Category: dance

“For 28 years Val Bourne, indefatigable and indomitable, has been the most constant figure in British dance. She has widened our horizons and shaped our taste in ways we didn’t even know we wanted. Like a terrier she has fought for contemporary dance, and like a mother hen she has nurtured some of its most important creators.” As Bourne prepares to retire this weekend, she says that she fears for the future of dance in the UK, despite impressive gains in recent years.

Thirty-five years ago Pilobolus was a fresh idea. But the group’s work has become formulaic. “What’s missing from the Pilobolus equation are the smarts that fueled the initial experiment. The works were never terribly complex, but they used to offer more to chew on.”

“It does seem a little ironic that while the Atlanta Symphony is more than a third of the way toward raising $300 million to build a new facility, the Atlanta Ballet can barely afford to keep its doors open.” Now the company has let go of its orchestra, dooming it to the minor leagues.

“People tend to think of Butoh in terms of aesthetic markers: white body paint, shaved heads, slow movement gained through intense muscular control, and a way of manipulating the body that is at once beautiful and grotesque, tragic and absurd. Influenced by German Expressionism, it tends to be imagistic rather than narrative. But while these elements often appear, defining Butoh in stylistic terms is dangerous.”

Contemporary dance has a rep in some circles for being hard to understand. What? “It never occurred to me that, for more than three decades now, I’ve been sitting among extremely nervous people, audiences so fearful of what they were about to see that they’d need to soothe their nerves with booze, Valium, or maybe just a really juicy Big Mac. Dance dangerous? Oh, my god! Should I have buckled my seat belt? Donned my helmet? Slipped on elbow pads? Will my local precinct sell me a bullet-proof vest?”

The festival lost money. “This year’s festival was the first time the event, formerly known as the fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, featured mainstage shows with invited artists. Many of the performances were poorly attended.”

“So what is American Ballet Theater? Is it a dazzling assemblage of some of the best, most glamorous dancers in the world? Or is it two companies: one abundantly full of talent but lacking some of its big names; the other the star-studded roster that appears at the Met? The image is the stars, the reality the double-tiered division.”

“Freaking has gained widespread acceptance in recent years, propelled by the mainstreaming of rap music and the sultry images in hip-hop videos. Critics say its unquestionably carnal positions — girl bent at the waist, boy thrusting behind her — go far beyond previous generations’ bumping and grinding. ‘Every generation finds its successors’ dances to be improprieties,’ said Judith Lynne Hanna, a University of Maryland senior scholar and author of a book on dance and sexuality.” Even so, “educators from New Hampshire to Washington state are growing increasingly agitated.”

Michael Clark is “the most extraordinary and extraordinarily well-connected dancer in modern Britain. Draw a circle between the Young British Artists, the more frayed edges of rock music, high fashion (Kate Moss is a patron) and serious classical dance (his other patron is Mikhail Baryshnikov), and you can find Michael Clark open-mindedly ensconced at any point.”

It’s been 26 years since New York City Ballet has been to Chicago. The company has changed, and along with it the Balanchine repertoire at its core. “He [Balanchine] would find it anathema if this company became a museum of his works. He expected they would evolve and change. `In 50 years, my ballets will be completely different,’ he said. He didn’t see that as wrong.”