Category: dance

Monday April 29

THE ROYAL’S NEW YOUNG STARS: London’s Royal Ballet has two young stars. “Both are new to the Royal Ballet, with Alina Cojocaru joining in 1999 and Tamara Rojo a year later. Neither is English, but that’s not unusual for the Royal Ballet, a troupe once dominated by dancers from Britain and the Commonwealth. Only two of its 10 principals were born in England. Cojocaru is from Romania, and Rojo, born in Montreal, was raised in Spain. They are coy about their personal life. Both live alone, in rented apartments and if there are boyfriends, they are well hidden.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/29/02

Sunday April 28

STAR CRITICIZES HER COMPANY: Evelyn Hart has been one of Canada’s top dancers since she broke into the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1975. But she’s hinting she might retire, citing not age, but what she considers the deterioration of the RWB. “When you’re young, you can still progress just by doing the role. When you are older, you really need people with a lot of experience to help take you forward, people who understand what it’s like to be in that position. And we don’t have that at the Winnipeg Ballet at the moment.” CBC 04/26/02

BELIEF IN STUDENTS: What makes a good dance teacher? Four of New York’s best, “all long-time producers of gifted and interesting performers, suggested that toughness and a belief in students’ individuality and potential may be among the most important qualities, along with a solid sense of craft and artistry and how to communicate that.” The New York Times 04/28/02

Wednesday April 24

SEEKING A BALLET IN MINNESOTA: “Why have the Twin Cities never added a ballet company to their roster of major arts institutions? Minnesotans are known to go weak in the knees at the very mention of phrases like ‘flagship institution’ (the Guthrie Theater) and ‘internationally renowned’ (the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra). Yet civic pride has never produced a major ballet troupe. Is dance just the poor relation of theater, music, and the visual arts–shortchanged by the Cities’ male boosters? Or have the Twin Cities, with their reputation for creativity and innovation in dance, bypassed a monolithic ballet company in favor of smaller, more experimental troupes?” City Pages (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) 04/24/02

Tuesday April 23

DANCE – OR IDENTITY POLITICS? “Today the Alvin Ailey company is usually thought of as ‘black.’ Yet this was not Ailey’s intention. When Ailey started his own company in New York in 1958, he did so with a particular mission, which is often overlooked today. His idea was to create an American repertory company that would showcase the work of twentieth-century American modern dance choreographers.Ailey seems to have been keenly aware that he was living at an important juncture in the history of dance, and he wanted to bring these works and styles to ‘the people.’ But which people?” The New Republic 04/22/02

Sunday April 21

STEALING THE ASSETS: “To many, Ron Protas is the most hated man in dance: a controlling and abusive manipulator intent on destroying the legendary Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance… Protas was dumped as the center’s artistic director in May 2000 after years of losing money and butting heads with its members, including one incident in which he allegedly tied up a dancer ‘to teach her fear.’ But he’s now attempting to wrestle away the one Graham asset he doesn’t have in his possession: the dances themselves.” New York Post 04/21/02

Wednesday April 17

LIFE OUTSIDE BIG DANCE: Why would established male dancers leave London’s Royal Ballet for a small uncertain company? In their early 30s, each could see their careers playing out. “It would have been so easy ‘to play the game and stay in the company for a long time, winding down from Princes into character roles… and collecting your pension’. But none of them was prepared to sit out that kind of life. Like most dancers in big companies they often had to wait long periods between good roles and had to dance some choreography that bored or offended them in between. ‘The more successful I was, the more bored I became. I was just repeating myself’.” The Guardian (UK) 04/17/02

Monday April 15

THE BILLY ELLIOT EFFECT: For the first time in its 76 year history, the Royal Ballet has admitted more boys as students than girls. The company attributes it to the movie Billy Elliot, which was released two years ago. The Telegraph (UK) 04/14/02

Sunday April 14

TAKING CENTER STAGE: The rules of how dance and music interact may be changing. “Up through the 19th century, classical music composed for the concert hall remained off limits to ballet; instead, house composers supplied accompaniments to order.” For much of the last century, the dancers were the sole focus, with the music predictably supplied from the pit, or even from a recording. Now, a new generation of choreographers are integrating sound and movement in a variety of ways that bring the music (and the musicians) to the fore. Los Angeles Times 04/14/02

