Category: dance

The Australian Ballet simulcast a performance to movie theatres all over Australia. “Tickets to the screenings in cinemas and on the Opera House forecourt were free and were snapped up within hours of being released.”

“Reading dance criticism today one sees that editors know little about the arts, and seem to care less. Many reviews are of the level one could read in smaller American newspapers in the 1940s and 1950s, when there really wasn’t much ballet in America and one could forgive a critic for not having seen much.”

“Although today the work of Cunningham and Cage is revered, for the most part their native country was the last to acknowledge their value as artists. For nearly three decades of Cunningham’s career, professional presenters for his work in America were rare indeed.”

Alabama Ballet may be the state’s most prestigious performing arts group, but it is going through a tough time after $134,000 of government support was pulled. As a result, this year’s Nutcracker production will be danced to recorded music, and belt-tightening is going on all over the organization.

Canadian ballet companies are protesting the National Ballet of Canada’s plans to broadcast its Nutcracker to movie theatres across the country. Their concern: The simulcast will hurt sales of live productions around the country.

“All over the United States, where there are Eastern Europeans, there is polka. In the isolated farmland counties of eastern Nebraska, where it is not uncommon to drive 30 miles for groceries, polka helps tie people together. The dances and the radio shows devoted to the music keep old friends in touch and circulate local news.”

“Since founding the American Academy of Dance in Paris in 1997, Brooke Desnoës has emerged as a proponent of a fresh approach in France that seeks to include not only students with perfect bodies but also anyone who takes pleasure in dance. Her school, where students range in age from 3 to 19 and are admitted without auditions, represents the latest step in bringing to France an American approach to classical training.”

“Here the TV industry has spent millions, maybe billions, to stay in the prime-time pop culture game with zany concepts like “Pushing Daisies” and an ever-increasing incidence of hip, trendy, casual sex. And it turns out that viewers would rather watch ballroom dancing?”

“The month-long programme will showcase all forms of dance including work by the Kirov Ballet and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Akram Khan will also present his new collaboration with National Ballet of China, Bahok.”

If “So You Think You Can Dance,” is becoming part of our default national arts education, frankly, we could do worse. It’s often criticized for cliched, commercial choreography. But a lot of the dance-making here is fantastic by any standard, especially the ballroom and the hip-hop.