Category: dance

The line between performance and entertainment has blurred considerably in the last few years. Riverdance, Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ and most notably the teaming of the experimentalist Julie Taymor with Disney to produce Broadway’s ‘Lion King’ have forged significant links between art and commerce. Choreographer Elizabeth Streb, herself a hybrid of working class roots and MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ credentials, cites Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, Cirque du Soleil, Stomp, ‘Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk’ and Zingaro as precedents. – New York Times

Two of Russia’s best dancers – Altynai Asylmuratova and Irek Mukhamedov – come to London and talk about British dance: “Here you can teach anybody – even when there’s no talent. Even if they’re like this [his hands mime pigeon toes] or like this [he conjures a fat little troll] if their parents pay. And what happens to this person-who-is-not-quite-talented? They go to school; they dance; they become a teacher.” – The Telegraph (UK)

A former ballerina – now 82 – who grew up training with the Tsar’s mistress in the 1930’s played an instrumental role in bringing about the Kirov Ballet’s recent production of “The Sleeping Beauty.” Through a complicated trail of purchased dance companies, post-Tsar revolutionary politics, and deep friendships based on trust and a passion for dance, she helped smuggle the precious original ballet texts out of Soviet Russia. – The Telegraph

Following in the footsteps of the Baltimore Orioles and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which both visited Cuba last year in an effort to increase contact between the two countries, the Washington Ballet will go to Cuba this fall to perform in an international festival in Havana. – Washington Post

It’s been noted recently that the art of belly dancing is dying in Egypt, that the profession is being taken over by a torrent of foreign dancers. But watch out for Fifi Abdo, one of Egypt’s top three belly dancers and perhaps the most “violent.” Abdo, who commands a fierce band of bodyguards, recently stormed the office of the censor after one of her performances had been censored for being too provocative, and is on the warpath against the “Russians” – the foreign belly dancers that she says are “giving a bad name to our traditional profession.” – Ha’aretz (Israel)

Vancouver’s Ballet BC wants to stage a work by its former artistic director, but the choreographer has refused, saying the company must hire her to restage it. – CBC

The art of belly dancing is dying in Egypt, where it was born “Fewer hotels, clubs and Nile River boats are offering the live performances, and more and more Egyptian women are shunning the dance because of Islamic disapproval. As a consequence, more of the dancers performing professionally in Cairo are outsiders – from Japan, South America and the countries of the former Soviet Union. They are from almost everywhere, in fact, except Egypt.” – Los Angeles Times

An orphanage in Nairobi is trying to make street kids’ lives a little better. “As well as being given an education, they are offered the opportunity to learn ballet – not a dance form much practised in the region.” – BBC

Martha Graham heir withdraws license for Martha Graham Company to perform the late choreographer’s work. – CBC

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Nijinsky’s death. His choreography is a study in grace and brutality, in his “madness” he invented modern dance, he was 50 years ahead of his time, his life was an erotic spectacle – narcissistic, instinctive, free – and his work captured the emerging rhythm of mind for a generation that was heading into the fearsome carnival of the Great War. But Nijinsky was a sleek gazelle trotting round the edge of a precipice; he was a primitive: how did he come to be the patron saint of modern art? – The Telegraph (London)