Category: dance

The Minnesota Shubert Center’s ever-growing Arts Education and Technology Program uses a Web connection that provides a live audio-video feed, as the performers and students interact as if they’re in the same room, viewing one another on a large screen.

An Art Institute of Chicago student and sometimes dance instructor has posted a dance on YouTube and issued a challenge to viewers to make their own video of themselves doing the dance. “Instead of getting people together on a street, which I was trying to do, or teach some free classes, I thought, what if I posted a dance on YouTube and gave everybody a chance to connect?”

“The manner of presentation might serve as an example to any ballet school in the world. The teachers introduce each exercise with intelligence and grace, and treat their pupils with respect. Humor, charm and good manners emerge. At times, joy in dancing is mentioned as a goal, but the general tone is objective, sober.”

“The members of the troupe, presently numbering 30 (including Duato), ‘come from all over the place’, the choreographer says. ‘I hold an audition once a year. I have now a second company; they jump from that into the main company. Dancers in the main company are choreographing for the second company, which goes to smaller houses.’ Another 20 staffers accompany the troupe on tour.”

“There are never quite as many highly talented male students in classical dance as there are young women. That means that at the top of the scale, companies like the AB can be a bit exposed because the company has a long-standing tradition of hiring dancers from the region.”

The 87-year-old was once one of the world’s great dancers. She’s still working with the National Ballet of Cuba: “Dancing is my life, because it is the thing I learned best, that makes me think better. It is the thing I can give to others: my knowledge, my experience, my ideas for choreography. I think that’s what keeps me alive. I feel necessary in the dancing world.”

“In one form or another, The Nutcracker is here to stay: it has become as fundamental to Christmas as carols and turkey. The odd thing, however, is that The Nutcracker is actually a very young tradition, barely half a century old.”

The presidential candidate “moves” well. He has “the subtle body language that conveys warmth, strength, energy, whatever it is that makes people think they like and trust you.” Or so two university professors who study movement believe.

“It’s been an unimaginable year for SDC: dire financial troubles, plummeting morale, changes at the top, then the shocking death in August of its young artistic director-designate, Tanja Liedtke.” But a new season promises to erase the memories of all that…

Elaborate costumes are always a risky proposition for dancers, and the horrible accident in Atlanta last weekend has thrown the spotlight on those who design such things. Balancing safety with the desire to impress audiences is tricky, and the dangers are lurking in every seam.