Category: dance

“Anyway, barring this little piece, there will be no new ballets this season. Given the quality of six of the seven new ballets in last season’s Diamond Project (only Ratmansky’s contribution, Russian Seasons, was a hit) detractors will point out that this may be just as well. But isn’t it a truth universally acknowledged that new choreography is essential to the stimulation of both audience and dancers? What’s up?”

Dance is so all over the map, how do you pick your points of reference? “Critics don’t have to agree that every goal is fine – that’s usually what we’re wondering when we’re irked: ‘Is it or isn’t it?’ – but we do need to understand the difference between the artist’s project and how she’s executing it. We need to know what we’re criticizing.”

“Spain is to try imitating the success of Britain’s Royal Ballet by establishing a national classical ballet company to tap a well of talented dancers who have been forced abroad.”

“His work, increasingly, is on display not only on stages but in art galleries as well. He is a choreographer, trained in the classical mould, whose vocabulary grew from dancing with the Joffrey and Stuttgart Ballets. Yet one of his current plans is to make, in an art gallery in Munich, a memorial to the civilians who have died in Iraq in the form of a snowstorm of paper pieces, each printed with a name in Arabic.”

“An Indian classical dancer has won Europe’s most prestigious award for choreography. London-based Nina Rajarani was last night awarded the £25,000 biennial Place prize, the dance world’s equivalent to the Turner prize.”

There are at least 75 Balanchine ballets that remain in the standard repertory today, 23 years after the legendary choreographer’s death. But Balanchine created more than 400 ballets in his lifetime, many of which have not been preserved. Now, an ambitious effort is underway to rediscover some of what has been lost of Balanchine’s legacy.

A Gothenburg Ballet performance for a roomful of Swedish high school students had to be called off mid-dance this week, when one of the kids threw stink bombs into the orchestra pit. No word on whether the disruption was intended as a commentary on the quality of the performance…

There’s no question art can convey powerful messages. But can dance really carry water for a political idea?

“Just hours after a welcome-to-school dance at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, Principal Charles Salter banned all future dances for this academic year. The frustrated Salter had been sending out warnings for several years. In a recent phone call, he boiled down his complaints to three factors: inappropriate clothing (or too little clothing), especially among the girls; students who had been drinking alcohol; and ‘freaking’ – dancing that was way too raunchy and sexually suggestive.” Laura Bleiberg has a suggestion for rescinding the ban – and it involves (gulp) learning.

In August Atlanta Ballet decided to do away with its orchestra and live music. “The musicians have filed a charge of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, saying the ballet proposed an 85 percent pay cut after announcing it wouldn’t renew their contract. The NLRB is investigating the complaint. The ballet has offered a severance package of $228 per musician, or the equivalent of two performances or rehearsals.”