Category: dance

“The ballet world in France – and beyond – is still quivering with indignation about a report leaked last month on the ill-treatment of children at the dance school of the Opéra National de Paris. The report said that the boarding school, one of the oldest classical dance schools in the world, operated a regime of ‘psychological terror’. Injuries were ignored; anorexia was common and even, implicitly, encouraged. The pupils, aged from eight to 18, known affectionately as ‘little rats’, lived under a permanent threat of expulsion to goad them beyond their mental and physical limits. The report has provoked an interesting and passionate debate in France. Is the Paris Opéra school cruel to children? Or is it classical dance itself that is cruel?”

“The Laban Centre for Movement and Dance – is the sort of building that forces a smile. It comes from the wonderful optimism of an organisation that, in the unprepossessing surroundings of New Cross, has grown to become the largest school for contemporary dance in the world, has found £22 million to create a new building, chosen to stay in Lewisham and had the nerve to commission one of the world’s most interesting architectural practices to design something that will be a beacon for south-east London.”

The Martha Graham Company is back performing again, only because of “the highest-profile intellectual-property screw-up in history.” Graham didn’t protect her copyrights properly, and after her heir Ron Protas tried to prevent the company from using Graham’s work, it was discovered that some of the choreographer’s most well-known work was now in the public domain. “Graham’s oversight has ultimately proved to be the saving grace of both her company and her legacy.”

“San Francisco Ballet this year marks its 70th anniversary, which makes it this country’s oldest professional ballet company. The great tradition of American ballet today boasts not only the American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, but also vital and unique major companies from Boston to Miami, from Houston to Seattle. San Francisco Ballet paved the way, and, 70 years on, it is still a major force in American culture.”

San Francisco Ballet gets ready to open its season. “There’s a deceptively languid look to this daily class, a ritual that summons the dancers from bed five or six mornings a week. But in these easy, almost meditative early moves rests the essence of a company. Chaos and order, dissolution and harmony. It will come, this Balanchine marvel, but not without the invigorating grind of more rehearsal.”

“It has been 50 years since Cunningham founded his company, 61 years since he presented that first concert of his own solo dances. ‘I’ve remained just as fascinated with movement as when I began. I see something moving, somebody do something, and I wonder, ‘How could one do that (in a dance)?'”

“When Monica Mason was confirmed as head of the Royal Ballet just before Christmas her room filled so thick with flowers that, weeks later, the fragrance still lingers. Hers was a hugely popular internal appointment, a healing unguent after the rough and ready rule of the Australian Ross Stretton who lasted less than a year, leaving abruptly last September.”

Evelyn Hart has been a star with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for more than a quarter-century, and has been a darling of critics around Canada, and internationally. But now, at the age of 46, Hart is feeling her age, and seems to be on the verge of retirement. The trouble is, no announcement has been made of Hart’s departure, and the ballerina continues to dance with the company when she feels able, which is less and less often. Cancellations by the star are coming fast and furious, infuriating audiences and fellow dancers, and relations between the Royal Winnipeg and its brightest light are said to be extremely strained.

Australia’s National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association – a dance training institute – may close after management irregularities and plummeting enrollment rates were discovered. “An internal review has been established after the – discovered it had just 10 students and 28 staff members last year.” Say a board member: “Nobody had told us we had just 10 students practising on a regular basis The board had believed it had close to 80 students enrolled.”

On the 10th anniversary of Rudolf Nureyev’s death, the Paris Opera Ballet mounts a glittering tribute. “The occasion was above all a homage. Thus, with all the pomp and reverence that the Paris Opera Ballet reserves for such occasions, it opened with a défilé, or parade, in which 250 dancers — the entire troupe as well as children from its ballet school — walked slowly toward the audience to the march from Berlioz’s opera “Les Troyens.” A huge photograph of Nureyev then appeared on a screen, followed by a film depicting his life.”