Category: dance

At the Edinburgh Festival, a mini-history of modern dance, played out through its experimentalists. Sunday Times 08/12/01

Sansom was one of the Royal Ballet’s star dancers. Now he’s completed a year studying management at the San Francisco Ballet, and is off for another year at the Kennedy Center. He’s already being whispered about for a return to the Royal as artistic director. The expectations are high… San Francisco Chronicle 08/12/01

A judge has ruled that the Martha Graham Center can continue to use the name and teach Graham technique. Graham heir Ron Protas had contended he owned rights to all of Graham’s work and was withdrawing permission for the school for access to it. But the judge found that “there was clear evidence that in 1956 Graham had sold the school and its name,” and declared Protas not to be a “credible witness.” The New York Times 08/08/02 (one-time registration required for access)

Mikhail Baryshnikov is 53 and still dancing. “He has had six operations to one of his knees. Some mornings he is so stiff that he has to crawl to the bathroom and get under a hot shower before he can move easily. He is convinced he will die at 60. He says, ‘All my relatives died very young. I really believe in genetics. I hope I am wrong. I will go when I am 55, when I am 60. I am prepared: at least I can speak about it. . ‘.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/09/01

There was a time Mikhail Baryshnikov epitomized all that was classic in classical ballet. But in the past decade he’s turned into a champion for the most forgotten corners of modern American dance. The Guardian (UK) 08/08/01

The Bolshoi Ballet is coming to New Zealand, but the director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet isn’t impressed. “He admitted he had seen only a television advertisement for the tour but said he knew immediately that it would be mediocre. ‘I’ve been in the profession for over 30 years and I know what’s good and bad … You can smell it’.” New Zealand Herald 08/07/01

Ross Stretton hasn’t even taken over as the next artistic director of London’s Royal Ballet yet and the dance world is already buzzing about who might take over if he doesn’t work out. Former Royal Ballet star Bruce Sansom left the company last year to study arts management, and the speculation is… The Telegraph (UK) 08/07/01

Not all the world’s elite dancers come out of SAB or St. Petersburg or London. The small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania has produced way more than its share of dance stars. “For the last 46 years, Marcia Dale Weary and her Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet have produced dancers well known in the ballet world.” The New York Times 08/05/01 (one-time registration required for access)

“Another high-ranking executive at the scandal-ridden American Ballet Theater has been hit with charges of sexual harassment.A complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accuses David Richardson, ABT’s assistant artistic director, of ‘being sexually affectionate’ with male dancers, ‘kissing them about the face and mouth, hugging and caressing them’ and subjecting them to a ‘sexually-harassing, hostile and retaliatory environment.'” New York Post 08/01/01

It is never easy for a dancer to retire. Unlike performers in nearly every other discipline, dancers are forced to hang up their toe shoes when their bodies give out on them, usually sometime in their late 30s. For some, being told that it’s time to go is an unbearable insult, and the occasional ugly battle between dancer and dance company results. But one Canadian dance legend decided to take the quiet route to retirement this year, earning her even greater affection from colleagues and audiences alike. National Post (Canada) 07/31/01