Category: dance

Rolando Sarabia, 23, one of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s leading dancers, has defected to the US. “His departure, which was first reported by the Spanish newspaper El País, will be keenly felt in Cuba. Critics have called him the “Cuban Nijinsky” and compared him to the young Mikhail Baryshnikov. A company dancer since 1999, he has won ballet competitions in Paris; Varna, Bulgaria; and Jackson, Miss. Christened Sarabita by his many fans, Mr. Sarabia is the love object of at least half the adolescent balletomanes in Cuba, of which there are many.

Two Chinese dancers who studied together as children in China, then parted on their seperate careers, reunite in Pittsburgh, of all places…

“Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre isn’t just another arts organisation, it’s a phenomenon. Modern dance com- panies don’t come any more popular — or populist — than this indefatigable African-American troupe.”

“If “L’Allegro,” which was created in Brussels in 1988 and concluded its fifth New York run since 1990 at the New York State Theater on Saturday, is Mr. Morris’s masterpiece, what’s he done since? Should we, as dance lovers and Morris admirers, be concerned that a choreographer still in his prime – he’s just shy of 49 – and celebrating the 25th anniversary of his company has not produced a comparable triumph in the last 18 years? And if not, why not? Here is a list of possible reasons…”

Wayne Eagling, a former star of the Royal Ballet, has been named artistic director of the English National Ballet. “His appointment follows the sudden resignation four months ago of Matz Skoog, who had been the ENB’s artistic director since 2001. Eagling, 54, will be the fifth person to occupy the post in 15 years.”

Toronto’s fFIDA is the largest dance festival in Canada, and this year’s edition provided a good overview of the dance scene. “The festival had some outstanding choreographies and dancers, but there was also a lot of blancmange. There seems to be quite of few groups of attractive dancers (mostly from Toronto, alas) who can’t choreograph very well. Dance is always a sign of the times and there were very few funny works, and pitifully few political ones. The themes were mostly abstract, or navel-gazing, or angst-filled relationships, and a sharp edge was missing overall. Electronic music-cum-soundscape remains the score of choice, so any dance that actually used something melodic was a relief indeed.”

Robert Gottlieb attends a Michael Smuin Dance performance and feels his evening has been stolen from him. “Just as depressing as these two works is the company itself—joylessness incarnate. The boys are stiff. The girls are dull. No one can really tap. The dancers’ energy doesn’t spring from the music; it’s tacked on, to make its showbizzy points. Everything is indicated, sold—it’s not just the music that’s canned, it’s the dancing, too. Why do audiences eat it up? Pure nostalgia? Some questions are better left unanswered.”

Think you know all about hip-hop? Think again. Different styles have evolved since hip-hop’s ’70s origins in the African American neighborhoods of the Bronx and later the Latino enclaves of Queens, and they get lumped together, says Rennie Harris. What makes the Illadelph festival unique is that many of his 15 teaching colleagues are originators of the form; these “Legends” provide the specifics of hip-hop history, theory and technique. “That’s why we stay on the foundation,” Harris says, so students can “take it, build on that, and do their thing.”

“When the Soviet Union fell, much of what the Bolshoi had in the way of evening-length ballets was pre-revolutionary classics revised according to Soviet dictates and post-revolutionary ballets created according to those dictates, tales of brave underdogs besting—or piteously defeated by—corrupt, powerful folk. How was the company to replace, or even augment, this material? How, after seventy-five years, do you unlearn the artistic lessons of Communism: the bombast, the corniness, the texturelessness? Not easily…”

“Not only is dance big in TV and film, but membership in the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association has doubled in the last decade, to 22,000, and dance studios are thriving across the country. Inquiries are up 35 percent since the start of the year, and attendance at group classes is up 10 percent.”