Category: dance

Sun Myung Moon’s dance company comes to London. Not just a vanity effort, the company is well-financed and has earned good reviews. “The Universal Ballet was created after Moon’s 17-year-old son was killed in a car crash in 1984. The youth had been engaged to a gifted young ballet dancer called Julia Pak, the daughter of Moon’s right-hand man. In a bizarre ceremony, she was married to her dead fiance’s ghost, thus becoming Rev Moon’s daughter-in-law, and the Universal Ballet was set up as a memorial to the dead man.” – The Telegraph (London)

Time was a headline like that meant the company was changing cities – like when Joffrey abandoned New York five years ago and turned up in Chicago. This time, it means the reborn Joffrey is getting a new $24 million building – surely a sign of its flourishing fortunes in the Windy City. – Chicago Sun-Times

Cleveland San Jose Ballet left a lot of unpaid bills when it went out of business last month. It’s difficult to shut down a dance company “in an orderly fashion.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Boston Ballet is to respond this week in the wrongful death suit filed against the company by the mother of a dancer who died weighing 97 pounds. The suit charges that the company is responsible for her death because it exerted pressure on her to lose wieght. “No matter how this is set up claim for claim, the public sees that the case goes forward and that this girl died on their watch. That’s not good news for the Boston Ballet.” – Boston Herald

So the Australian National Ballet is in turmoil, eh? Dancers quitting, the press fuming, morale sagging… Funny, under artistic director Ross Stretton “the dancers have found a new way to dance. Technically, most of them have never looked better. They have a clarity to their dancing, an edge that comes from being able to use their technique as if it belongs to them rather than to the artistic director. And this is the way it should be. – Sydney Morning Herald

The Washington Ballet travels to Cuba this week. “It’s said to mark the first time since the Castro revolution that a whole American dance troupe has performed in Cuba. This, however, is only part of it.” – National Post (Canada)

Lucinda Childs has been living the life of an exile these last six years in France, where the climate for funding dance is more hospitable than America. Now she’s back in New York, embracing much of what she formerly rejected. – New York Magazine

“Before they even set foot on a stage, the dancers of the Universal Ballet are a remarkable lot. They come from South Korea, a country not noted for its ballet culture, and their salaries are paid for by one of the most controversial religious leaders in the world — Rev Sun Myung Moon.” Now they’re coming to Britain. – The Times (London)

Now that Cleveland San Jose Ballet has folded its tent in Cleveland and reinvented itself in San Jose, what’s next for dance in Cleveland? – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Even critics of the way Anthony Dowell has run London’s Royal Ballet, have to admit that his infusion of startlingly good foreign dancers has made the company richer. – The Telegraph (London)