Category: dance

Ellie Cotey offers a diary of last week’s world premiere of choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina, which has 200 complete costumes and more than 800 individual pieces. – Dance Magazine

“We didn’t lose our funding. … It was something I did. I approached the board. I told them the last thing I felt I had time to do was create, to make ballets. They agreed. This kind of structure and organization — I know I am not the only one to say it — doesn’t work for me now.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

Ausdance National, the country’s advocate organization for the art form, has been presenting the honors annually since 1997. This year, in response to deep cuts in government funding throughout the arts, Ausdance has called off the awards and will focus its efforts on advocacy for dance as a whole. – Dance Australia

“I know what it’s like to have to go through puberty in a leotard,” said Kondos Field, a former professional ballerina who had little experience in gymnastics instruction when she joined the UCLA program nearly four decades ago. “I know what it’s like to have disordered eating. I know what it’s like to have to go out there by yourself.” – The New York Times

One night, a young man in dance school worried about his future walked by an Army recruitment center in Manchester – and joined up. Alex Smith “says that, despite appearances, dancers and soldiers have quite a lot in common. Self-discipline is important in both cases, and a determination to succeed.” – BBC

“I’m a street dance choreographer. I do street dance on street dancers. I’ve never set an hour-long piece on any other company outside my own, and definitely not on a modern dance company.” Nevertheless, Ailey artistic director Robert Battle decided that Harris was the right person to be the company’s first-ever choreographer in residence. – Dance Magazine

Rojo: “I wanted to do a classical ballet from a new point of view, and I wanted the hardest one … I had seen the Björk film Dancer in the Dark, and I kept thinking: This is Giselle, and it is possible to tell this story in a new context.”
Khan: “When Tamara asked me, I did think a bit: Are you mad? I had barely seen a ballet, and knew nothing about Giselle.” – The New York Times

Staying in love with dance takes grit. Choosing to pursue a lifelong relationship with dance involves the risk of physical injury, financial instability and the ups and downs inherent in a creative passion-driven career. – Crosscut

The company will offer guest performances on selected Celebrity Cruises vessels. Said executive director Kara Medoff Barnett in a statement, “American Ballet Theatre’s mission is to bring the best of ballet to the widest possible audience. We are thrilled to redefine ‘widest’ to now include audiences at sea.” – Orlando Sentinel

“A Russian company called Siberian Swan has just announced the debut of the first pointe shoe model specifically designed for men, named ‘Rudolf’ (after Nureyev, of course). It will be released next month, giving men an alternative to custom orders.” – Dance Magazine