration.”

Seven major presenters have formed a consortium of international arts venues to fund a $1.1 million commission for choreographer Mark Morris’ new “Romeo and Juliet,” set to Sergei Prokofiev’s long-lost original score.

It was very obvious to those who came to see the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre in Tucson last week that what they were seeing was nothing of the kind. Instead, it was a “sound-alike” company of lower quality. “It appears that UAPresents may have been duped and worries that the integrity of the university’s arts presenter could be at stake.”

“Companies regularly tour abroad, while the free exchange of ideas between East and West has expanded the Chinese artistic sensibility. Audiences are growing and new dance troupes have been formed, while the art form has forged a uniquely Chinese identity.”

It’s surprising how many times choreographers have tried to make Hamlet into a ballet.
“Although dance incarnations of the Melancholy Dane date back to the 18th century, few have made a lasting impression. How can you possibly measure up to source material that at its angst-ridden core is so internal?”

“Diana Vishneva, 31, is a mesmerizing beauty from the illustrious Kirov Ballet, a master of channeling feeling through a classical vessel’s restraint, and so peripatetic a performer that her repertory has become her only real home. She plays both character and creator at once. She digs into her role and lifts herself out of the story to reveal, godlike, its scope.”

“Understanding that people are often almost more fascinated in how dancers work and how choreography gets made than they are in the finished product, Misnomer.org has already tried a new approach to posting videos of its work online.”

NY City Ballet star Nikolaj Hübbe, an “elegant dancer known for both exuberance and purity”, is leaving the company to “follow in the footsteps of Henning Kronstam, a teacher and ballet master with whom he worked closely, to become artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet.”