Category: dance

Work presented in the Alvin Ailey company’s early years championed a few themes: “the fight of a stalwart, resilient people, fueled by hope—a near-miraculous optimism, given their circumstances—to overcome injustice, oppression, and their corroding, often lethal, results.” And, it promoted the work of black dancers and choreographers, writes Tobi Tobias. If that work, with all its ecstatic exuberance can be called “classic” Ailey, it is remarkable how much the company’s new work echoes those early themes.

A former Rockette dishes up the backstage dirt about the Christmas show. Stories about “the vodka-soaked pineapple chunks the dancers pop as they come onstage, the stagehands with fake salamis down their pants, and the endless chattering on stage, about sales at Macy’s, during the Toy Soldiers number. ‘You’re 30 yards away from the audience. There’s a lot going on that nobody hears or sees.’ That would include the camel dung, regularly deposited by the animal talent during the manger scene. (What are you gonna do, fire the camel?)”

“Questions about the Kirov Ballet’s direction and management — and their effect on the company’s good name — have dogged the troupe for months.” One of the company’s star ballerina’s defected to the Bolshoi in August, and Artistic and General Director Valery Gergiev says that he is planning a major “restructuring” of the Kirov’s leadership team. All the uncertainty is adding to a growing sense of fear and unrest inside the Kirov, which has struggled for years to make the transition from a state-sponsored troupe to a privately funded ballet company competing on the international stage.

Dancers are more or less expected to exhibit a flawless body type at all times, and dancers who do not conform to the classic “look” are frequently nudged out of the spotlight, or out of the profession entirely. So when a star dancer at a major American ballet company chooses to continue performing while pregnant, as Julie Kent of the American Ballet Theater did this fall, it is a big story. Kent says it was an easy decision: “If I had chosen not to dance, I think I would have been wondering why — you’re not injured, you’re not sick, and there’s nothing that different about you except your waistline’s growing.”

George Balanchine would have been 100 next month, and naturally, dance companies worldwide are planning to mark the occasion. New York City Ballet will be producing more than 50 of Balanchine’s ballets, and the NYCB dancers who knew the choreographer say that while his shadow still looms large over the world of classical dance, it was the little things that made him a true legend. “He put everything back to its real value, the right size, the right time, the music in time and space. He simplified, explaining and showing the logic…. He was frankly an educator, for all of us, for the public, for the critics.”

Sydney Dance Company star Simone Goldsmith, 29, retires from the company after a “glittering 10-year career. As always, the shy star, one of the country’s most critically acclaimed dancers, was keen to dodge the spotlight, but with tickets sold out last week in a rush from the public to witness her final performance, this was never on.”

The Australian Ballet welcomes news that the Sydney Opera House renovation has been postponed. Why? The company feels the stage must be expanded. Indeed, “expanding the stage is crucial, as it posed an occupational health and safety risk to dancers, who ‘were dancing into the walls, dancing into the wings’ every time they performed.”

Scottish Ballet thought it ha found a perfect new home at Glasgow’s struggling Tramway. “It seems like a good idea. Scottish Ballet could fill empty spaces, it could open up possibilities of engagement with local communities and give Tramway a firmer purpose in Glasgow’s cultural landscape. But it has caused a furore. Part of the scheme would be to turn Tramway’s largest hall, currently an exhibition space, into a scenery store. This has enraged Glasgow’s visual artists. It’s a shoo-in, they say, rigged without proper consultation or process, and the accusations of conspiracy are flying.”

There are lots of reasons American dance companies mount Nutcracker year after year. But “no ballet company mounts a “Nutcracker” primarily to strengthen ties among its volunteers, to bring families together at Christmas, to provide a growth chart of a dancer’s progress. Laudable as these aspects of the work are, they are byproducts of a financial imperative. Lacking any better way to fund our ballet companies – faced with scarce government support, declining corporate backing and unreliable ticket sales for more adventurous dancing – we have become a “Nutcracker” nation indeed.”

With the famous Rockettes now touring the country as part of the traveling version of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, local dance companies used to cleaning up at the box office with their annual Nutcracker presentations are feeling a bit besieged. Across the country, companies are jazzing up their traditional Nutcrackers, and adding flashy new sets, costumes, and dramatic elements in an effort to compete with the glitzy Radio City crowd. One Denver company even has its toy soldiers lining up to kick their legs over their heads for a while, just like you know who.