Category: dance

Where are the new choreographers coming from? “Ballet has recently drawn on modern-dance choreographers for the new works it needs to sell a season. But some new ballet choreographers are developing from within companies like Dance Theater of Harlem.” – New York Times

London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre is in dire straits. A £48 million refurbishment in 1998 is at the heart of the problem. The theatre in central London underwent a  in a project designed to create ‘Britain’s leading theatre for presenting dance’. But problems associated with the project not endanger the theatre. – The Independent

The Kennedy Center is throwing a Balanchine festival, featuring six companies dancing 14 ballets. “The festival does not claim to be as comprehensive as the New York City Ballet’s yearlong survey of Balanchine in 1994, or even a collection of seminal works. (His first great work, “Apollo,” is not on the schedule.) Rather, its distinction should lie in providing a new understanding of the Balanchine canon.” – New York Times

Choreographer Matthew Bourne created a sensation with his offbeat “Swan Lake.” Now he’s back with a new version of “Carmen,” which he’s renamed “Car Man.” “This time I wanted to do something dirty, earthy, tethered to the ground. At first I even thought of setting Car Man in a meat factory, with carcasses on hooks. The dancers here are playing real people. It’s like rehearsing with actors: we argue about their motives when I suppose we should be designing movements. But my skill is as a director of stories, not movement for its own sake. I’d get bored if I was doing abstract dance.” – The Observer (London)

Nearly 70 years after she died, the remains of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova will be returned to Russia from a cemetery in London. – Philadelphia Inquirer

Its theatre is crumbling, it’s artistic reputation has been battered, and its subsidies from the Russian government have fallen off. It’s probably not much of a surprise that the Bolshoi’s regime was sacked this week. – The Times (London)

Six months after Australian Ballet artistic director Ross Stretton announced his departure, the company fills his position: 36 year-old David McAllister, a principal dancer in the company for 11 years. While lacking the managerial experience and international contacts of his predecessor, McAllister is said to be well-liked by the dancers and intends to focus his energies on re-connecting with contacts abroad. – The Age (Melbourne)

• SOMETHING OF A SURPRISE: “Some expressed concern about his lack of management experience and that he had not danced for any length of time with any other company.” The Australian‘s Melbourne dance critic said he was “absolutely gobsmacked by the appointment, having rated McAllister as an outside chance”. The Australian 08/31/00

While some were surprised by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of Bolshoi director Vladimir Vasilyev this week, others were not. “While critics could forgive Mr. Vasilyev his shortcomings as an administrator, they were angry about his failure to revive the Bolshoi artistically. His staging of ‘Swan Lake’ was deemed a flop, but what critics found even more dismaying was his inability to introduce the new ideas he had promised when appointed.” – New York Times

Fed up with perceived mismanagement and stalled rebuilding plans for the critically dilapidated theater, Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday summarily fired the Bolshoi Ballet’s top management staff, including its controversial general director Vladimir Vasilyev. – The Guardian (London)

“Nijinsky left a rich yet enigmatic legacy that still eludes full understanding.” Yet, more than a half-century after his death, the dance world is still endlessly fascinated with the dancer and choreographer’s work and bizarre life. – New York Times