Category: dance

American Ballet Theatre had a lot of people taking its temperature when it recently announced the departure of its general manager, and pay cuts and furloughs for 50 employees. But the company says despite the current belt-tightening, it’s actually been expanding – adding “eight more dancers (bringing the total to 90), three weeks of performances at City Center instead of two, more touring, and increased ticket sales.”

Short male dancers don’t have an easy time in ballet. Indeed, they’re generally shut out of leading roles. But Joan Acocella is comfortable declaring that 5’6″ ABT dancer Herman Cornejo is “the most technically accomplished male ballet dancer in the United States.”

The 10-year-old Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is on a roll. “As co-directors of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Jean-Phillipe Malaty and former Joffrey star Tom Mossbrucker have guided the 10-member company into a sound financial situation that permits touring, commissioning new works, affording the royalties of modern-dance classics and supporting a summer dance festival.”

“Dance Chicago began 10 years ago to showcase about 40 local dance companies and foster new audiences for dance. Still based at the Athenaeum but featuring more than 200 Chicago troupes in every imaginable genre, from ballet to hip-hop, the festival could easily be known as Choreography Chicago.”

American Ballet Theatre slashes costs in an attempt to turn the company’s budget upright. “About 50 staff members will take a one-week furlough without pay, and many will not receive raises this year. Thanksgiving-week performances at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in California were canceled because of the high cost of putting on shows during a holiday. And the company’s general manager was dismissed in a move that the troupe said was among cost-saving measures imposed even as the company has grown in dancers, number of performances and time spent touring.”

Why is it that people pay so much attention to the new piece on a program rather than the tried and true classics? And yet, where is the quality?

Great partnerships in ballet are sometimes the product of complementary opposites. “Now the fans are out, arguing again, defending the transcendence of either Alina Cojocaru or Tamara Rojo – pure and sensual, the one who floats when she jumps, the other who strikes sparks when she spins, the dancer’s dancer and the woman who dances.”

The Bolshoi Ballet has had a rough several years. But the company has a young new director, and a corps of new dancers…

Last year Scottish Ballet reinvented itself, cutting half its dancers and becoming a modern company. But the new company has won a prestigious award. “Scottish Ballet claimed the Outstanding Achievement in Dance prize from the Theatrical Management Association (TMA) in recognition of its modernisation programme and dynamic performances.”

“Even if you don’t know the merengue from a lemon meringue pie, be assured: Dancing is big at the University of Chicago. There are nearly a dozen student-driven clubs specializing in ballet, jazz, folk and modern dance, but here we’re talking ballroom and swing.”