Category: dance

Now that Ross Stretton is moving on to head up London’s Royal Ballet, what’s to become of the Australian Ballet? And who should lead it? – Sydney Morning Herald

The National Dance Program gets a $6 million grant from the Doris Duke Foundation to support dance. “To date, the National Dance Project has reached approximately 820,000 people in 41 states, and provided production grants to 65 dance projects and touring grants to 271 presenters.” – Boston Globe

Helgi Tomasson returns to New York City Ballet as a choreographer. At 57, he “remains trim though his hair has gone from black to white and thinned somewhat. He has now been running San Francisco Ballet for the same number of years he danced with City Ballet. ‘It was not a terribly smooth transition,’ he says, in his understated way, of his arrival there; his restrained approach and attention to the refinements of classical technique represented a big change from the flashy showmanship of the previous director, Michael Smuin.” – New York Times

Trisha Brown’s dance company celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. At the age of 63, Brown’s still pushing. “I’m hell bent right now. The learning curve is stretched so tight it’s twanging. I’m discovering, questioning, looking for solutions. I want to get out as much work as possible. It’s not surprising,” she says. “After all, I’ve been a wife, a mother, a dancer, a choreographer, a citizen in a radically changing world. I’m in my seventh decade. Over time one gets rewritten by experience – by loss, by death, by accidents. All these things have made me think a lot about emotion, about the shape of emotion.” – New York Times

What does it say that even some of the most talented modern dance companies lead itinerant existences, eking out rehearsal space wherever they can. For years Mark Morris’s main office has operated from the back seats of taxis. But that’s all about to change with a home of his own in Brooklyn. – Village Voice

The rudderless Oakland Ballet is a long way from the glittery world of the Dance Theater of Harlem. But newly-appointed artistic director and former DTH star Karen Brown likes the challenge. Besides, her appointment was announced by the mayor. “The purpose of a ballet company is to affect the community it serves by sharing the art form. And part of my job is to do my homework to see what is needed.” – San Francisco Examiner

The Paris Opera Ballet was once one of the dullest dance companies on earth, complacent to a fault. But “nobody dances like the French,” and today the oldest dance company in the world is also one of the most admired. – The Telegraph (UK)

– a former Dance Theatre of Harlem star. – San Francisco Chronicle

A Canadian judge’s ruling requiring the National Ballet of Canada to reinstate a dancer has Canadian artistic directors bewildered and outraged. It’s about control of art, and what does a judge know about running a dance company? Can you imagine if pro sports coaches couldn’t trade their players? – Toronto Globe and Mail

The legendary Bolshoi Ballet has opened its first school outside Russia – in Brazil. “The mayor’s office paid for the ballet to set up the school and also funds scholarships given to a majority of the school’s 165 or so students, who range in age from 7 to 14. Most of the students’ families cannot afford the equivalent of $170 in monthly fees. But five days a week, three hours a day, they glide and stretch and twirl in the sun-swept practice rooms, take assiduous notes on the history of ballet and learn about the 233-year-old Bolshoi’s legendary dancers, many of whose pictures decorate the school’s gleaming walls.” – Newsweek