Category: dance

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is reducing its operations a bit next season in an attempt to stay alive. Having looked at PBT’s financial records, George Clewer, president of the musicians’ union, said, “They’re not handing us a line. They’re fighting for survival and we’re here to support them. We want to get the orchestra in front of the public.”

Flamenco is expanding beyond its traditional moves. But “to those who don’t get flamenco, no amount of funky music, smart costumes and crossover choreography will overcome their suspicion that, as a form, flamenco is limited. Compared with classical ballet or South Asian dance, it doesn’t adapt well to the telling of stories or the invention of character; compared with the variety that has evolved within modern dance, it has a very restricted range. Between the stamping, the castanets, and the coiling, undulating arms, non-believers don’t accept there is much to see.”

The most painful part of the demise of Oakland Ballet may have been how predictable it was, says Allan Ulrich. “For those of us who experienced the Oakland Ballet in action during its heyday… the mourning is mixed with rage. This didn’t have to happen… The saddest — and truest — observation you can make about the Oakland Ballet is that it expired because, in its 40th year, it had so little reason to live.”

The cash-strapped and beleagured Colorado Ballet has named former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Gil Boggs as its new artistic director, replacing the fired Martin Fredmann. Boggs, who hasn’t worked in the dance world since retiring from ABT in 1999, inherits a troubled company with an accumulated debt of $700,000.

Scotland is planning to spend £1.2 million over three years to encourage 144,000 children in 800 schools to take up dancing as a way of exercising.

Hip-hop is mainstream, so why shouldn’t it be in theatres? “Hip-hop culture and hip-hop forms are massive now, all around the world. So it should be in the theatre, just like any culture can exist in the theatre. It’s just movement in a black box. It’s lighting in a black box. It’s sound in a black box. And once we have those components, then you do what you do.”

Sport yes, but once there was also artistry. “The word “sport” is the giveaway. With its pancaked athletes in garish clothes grinding out desperate spins and neck-breaking jumps in neon-lit arenas, in front of politically-motivated judges with protégés of their own among the competitors, ice-skating can be as offputting to watch as it seems dubious. Even the ice-dancing can be underwhelming, straining to mimic ballet or musical theatre.”

Dancers of the Australian Dance Theatre have teamed up with robots, “towering, ambulatory, geometric structures that cross art deco with Lego, or smaller, silvery creatures that swarm across the stage with bunched spidery legs. They perform as equal partners with the ADT at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in March, separately or strapped to the dancers’ bodies like mutated insect prosthetics.”

“Increasingly, questions are being asked about how to prepare young people for an art form whose core values are so antithetical to today’s me-centred consumer culture. Have they got the necessary self-discipline? Are they tough enough? Some of those who run ballet companies doubt it, and point the finger at teachers who, they claim, are too soft on their students.”

“An international conference in Switzerland of 32 ballet leaders from 12 countries was convened this week by British dance administrators because of concerns about training and inadequate collaboration between dance schools and the ballet companies.”A psychologist suggested that “to develop and shine, ballet dancers needed the individual training programmes already common in sport. Some countries, including Australia, have already incorporated performance psychology into their training curriculum for young ballerinas.”