Friday April 12

FROM BALLET TO BROADWAY: Christopher Wheeldon is one of the hottest ballet choreographers in the world right now. But can he transfer his work to a Broadway stage? “I felt that some people were trying to frighten me, because they were saying how tough a Broadway show could be. I was told that when things got rough, it can be unpleasant; that it’s very rare that a team stays intact, and [that] it ends up falling apart at the end.” Christian Science Monitor 04/12/02

ROYAL BALLET’S DOWNTURN: Clement Crisp is depressed by recent turns at London’s Royal Ballet. Ballet companies are born with a genetic make-up as potently formative as that of any human. The Royal Ballet was given beliefs by Ninette de Valois: about a school and a theatre, about roots in the nation’s arts and in an older repertory, which would encourage choreography. The Royal Ballet conquered the world with a distinctive manner of dancing and dancemaking. It is increasingly difficult to reconcile today’s Royal Ballet with its past. Is it, with preponderant foreign principals, still the Royal Ballet? Why has the company’s school failed to produce talent as impressive as Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Ethan Stiefel? Why no house choreographer, no musical director?” Financial Times 04/12/02

• BUT MAYBE IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON: The Royal’s latest outing brings “a welcome sense that the company, after a long stagnation, is beginning to move forward.” London Evening Standard 04/11/02

MIDDLE EAST DANCE: The Israel Ballet is celebrating its 35th birthday this year, a feat many supporters consider as miraculous. It was founded in 1967 by husband and wife team… Jerusalem Post 04/11/02

Sunday April 7

ANATOMY OF A MELTDOWN: What happened to Fort Worth Dallas Ballet? The company seemed to have a lot going for it a few years ago, as it moved into the impressive new Bass Hall. Yet, the company never had a coherent artistic direction, and many say its leadership wasn’t settled. Now the company has a large deficit and its artistic direction is once again “up for grabs.” Dallas Morning News 04/07/02

DANCE AT 30 FRAMES/SECOND: There’s “a new kind of dance-on-screen genre, a hybrid. In these experimental works, the word ‘dance’ expands to all manner of movement: nuns who somersault across seats on a moving train, men who wrestle like bulls in a cow pasture, and a romantic duet between a man and a large earth-moving vehicle. Over and over, its not just a person’s performance, but also the camera’s dance that draws in the viewer.” Los Angeles Times 04/07/02

Friday April 5

SAVING DANCE: “The troubled Fort Worth Dallas Ballet has moved to right itself, securing donations to eliminate a $700,000 deficit, restructuring its board, sketching out a new season and announcing that it will have an interim artistic director soon.The budget had been cut from $5 million to $3.8 million, forcing the cancellation of several performances and layoffs of dancers. ” Dallas Morning News 04/03/02

Wednesday April 3

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: The Boston Ballet has been in turmoil for the last several years, and incoming artistic director Mikko Nissinen appeared to leap right into the fray a week ago, when he fired a number of the company’s top dancers. But next year’s season has been announced, and a refreshing departure from the norm is in store. “The Ballet’s seasons have traditionally opened with a full-length, name-brand classic, the thinking being that those are the works that are big at the box office. Not this year. The opening program features two modern masterworks along with a world premiere by Jorma Elo.” Boston Globe 04/03/02

JUILLIARD LOSES A LEGEND: “Benjamin Harkarvy, director of the dance division of the Juilliard School since 1992 and an internationally respected ballet teacher, director and choreographer, died on Saturday at St. Luke’s Hospital. He was 71… Before arriving at Juilliard, Mr. Harkarvy had been artistic director of important companies like the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theater, the Dutch National Ballet, the Harkness Ballet and the Pennsylvania Ballet. A methodical and articulate teacher, he was constantly in demand by ballet schools around the world.” The New York Times 04/03/02

Monday April 1

BETWEEN DANCE AND ATHLETICS: Why do we celebrate figure skaters as stars, but not our dancers? “The figure skater embodies one half of our nation’s soul: the individual. Because most dancers start out in the corps, because stardom comes later and unexpectedly, if at all, the dancer evokes the other half: the community. They have distinctly opposite missions. The athlete strives for that all-or-nothing moment in the Olympics’ finals. As Michelle Kwan learned so painfully, a flub that one night can wipe out all the perfection in practice. Though a dancer’s career is short, until retirement, he or she always has one more night, one more performance, often seven or eight each week.” Chicago Tribune 03/31/02

