Category: dance

“She is, indisputably, one of the key choreographers in the history of Western dance. However, more often than not, the work of the last third of Graham’s long career was inflated and vague, almost to the point of self-parody, and thus hardly worth conserving in the active repertory. So the viable Graham canon is limited and, though the power of the company rests with the great old works, neither the troupe’s audiences nor its dancers will accept having their experience confined solely to these pieces.”

Ballet is notorious for its devotion to (some would say obsession with) the “perfect” female form. So pregnancy must mean the end of the line, at least temporarily for a ballerina, right? Wrong. “Today dancing during pregnancy and after childbirth, once a privilege of only the grandest stars, is unexceptional. But the fact remains that for dancers who become pregnant, the body is an instrument of art as well as of motherhood, and those roles can sometimes clash.”

When Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre headed to New York for a run of shows at the Joyce Theater two weeks ago, the company was hoping to please both press and public with a pop-influenced program featuring music of Bruce Springsteen and Sting. Instead, PBT garnered a mixed bag of reviews, and while ticket sales were brisk, phrases like “lightweight” and “blatantly driven by marketing” didn’t do much for the company’s national image.

They’re trying to make a biopic of Margot Fonteyn. But it doesn’t seem doable, writes Norman Lebrecht. “What Fonteyn possessed, more than the gift for dance, was a presence that transcends charisma or any of the usual qualities of attraction. She was not a woman of great intelligence. Her conversation was mundane and her interests narrow. Unlike world leaders she was not driven by raging ambition or a desire to improve society. She was Peggy Hookham by birth, and Peggy Hookham by nature, pleasingly down to earth. Yet she could enter a crowded room and everyone present knew she was there. Those who worked with her speak of an aura, an impermeable state of being.”

The National Ballet of Canada is quietly shaking up its repertoire and reassessing its focus during a trip to New York. Artistic director James Kudelka wants the company to focus on new works that can bring an audience to a deeper understanding of contemporary dance and solidify the company for the future, despite the mostly conservative bent of its home audiences. But the initial steps don’t seem to be going so well – today’s New York Times includes a scathing review of the National’s appearance at the cutting-edge Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The troubled Dance Theatre of Harlem has named Catherine B. Reynolds as its new chairwoman. “Mrs. Reynolds is chairwoman of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, a nonprofit group based in McLean, Va., that supports education and the arts. She is also the chairwoman and president of EduCap Inc., which administers privately financed student-loan programs. She founded Servus Financial Corporation, which creates and markets consumer loan programs. She has been a major benefactor of a number of organizations, including the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery of Art, Ford’s Theater, the National Symphony and the Black Student Fund.”

Matthew Bourne is reinventing storytelling through dance. Bourne says it is “modern” but that the storytelling aspects make it “dance theatre,” or “narrative dance,” or “theatrical dance.” That should make it apparent that one had better be able to tell a story to be onstage in his works.

Jérôme Bel’s new show is a hot ticket. But while Tobi Tobias is “intermittently” charmed, she wonders what all the fuss is about. “The stage is quite bright now. Still no one there. A third song starts. I guess the idea is that if you look at nothing for a very long time, you’ll be fascinated by anything that finally shows up. There’s some truth in this, but you’re less likely to perceive wonders in vacancy when you know some director type is using the sensory-deprivation strategy as a gimmick.”

“Look at the rosters of important American ballet companies, many once directed by former Balanchine dancers. At the Boston Ballet, 17 of 20 of the top dancers are foreign born and at least initially foreign trained. In San Francisco, only 4 of the 17 principals were born in this country. American Ballet Theater has long welcomed foreign-trained stars. The same pattern prevails in many other big companies. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago still seems to be predominantly American, as does City Ballet, though it has always had foreign stars, too, like the Danish Peter Martins, its current director, or the French Sofiane Sylve. In our era of globalization, is this a problem, or merely a swing of the pendulum from internationalism to nativism and back again?”

The financial crisis currently enveloping Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre eerily mirrors the situation at the Cleveland San Jose Ballet several years ago. Cleveland-San Jose folded in 2000, but PBT officials insist that the same fate won’t befall their company, and further stress that the rumors of an impending merger with some other Pittsburgh-area arts group are extremely premature.