Category: dance

Choreographer Mark Dendy is one of the dance world’s most idiosyncratic and experimental spirits. Yet being in the experimental lane doesn’t offer much security. Even his most successful projects take their toll. “After, I was ready to quit because I had spent my life savings to stage it. Once again it’s the plight of the artist. It’s hard to be almost 40 and not have a little extra in the bank in case something happens.” – New York Times

Most of the dancers in the National Ballet of Canada apparently disagree with a judge’s ruling that the company must reinstate fired dancer Kimberly Glasco to the company. “Sources say the dancers are distressed that the most recent court ruling stated that Glasco must be assigned roles in the upcoming season. The spring season has already been determined, and giving roles to Glasco would mean one of them would have to step aside.” The dancers have hired a lawyer to represent them. – CBC

The Martha Graham Company has been floundering in recent years. Earlier this month the company’s board asked for the resignation of Ronald Protas, the group’s artistic director. But “the major complication is that, after Graham’s death in 1991 at the age of 96, Protas became her sole artistic heir and continues to control the rights to her dances through the Martha Graham Trust.” – San Francisco Examiner

What is it about certain Broadway dancers that when casting lists are announced, their names always appear? – Backstage

Alberta Ballet ended its season Friday in controversy. The company fired Barbara Moore its “most senior” dancer. “In what superficially looks like an uncanny replay of the now famous fight between the National Ballet and the soi-disant prima who won’t go away, Kimberly Glasco, Moore, 31, has launched a wrongful dismissal suit against the company that has been her dancing home for the past 15 years.” – National Post (Canada)

• Also: A CHILLING EFFECT: Fifty prominent Canadian artists sign a letter protesting a judge’s ruling reinstating dancer Kimberly Glasco’s job at the National Ballet of Canada after she was fired. – CBC 04/17/00
• Previously: WHO’S THE BOSS? A Canadian judge has ordered the National Ballet of Canada to reinstate principal dancer Kimberly Glasco, who was dismissed by the company earlier this season. James Kudelka, the ballet’s artistic director, said that Glasco wasn’t dancing as well as she once did and that she didn’t fit with his artistic vision. Glasco sued for wrongful dismissal, saying she’d been fired for criticizing Kudelka’s plans for a new “Swan Lake.” – CBC 04/10/00

A two-hour ballet – “The King” – portraying the life of Elvis Presley, has been shut down before it even opens in Edinburgh by the late singer’s daughter. – The Independent (UK)

Officials sheepishly admitted Wednesday that 17 of the 31 dancers and musicians from the Ballet d’Afrique Noire, currently touring the United States, failed to appear when due to leave Berkeley, California, after a performance at UCLA. “They did a beautiful performance at Zellerbach on Sunday afternoon. They went out to celebrate, and went hither and yon….the next day there was a bus call at noon, and we discovered that 17 people were missing.” – Yahoo (Reuters)

“This year’s knock-down-drag-out fight in the advertising world has nothing to do with Nikes, Taco Bell, Viagra, Priceline.com, or minor feminine itching. It’s set in the ruthless realm of…ballet.” Rivals American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet have devised very different marketing strategies to promote their upcoming seasons: ABT’s ads feature sexy, shirtless close-ups of young stars like Angel Corella; NYCB’s showcases their corps de ballet in elegant, costumed poses. Of course, both companies hope their splashy campaigns will go a long way toward “selling tutus to the masses.” – Village Voice

The Royal Ballet has lost its special appeal and cutting-edge choreography, according to former dancer Lynn Seymour who called the company a “cult of mediocrity.” “Simply wallpapering over the cracks with fashionable outside choreographers will not solve the malaise at the heart of the company. Urgent reform is needed.”- The Daily Telegraph

A new book about Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes by a widely published dance critic and historian, and supposedly one of the foremost authorities on the period is cause for celebration. “Surprising then, that she has left herself wide-open to criticism by sweeping generalizations and inaccurate reporting in her personal contributions, a collection of essays which confuse rather than clarify the impact of Diaghilev, the Russian genius who changed the whole concept of ballet in the last century.” – Culturekiosque