DANCE DIVA: Sylvie Guillem is the reigning queen of London’s Royal Ballet. “For 13 years the tall, wiry Parisienne has been both queen and outcast at the Covent Garden company. She has the biggest fees, the biggest dressing room, and unique choice over her roles. She has a freedom to perform anywhere that is unheard of at the ensemble-minded Royal Ballet. She sometimes refuses the costume prescribed for her, or dances with bare legs.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/01/02

Friday March 29

NEW DIRECTIONS: The English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet have new artistic directors. “In a few years, assuming they get what they want, the landscape of British ballet will have changed considerably, thanks to Ross Stretton at the Royal and Matz Skoog at ENB. But what kind of landscape is that shaping up to be?” The Times (UK) 03/29/02

AFTER THE STAR GOES IN: Sarah Wildor was one of the Royal Ballet’s brightest stars when she suddenly quit the company shortly after new artistic director Ross Stretton took over the company last September. Why’d she quit? “If I’d stayed, I would have turned into a nasty, bitter person. So instead of staying and whingeing, I thought, I’m the only person who can make things happen for me, so I’ll take the bull by the horns. And I resigned.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/29/02

Thursday March 28

MORE FIRINGS IN BOSTON: It didn’t take newly appointed artistic director Mikko Nissinen long to throw himself into the Boston Ballet’s way of doing things. He’s firing dancers, including a couple of very popular local stars who, even Nissinen admits, are supremely talented. There may be reasons for dismissals, but it’s hard not to view the actions as just more of the melodrama that has plagued the company for the last several years. Boston Herald 03/28/02

Wednesday March 27

BUILDING BEYOND BALANCHINE: Peter Martins has led New York City Ballet since 1983, having inherited one of the world’s great dance companies. “Martins has been reviled and admired in equal measure. You can criticise some of his changes, but you can’t deny that he has done his utmost to stir choreographic creativity and stretch his dancers with a cornucopia of ballets: 49 for the 2001-2 season, including six world premieres and four New York premieres. No other company has such a large, effervescent repertoire.” The Independent (UK) 03/26/02

Tuesday March 26

CANADA’S NEW DANCE COMPANY: It’s been about 15 years since Canada’s Maritime provinces have had a dance company. Now a new professional company – the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada – is forming in Moncton New Brunswick. “The dancers competed against 60 applicants from 19 countries to win their spots in Moncton. Their reward? All the dancers share a single house, and work eight-to-10-hour days of strenuous physical activity, for which they receive about $500 a week, along with a pointe shoe allowance and benefits. Sound grim? Some of them had never even seen snow before they arrived in the New Brunswick centre, a city renowned for its sizeable annual snowfall.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/26/02

Friday March 22

THE ROYAL’S INJURY LIST: Dancers of London’s Royal Ballet are getting injured. Is it coincidence or is there something wrong? “There has been some speculation that dancers are being forced to pay a high price for suddenly learning a large range of ballets imported by Ross Stretton – six months into the job, Stretton is already facing criticism of his taste, let alone his personnel management.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/22/02

ANYWHERE YOU WANT TO FLY: The Australian Ballet is celebrating its 40th anniversary. To celebrate, Qantas, the national airline, has agreed to fly the company anywhere it performs in Australia. The company has planned more than 200 performances around Australia. The Age (Melbourne) 03/22/02

Thursday March 21

SF BALLET CEO STEPS DOWN: “San Francisco Ballet yesterday announced that Chief Executive Officer Arthur Jacobus will not renew his current contract and will leave his position in one year… Jacobus, who declined to comment on his departure, is credited with keeping San Francisco Ballet financially in the black for the past nine years, a rare achievement in American ballet.” San Francisco Chronicle 03/21/02

Monday March 18

DANCING ON AIR: “A growing group of choreographers in the Bay Area are liberating dance from the ground. In recent years, these artists have been dancing on window ledges, rooftops, clock towers, grain elevators and mountain peaks, not to mention suspending themselves over stages. They have achieved these dramatic feats by exploiting rock-climbing gear, by creating new hanging devices to dance on and by pioneering new ways of moving.” San Jose Mercury News 03/17/02

