Category: dance

The eponymous avians in Ashton’s The Two Pigeons are meant to be living symbols of the relationship between the two human leads, called the Young Man and the Young Girl. Reporter Jennifer Lu talks with Emma Hills, who trains the pigeons who have been doing the show for a decade, about how she teaches them and what mischief they occasionally get up to. – Pointe Magazine

As one senior ACE executive put it this spring, “Relevance is becoming the new litmus test. It will no longer be enough to produce high-quality work.” Now many ballet company execs, choreographers, and dancers are trying to convince ACE to drop or modify the plan. One told this paper, “This idea has been dreamt up by people who simply don’t understand reality. They mean well, but they’ll end up putting us out of business.” Few of these figures will speak out publicly, though Matthew Bourne tweeted, “Is giving pleasure not enough anymore?” – The Telegraph (UK)

“You have to remember you’re taking care of a legacy that has history.” – CBSNews

“I never wanted to look weak or incapable as a dancer, even if I was in a lot of pain. Even if I felt like I was going to pass out. I began feeling this way every day. From what I can remember, that was when I started blacking out while I was dancing.” – Dance Magazine

“To find another ballet dancer who expanded his or her range with such fortitude and ferocity, you’d have to go back to Mikhail Baryshnikov. But he transitioned into modern dance after his ballet career ended. Ms. Mearns is still going strong as a classical dancer.” – The New York Times

“Last May, The Guardian reported that Judith Mackrell would step down from her post after a 23-year run, and Alastair Macaulay announced he was giving up his position as The New York Times‘ chief dance critic, effective this past January. Luke Jennings left The Observer in the UK in December, and this winter, The New Yorker quietly replaced Joan Acocella with the historian Jennifer Homans. … In one fell swoop, criticism has lost decades of experience and memories, and these writers won’t be easily replaced.” – Dance Magazine

Lauren Wingenroth: “A Google search of that question will yield hundreds of results of impassioned arguments about whether or not we should consider dance a sport. The fact that breaking was recently provisionally added to the 2024 Summer Olympics program is certain to make the conversation even more heated. I would like to make a counterargument: Those on both sides of the issue seem to agree more than they disagree. So who cares?” – Dance Magazine

When Avichai Scher was a young student, no teacher or other authority figure ever said a word to him about when or how to start wearing a dance belt, which led to some very embarrassing moments when he was 13. His experience was, and is, all too common, he writes, though there are a few teachers and one company who are starting to deal with this issue properly. – Dance Magazine

According to a letter from the dancers’ unions at the Rome Opera Ballet to the theater’s board (a letter which Italy’s largest press agency published in full), Eleonora Abbagnato screamed obscenities at them, threatened (with more obscenities) not to renew their contracts, and called the Rome Opera “a shit theater.” What’s more, Abbagnato is often absent from the company she’s supposed to be running, as she is still an étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. – Gramilano (Milan)