Category: dance

Eva Evdokimova, brought to Boston Ballet last year by new Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen as ballet mistress, has been fired for “economic reasons.” “Undisputedly one of the world’s finest ballet teachers, Evdokimova is also one of the most acclaimed performers in recent history. Born in 1948, she was the first American to win a gold medal at the 1970 International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. She went on to dance with such prominent companies as the Royal Danish Ballet, The Kirov, Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater and National Ballet of Canada, to mention only a few.”

Septime Webre has been running Washington Ballet for four years. “Sales of yearly subscriptions have tripled. The budget is up more than 50 percent. Last year the pool of individual donations hit the $2 million mark, a first for the institution. The annual number of performances has increased, and the company has moved from the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater to the larger Eisenhower for many engagements.” But “the populist drive that marks his programming and helps account for the increased ticket sales has at least one closely connected observer worried about its effects on the sterling tradition of the company’s training arm, the Washington School of Ballet.”

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is the 30-year-old “golden boy of international ballet”. “I’m trying now to find ways to distill narrative so that it borders on the abstract. I want to create a world that is not specific to either the narrative or the abstract.”

“Scan back through his career and you’ll find that Paul Taylor has, across half a century of prolific choreography, managed to delight and infuriate almost every faction in the modern dance world. The 1950s found him hailed in avant-garde circles as a champion of radical ideas and unconventional work. A decade later and the establishment was triumphantly claiming him as a brave new standard bearer for traditional forms. In fact then, as now, Taylor was simply following his own inclinations; playing around with concepts as he pleased, ignoring trends, and thereby becoming one of America’s most distinctive and distinguished dance-makers.”

Scottish Ballet has a new director, new dancers and new choreography. “The dance world has moved on a lot in recent years, almost without Scotland, it seems, and we are now trying to close that gap. Not just catch up with the rest of the world but, I hope, be at the forefront of making interesting things happen.”

Eliot Feld has folded his company for a year after taking 30 years to build it. “People feel bad, people feel sorry, and some people feel it’s a real loss. One sustains a dance company out of internal will, by insisting on its being. They’re very expensive to run and the competition is extraordinary. You build a castle out of sand and if you don’t keep protecting it, or can’t any longer, the tide comes in and it disappears.”

The troubled Boston Ballet is finishing up its first season under director Mikko Nissinen. The company has improved considerably during the season, even while it had to cut back because of budget constraints. Nissinen improved the company’s repertoire and its preparation.

There are many reasons to dislike what the French have contributed to dance, writes Robert Gottlieb. There’s Sylvie Guillem, of course, “a dancer with the fatal combination of tremendous ability, a ruthless determination to do it her way and a total lack of sensibility. I hate to think of the number of ballerinas whose classicism has been corrupted by her extravagant ways.” And then there’s Maurice Bejart…

“Dancers with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre handed out leaflets before performances of ‘Cleopatra’ last week because they wanted ballet patrons to know about PBT’s proposals to reduce rehearsal time and increase the number of student performers, a union representative for the dancers said yesterday.” PBT dancers have been at an impasse with management over the details of a new contract. The issue of student performers seems to be the biggest sticking point, with dancers fearing that they could be gradually pushed out of PBT productions in favor of cheaper student performers eager for professional experience.

Fort Worth Dallas Ballet has a new name. Henceforth it shall be called Texas Ballet Theater. “Last month’s merger of the ballet’s two boards – one based in Fort Worth and one in Dallas – prompted the decision. It reflects the new board and the new artistic direction. We did not want to be known as North Texas Ballet, either. It limits yourself. We have grown beyond Fort Worth and Dallas. We are spreading our wings.”