Sunday March 17

TOUGH TIMES FOR TEXAS BALLET: The Fort Worth Dallas Ballet is in trouble – dancers have been laid off, the season has been cut, and it’s not at all clear who will be the company’s next artistic director. Remaining dancers have staged a benefit to try to keep the company going. Fort Worth Star-Telegram 03/14/02

ALL DANCE IS NOT (RE)CREATED EQUAL: “A work created yesterday is put onstage differently from one reconstructed from pictures and written material. How a ballet is staged may affect what you actually see. A repertory staple, performed continually, carries its own authority; a reconstruction may not deliver total authenticity but still satisfy as an approximation of a lost work.” The New York Times 03/17/02

Thursday March 14

BOSTON BALLET FINALLY GETS SOME LEADERSHIP: “Valerie Wilder, a long-serving and valued manager with the National Ballet of Canada, is leaving Toronto to become executive director of Boston Ballet. Both companies are expected to make an official announcement today. Wilder will work in partnership with Boston Ballet’s incoming artistic director, Mikko Nissinen. Nissinen is also leaving Canada to take up his new post; he is currently finishing a four-year stint as artistic director of Alberta Ballet.” National Post (Canada) 03/14/02

MILWAUKEE BALLET SHAKEUP: In a major restructuring, “Milwaukee Ballet announced Tuesday that executive director Christine Harris and artistic director Simon Dow will not renew their contracts with the company. Harris and Dow are viewed as instrumental in turning the once-struggling ballet company around. Harris joined the company in 1997 and was key in eliminating the Ballet’s heavy debt burden and getting the company back on sound financial footing. Ticket sales continue to increase each year and subscriptions are up 13 percent over the year before.” Milwuakee Business Journal 03/13/02

SHOWTIME FOR SHOES: Few things are as personal (or essential) to a dancer as her shoes. “Ballet shoes are as individual as false teeth. Even the humblest student is offered half sizes and four width fittings (XXX, XX, X and the super-elegant “USA narrow”). Professional dancers are pickier still and their shoes will be made to their individual specifications. Tiny, all-important differences in the height of the vamp, the length and thickness of sole and insole, the width and hardness of the block are all docketed on a little pink slip.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/14/02

Tuesday March 12

GOTTA DANCE: What is it about Quebec that has produced so many good (and unique) dance companies? The province has little in the way of dance tradition, but has produced modern companies with distinctive personalities. Perhaps “Quebecois’ need to express themselves to the wider world may have prompted an unusually high proportion of artists to utilise the language of dance.” The Scotsman 03/12/02

Monday March 11

DANCING TO THE MUSIC: There are choreographers who don’t care much about music in their work. Then there’s Mark Morris. Morris’ work is so wrapped up in music that at times it seems that he cares more about sound than movement. Then again, the movement is so intensely musical…(BTW, is Morris phasing himself out of dancing?) The New Yorker 03/11/02

Sunday March 10

A ROOM OF THEIR OWN: Mark Morris’ new company studio complex in Brooklyn seems luxurious (Morris has a whirlpool in his office so he can sit in the tub while he’s takling meetings, and the company’s changing rooms “rival the ones at Yankee Stadium”). But ”The building isn’t luxurious,” Morris insists. ”It just has everything we need. It only seems fancy because other American dance troupes, except for the big ballet companies, have nothing like it.” Boston Globe 03/10/02

APPRECIATING THE LESS-THAN-PERFECT: “Classical ballet has to a large extent remained the province of perfection, at least in New York City. Jobs are hard to come by for dancers who do not have the properly slender, elongated bodies.” But who’s to say that “flawed” bodies can’t be wonderfully expressive? “The loud-and-proud presence of imperfection on the dance stage can be unnerving, and certainly seems to be giving the self- appointed guardians of the imperfect a new lease on life.” The New York Times 03/10/02

DANCE – A TRADITION OF POVERTY: To be a classical dancer in Cambodia is to live in poverty. Even dancers at the Royal University of Fine Arts – “for everyone who performs and teaches here, art and poverty go hand in hand. Almost penniless, the dance school can barely afford to pay them, and many live second lives as shop assistants, market vendors, seamstresses and motorcycle-taxi drivers.” The New York Times 03/09/02

