Category: dance

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that dancers of the Washington Ballet should be allowed to vote on whether to unionize. “In its decision, the NLRB rejected the company’s argument that the dancers were seasonal workers who could not unionize, noting that “the bulk of the dancers stay with the company multiple years.” The agency also found that two dancers/rehearsal assistants and two apprentices had the right to vote in the election. The company had argued that the rehearsal assistants were supervisors, and that the apprentices did not have a “community of interest” with other dancers.”

“When it comes to God-given talent that can mesmerize an audience today, Savion Glover is some kind of miracle. He tells us, among much, about sheer aliveness onstage, the joy of performing, the gift of speed and dazzling improvisation, the exactness of rhythm, the ability to listen, the emotion of sound and music beyond all words. There are times when performers are so scintillating at what they do, all you can do is shake your head in disbelief. They’re too good; they’re so good, it’s laughable. “Astonish me!” was Diaghilev’s mantra and artistic prayer. Mr. Glover astonishes us every time.”

Britain’s Rambert Dance Company takes to the London Underground to perform and stimulate interest in dance. “The response of tube passengers to yesterday’s performance was diverse. Some, clearly uncomfortable with their close encounter with cutting-edge choreography, stared intently at their knees. But most seemed delighted by what appeared, at first glance, to be a team of unusually graceful plumbers.”

“With resources diminishing and costs rising, even established troupes are in a fierce struggle for survival, and only the most popular choreographers… are financially secure.” So when a once-celebrated choreographer finds himself at the wrong end of the fiscal stick, what options are left to him? For David Dorfman, the answer was to go back to where it all began – his alma mater, Connecticut College – and rediscover the simple magic of the form.

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is in financial trouble again. One possible solution? The company is considering merging with another area arts group. Disappointing holiday sales and slumping subscriber renewals have exacerbated PBT’s situation, and the company has been without a managing director since last May.

The Northern Ballet Theatre is one of only two professional arts groups still operating in Nashua, New Hampshire, and this weekend, two will become one, as the ballet announces the cancellation of the remainder of its 2004-05 season. The company will use the next several months to retool and raise money, with the aim of mounting a 2005-06 season.

The American dance scene will become ever more eclectic in 2005, with plenty of crossover (Savion Glover tapping his way across scores by Bach and Beethoven), a healthy dose of classic ballet (Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring will be revived in Washington), and “a veritable atlas of international dance troupes [visiting] US shores, in case Americans needed further reminder of how small the world has become.”

“Though houses at the Academy of Music ran at 70 percent sold, the same as last year, the number of performances was down by three, and Nutcracker income crucial to the company fell by about 4 percent. Last month, the ballet performed its Tchaikovsky-Balanchine classic 25 times, generating revenue of $1,940,000, down from last year’s $2,015,070. About 38,000 paying listener-viewers experienced The Nutcracker this season, down from 40,500 last season.”

Leaders of some of the world’s leading ballet companies have issued a statement calling for reforms – new emphasis on “solid training in basic ballet skills, renewed focus on nurturing choreographers and a coaxing of audiences into accepting contemporary work are vital to the future of ballet. ‘There is a crisis about training young dancers. We are all worried about the ballet schools, how to have more of a dialogue. Schools have become like companies – which provides good experience for students, but at the expense of properly completing their training. There are some people who cannot do the mazurka, the czardas, the polonaise’.”

Savion Glover is a genius, a phenomenon. “Sometimes he rides the music; sometimes he becomes one of the instruments in the ensemble; sometimes he converts the score into a concerto in which he alternately plays solo and blends back seamlessly into the group. He’s his own choreographer, of course, and his invention is wide-ranging and seemingly inexhaustible.”