Category: dance

“It’s my last stop, hopefully, a huge project and a full-time job,” he answers. And how much longer will he dance? “I might stop tomorrow, depending on my physical state. I don’t have a particular date in mind. I definitely have to stop sooner rather than later.”

The dance festival in Western Massachusetts “will feature more than 300 free and ticketed events, including 20 international companies, five United States company debuts and at least three world premieres. The festival is expected to draw about 80,000 visitors.”

The current New York City Ballet season is the best in years, writes Robert Gottleib. “The crucial thing is that for the first time since Balanchine’s death, in 1983, there’s a sense of things coming together rather than falling apart or holding on for dear life.”

“On the heels of his success with Spamalot, Python’s Eric Idle says he’s currently working on a ballet with longtime co-composer John Du Prez. ‘It’s perfect. John and I are always interested in doing something nobody wants, so that seemed to be the natural thing’.”

The new New York City Ballet season is a rolling feast, writes Alastair Macaulay. “In the 1990s there used to be complaints that Mr. Martins was giving his audience too little Balanchine choreography, and that all-Balanchine programs had become distressingly rare. I hope the complainers remembered to appreciate this spring’s rich fare.”

“After a rocky period in the 1990s when the Pillow was near foreclosure, it has had a resurgence. Under [Ella] Baff in the last 10 years, the institution has experienced a 38 percent increase in ticket sales, with a 77 percent increase in attendance…. Even more indicative of the organization’s financial health is its first endowment campaign. The goal for its first phase, which ended in June, was $6 million; $6.1 million was raised.”

“Recently appointed director Alexei Ratmansky, who was ironically brought into the Bolshoi as a modernising force, has also been on a mission to regain the past. Working with meticulous ballet master Yuri Burlaka, Ratmansky has gone back to the early notation and production notes of Corsaire to try and figure out what the ballet looked like in the 1899 production of Marius Petipa.”

“Even though you may imagine that ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ is just a dippy ‘American Idol’ also-ran, even though you’d rather iron your soft pants and regrout your tub than watch dorky teenagers waltzing or, worse yet, putting on ‘funky hats’ and ‘hip-hopping’ or whatever they call it, this show really is worth watching. … Each performance, whether it’s a contemporary extravaganza of tangled limbs and faux-passionate emoting or a faux-passionate Argentine tango or a romantic, graceful faux-passionate waltz, depends on the real passion of the dancers involved.”

“South Korean dancers dominated the field at the New York International Ballet Competition’s closing gala, winning or sharing a majority of the medals and other honors awarded on Sunday night at the Rose Theater. But the programming made it hard to get a clear picture of the skills of any of the contestants in the biennial competition, which this year drew dancers from 19 nations.”

“Dance Theater has whittled down its deficit by about two-thirds, to $800,000, and… its budget next year will be $4.3 million. Following the precepts of Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, who, like practical French cooks, used all the ingredients at hand, the company is working with Mustang Marketing, a feisty young consulting group based at Southern Methodist University, to help chart the way ahead.”