BEATING UP THE PIT BAND: “It is widely held that ballet music is inferior to opera music, that the orchestra rarely plays its best for ballet, and that ballet music attracts the dimmer, less expensive conductors.” But maybe that’s the perception because of the way ballet scores are conducted. The Telegraph (UK) 03/10/02

Friday March 8

NEW MOVES: Ross Stretton’s brief time as head of London’s Royal Ballet has been rough. “He has been taunted by the British critics, but enjoys much support from the Royal Opera House board, and their new executive director, Tony Hall, eager to attract younger audiences enthused – they hope – by Stretton’s repertoire choices. At least that’s the plan.” But Stretton’s modern repertoire “will mean the birth of a new age for the Royal Ballet, whose 70-plus years’ heritage drags behind it like Marley’s chain, or is its raison d’etre, depending on your point of view.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/08/02

Thursday March 7

TALL TALES OF DANCE: Last week Yana Booth was crowned Miss Great Britain 2002. Her real training though was almost two decades as the only British dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet school. So why isn’t she dancing? She’s tall. “In the ballet world Yana – six-foot tall and a curvy 36-26-36 – stands as much chance of making it as Barry White. Even the fact that her Bolshoi studies were sponsored by the film star Sharon Stone hasn’t eased her plight. ‘When I graduated I wrote to every dance company in Europe. Most of them saw my measurements on the CV and didn’t even call me in for an audition. I was desperate’.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/07/02

Sunday March 3

A CONTEMPORARY TRADITION: A dance festival in Limmerick, Ireland draws dancers from all over the world, presenting a variety of traditions. One of the pressing issues is the tension between tradition and innovation –  “We need to create a contemporary culture out of tradition. What do I need from the past and the present to make my future?” Irish Times 03/02/02

EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD STORY: Story ballets once ruled the dance stage. Then came Balanchine and a long period of abstract dance. But “the rising popularity of story ballets suggests the pendulum of popular taste may be swinging back. The difference now is that we live in an age dominated by film and television. Yesterday’s sets and costumes can’t do the eye-seducing job they once did.” Toronto Star 03/02/02 

DANCING TO THE SINGING: A number of dance companies have recently taken up operas as subjects for dance. “Given the dramatic and musical vitality of great operas and the way the performing arts can borrow from one another, it is no surprise that choreographers venture into operatic subject matter. Yet making ballets out of operas — turning dramas expressed through song into dramas based on movement — requires solving challenging theatrical problems.”  The New York Times 03/03/02

Friday March 1

ANYTHING FOR A CROWD: Moscow’s Russian Imperial Ballet was created eight years ago. Its programs are “constructed on the foolproof principle of trying to appeal to the widest and least discriminating audience possible.” Is this any way to build a company? St. Petersburg Times (Russia) 03/01/02

Wednesday February 27

RAGGED LEGACY: The Kirov Ballet is one of the world’s most-stories dance companies. But “on the evidence of its recent season at the Kennedy Center, though, the company is in a state of confusion, rushing pell-mell in two different and opposite directions at once.” New York Observer 02/26/02 

Tuesday February 26

HERE THEY GO AGAIN IN BOSTON: “Mikko Nissinen won’t arrive in town for good until April, but the Boston Ballet’s incoming artistic director has let go of six of the company’s 43 dancers and decided not to renew contracts for three of its four instructors. This is less turmoil than there was last year, when 15 dancers were laid off. Only a week later, Maina Gielgud, hired to take over as artistic director, resigned abruptly, complaining that cuts had been made without her involvement.” Boston Globe 02/26/02

Friday February 22

NORTHERN BALLET CROSSROADS: Northern Ballet’s new director David Nixon is taking the company in new directions. “It’s a crucial time for both Nixon and NBT – arguably the most popular ballet company in Britain. The pioneering outfit has done much to popularise the artform with its unique ‘dance drama’ approach to storytelling. But last year the company was treading water after the critical drubbing of its ‘exotic’ – read whips, chains and leather – production of Jekyll and Hyde.” The Scotsman 02/22/02

Tuesday February 19DANCING ON ICE: Art or sport? Figure skating likes to have it both ways. And while there’s no question that there’s an art component to ice dancing, “it’s hard to get past the frozen smiles and smug cuteness. So why are critics so eager to review these works?”

