Category: dance

Merce Cunningham has collaborated with some of the biggest artists of the past 50 years. “Given the celebrity of Cunningham’s list of collaborators the cost of insuring most of these sets would now be astronomical, aside from the expense of transporting them. And this is one reason why his recent work tends to take place on barer stages, and his preferred designers work with lights and projection.”

“The world’s first ballroom-dancing robot is set to take to the floor for its first public performance this week at the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Developed by scientists at Tokhuro University, the Partner Ballroom Dance Robot (PBDR) is able to predict the steps of a human partner based on body movement and react accordingly on its three wheels.”

In 1977, Boris Eifman organized the Leningrad New Ballet company, later called the St. Petersburg State Academic Theatre of Ballet. In the midst of state-run theaters, this was something to behold. The troupe was the only one in Russia that nurtured modern choreography — something beyond tutus and pointe shoes. It has evolved into Eifman Ballet, still state funded, but with plenty of outside investors as well. Eifman, a creator of more than 40 ballets is the only living Russian choreographer with a creative resume on a par with the most up-and-coming Western choreographers.”

The Danish Ballet mounts a Bournonville Festival. “As dead geniuses go—especially those whose work, being in dance, is essentially ephemeral—August Bournonville (1805-1879) has done pretty well. The legacies of George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Martha Graham—all a century younger than the Danish choreographer—are eroding at an alarmingly faster rate than his, despite the fact that modern times have delivered the preservation tools of sophisticated dance notation (Bournonville used a crude—if singularly effective—personal one), film, and videotape.”

“Tomorrow afternoon, [Peter Boal] will dance his last performance with the company before moving with his family to Seattle to become artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet… Even today, as he moves into his 40’s, Mr. Boal looks ready to soar at any moment. His dancing is purely, effortlessly classical, the line of his well-proportioned body seeming to fall easily into place. He made up for a body that was relatively short and slight for hefting ballerinas into midair with calm elegance and courtesy as a partner… Some of the best and certainly the most interesting dancers have been men and women who had to overcome shortcomings, often of ‘imperfect’ ballet bodies or of training that started later than the ideal. To work harder to reach perfection is to understand the art more thoroughly and to hunger for it in a way unknown to those for whom dancing comes easily.”

Ballet star Sylvie Guillem finds her career changing as she rounds the corner of 40. “The “Mademoiselle Non” of the 1990s (the nickname ruefully given to her by Sir Anthony Dowell) is still turning down roles, but now it’s because she has a whole new game plan in view – a new language of movement, a new challenge, a new direction. And later, perhaps, a film, or directing a company, or founding a school. This is no longer a woman willing to be hired to display her accomplishments. She is making the world dance to her tune.”

“No major company has had a more confusing time than London’s Royal Ballet, which has not only suffered from the usual crisis of uncertain repertory and underpowered stars but floundered badly during the disastrous, short-lived reign of Ross Stretton. Today, under the leadership of Monica Mason, one of the strongest and most intelligent of its dancers from the 60’s into the 80’s, it seems to be making a comeback—not through flashy innovations, spurious novelties and concocted celebrations but through careful husbanding of the company’s resources; through nurturing and developing dancers and respecting the past while trying to find a sensible road to the future.

“The National Labor Relations Board has called for a Sept. 7 hearing to determine whether the Washington Ballet, in Washington, D.C., discriminated against two dancers who helped form a union there.”

Tap is big again, but it’s not the tap we remember from Fred Astaire movies. It’s rougher street dance. “In its early years, tap boasted the same macho profile as early hip-hop, with dancers holding regular “battles” on street corners. Dancing on makeshift wooden platforms to amplify the sound of their feet, they competed to produce the sharpest, most original rhythms, with the judges sitting under the platform so they could listen without being distracted (or threatened).”

The Colorado Ballet has given up plans to buy a new home. “The decision comes a little less than two months after the ballet disclosed that it would not present the $800,000 to $1 million premiere of a ballet version of “Alice in Wonderland.” The work was to be part of the opening of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the fall.”