Irish Times 02/18/02

Sunday February 17

DANCING FOR THE GOLD: As part of the Olympic Arts Festival (see companion story in Visual Arts,) the Salt Lake organizers have commissioned several dance pieces to be performed during the games. The performances highlight the fine line between dance and sport – after all, what is figure skating but dancing on ice, and what is dancing but an Olympic event sans crooked judges and endless press coverage? Los Angeles Times 02/16/02

Tuesday February 12

WHAT’S WRONG WITH DANCE… The recent ballet season in New York was as excellent as you’ll find anywhere. “But all of this effort only made the truth more glaring: we were wowed, but rarely moved; impressed, but almost never inspired. Where was the edge, the exhilaration, the sense of having been a part of something larger than a masterful pirouette? Has ballet been reduced to a series of sensational athletic moves, a gymnastics of turns, jumps, and splits–and are audiences content to be cheerleaders? Are we so seduced by pyrotechnics that we have forgotten that ballet might also offer something more complex and daring?” The New Republic 02/12/02

Sunday February 10

PIRATE DANCE: “Most of the great dance performances telecast in our lifetimes can’t be bought or borrowed, and probably never will be until their copyrights lapse. If you taped them off the air, great, and if you can afford to visit archives in New York, Paris, Copenhagen and other dance capitals to view company collections, even better. Otherwise, your choice is to do without or to join the unholy ranks of dance video outlaws.” It’s a thriving subculture. Los Angeles Times 02/10/02

REINVENTING LES GRANDS: Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal is one of Canada’s premiere dance companies. But two years ago it was awash in debt and on the downside of a decade of shrinking audiences. But the company’s new director decided to reinvent – transforming a repertory stuffed with modern abstract classics, to one featuring new works with strong narratives. Cheering audiences suggest the strategy is working. The New York Times 02/10/02

Friday February 8

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KIROV: “The Kirov Ballet is to get modern new premises that will alter the pre-Revolutionary architectural landscape of the former Imperial capital of St Petersburg… Yesterday a design by Eric Owen Moss, a Los Angeles-based architect, was presented in the Kremlin. Ultimately, President Putin will decide whether his home town will make the jump from the architecture of the 18th century to that of the 21st. If he favours the project, he will face tough opposition from St Petersburg’s snobbish cultural elite, its hardened Soviet architects and city planners.” The Times (UK) 02/07/02

Thursday February 7

DANCE DOESN’T STUNT GROWTH: A new study finds that, contrary to popular perception, “there is no evidence to show that rigorous exercise affects a young ballerina’s growth or delays sexual maturity.” The Scotsman 02/07/02

MEANING TO DANCE: Is expressing the same as communicating? “Dance is not a universal language. Movement is human, yes, but dance is more specific and has numerous dialects that are like foreign languages to many people. We can’t assume that through our dancing we will communicate with others.” Dance Current 02/02

Wednesday February 6

KOREAN WINS TOP INTERNATIONAL DANCE PRIZE: Three Korean dancers won top prizes, including first prize in the Prix de Lausanne international dance competition. Choe Yu-hui, 17, beat 115 dance students from 21 countries to win the competition, which is staged to identify the world’s top young dancers. Korea Times 02/06/02

Sunday February 3

THE MAN BEHIND MARK MORRIS: Behind every great artist there’s a manager. Barry Alterman plts Mark Morris’s course. “Barry meets people that I don’t meet, he knows producers that I’ve met and maybe can’t even remember the names of, and he’s on the phone with them all the time, encouraging, cajoling.” The New York Times 02/03/02

THE TYRANNY OF MUSIC: “American dance is obsessed with, or even tyrannized by, music. Of course, dance and music have been partners for ages and deserve to continue their pas de deux. Yet fundamentally dance does not need music. Dance needs rhythm.” The New York Times 02/03/02

Friday February 1

GETTING FIT FOR DANCE: Who’s in better shape than dancers? But it isn’t just dance that keeps them fit – members of the Alvin Ailey Company add swimming, tae-boe, weight lifting, step-aerobics, and jogging. “Your body is never going to be perfect. You want it to be better, sure. And you always want what someone else has.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 01/31/02

REINVENTING A CLASSIC: Just how popular is Riverdance? There are some 15 touring companies doing Irish dance worldwide right now. Before Riverdance came along there was no way to make a living as a step dancer… Glasgow Herald 01/31/02