Is Christopher Wheeldon The Real Thing? (Maybe Not?) Christopher Wheeldon is touted as dance's next great genius. But Tobi Tobias is still to be convinced. "Most observers, dance critics in the lead, are so grateful for what Wheeldon can do, they don’t ask for much more.  Me, I find nothing moving behind the craft—no hint of the deep feeling that can permeate ostensibly abstract work, no creation of an architectural universe that proposes a mysterious and  absorbing world in itself." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 01/30/05

Growing Ballet In Post-Apartheid South Africa "In the world of dance, one of South Africa's toughest townships may seem an unpromising place to start an academy for classical ballet. But hundreds of black children have been auditioning for the programme, part of an emerging generation that is taking the country's arts into a new post-apartheid era." The Guardian (UK) 01/31/05

Boston Ballet Cuts Salaries "After a disappointing holiday Nutcracker run, Boston Ballet has cut the salaries of virtually all its employees, with some workers taking short, unpaid leaves. The move is part of an expense-cutting plan meant to keep Boston Ballet on track for a balanced annual budget." The company's holiday struggles were due in large part to increased competition from the big-budget Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which forced Boston Ballet to move its Nutcracker to a much smaller theater. The company is assuring its employees that no one will be laid off. Boston Globe 01/29/05

SF Ballet Opens On A High (Praise, That Is) Is San Francisco Ballet the "best company in North America?" That's what Mark Morris told the crowd assembled for the opening of the company's 72nd season. San Francisco Chronicle 01/28/05

City Ballet - Time To Move On? Robert Gottlieb deems New York City Ballet's current season better than usual. But. "We’ve recently been told by Anna Kisselgoff, in one of her farewell columns in The New York Times, that "professional Balanchine mourners" should move on. But to what? To her beloved Boris Eifman? (Yes, she’s still defending the indefensible.) Believe me, Anna, we want to move on—to any large talent that presents itself. That’s why everybody hangs over Christopher Wheeldon, praying that he’ll be the one to lead us into new green pastures. What we won’t do is abandon the standards that George Balanchine established, both for his own ballets and for the dancers in what we still can’t help thinking of as "our" company. Far from wishing Peter Martins ill, people like me cherish everything positive that he does. But that doesn’t mean we have to tamely accept second-rate performances." New York Observer 01/26/05

Peter Boal - PNB In Waiting Peter Boal is finishing up his career dancing with New York City Ballet before moving to take over directing Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet. What might he bring to PNB? "Boal is a rare commodity—a great dancer who is not a great star. Charisma, an essential element for stardom, is not part of his makeup—though he’s a disarmingly nice fellow on- and offstage. The glory of Boal’s dancing lies in the fact that it is not dependent on expressive personality. Indeed, it’s entirely free from self-advertisement." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 01/24/05

Colorado Ballet Fights To A Draw With Holiday Rockettes Colorado Ballet, like dance companies in several cities around America, fretted before Christmas when the Rockettes Christmas show came to town. The company, like many, depends on annual Nutcracker revenues to survive. So how'd the Rockette showdown go? "Not surprisingly, the Rockettes drew huge numbers: 155,063 paid attendance for 64 performances. That translates to an impressive 88 percent capacity. More remarkable are the final numbers from Nutcracker. December's Paramount engagement held its own, compared with the previous, Rockettes-less run. Some 33,600 attended 31 shows (30,100 paid). That total matches numbers from 2003 - 33,400 (29,250 paid)." Rocky Mountain News 01/24/05

Rockwell: Fresh Winds Blowing Does "crossover" modern into ballet diminish ballet? John Rockwell argues the point: "Ballet is not over. Of course its choreographers should still be steeped in ballet vocabulary; nearly all serious dancers have ballet training these days. Of course experimentation that is silly or destructive should be condemned. Of course different dance genres should maintain their integrity, even as they evolve. But beware of a mind-set that shuts off all innovation for fear of infection. To close oneself off to anything beyond the embattled walls of the academy is to ignore a whole wide world of potentially exciting dance and of ballet evolution." The New York Times 01/23/05

Joffrey Abandons Plans For New Home The Joffrey Ballet has given up on plans to renovate and build a new home, due to soaring costs. "The 48,000-square-foot structure, which has been appraised at $4.5 million, was in substantial disrepair. Construction bids to renovate the building ballooned to the upper $30 million range." Chicago Tribune 01/23/05

Washington Ballet Dancers Get To Vote On Union The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that dancers of the Washington Ballet should be allowed to vote on whether to unionize. "In its decision, the NLRB rejected the company's argument that the dancers were seasonal workers who could not unionize, noting that "the bulk of the dancers stay with the company multiple years." The agency also found that two dancers/rehearsal assistants and two apprentices had the right to vote in the election. The company had argued that the rehearsal assistants were supervisors, and that the apprentices did not have a "community of interest" with other dancers." PlaybillArts 01/20/05

Savion Conquers Classical "When it comes to God-given talent that can mesmerize an audience today, Savion Glover is some kind of miracle. He tells us, among much, about sheer aliveness onstage, the joy of performing, the gift of speed and dazzling improvisation, the exactness of rhythm, the ability to listen, the emotion of sound and music beyond all words. There are times when performers are so scintillating at what they do, all you can do is shake your head in disbelief. They’re too good; they’re so good, it’s laughable. "Astonish me!" was Diaghilev’s mantra and artistic prayer. Mr. Glover astonishes us every time." New York Observer 01/19/05

Dance In The Tube Britain's Rambert Dance Company takes to the London Underground to perform and stimulate interest in dance. "The response of tube passengers to yesterday's performance was diverse. Some, clearly uncomfortable with their close encounter with cutting-edge choreography, stared intently at their knees. But most seemed delighted by what appeared, at first glance, to be a team of unusually graceful plumbers." The Guardian (UK) 01/18/05

Dorfman Dance, Act II "With resources diminishing and costs rising, even established troupes are in a fierce struggle for survival, and only the most popular choreographers... are financially secure." So when a once-celebrated choreographer finds himself at the wrong end of the fiscal stick, what options are left to him? For David Dorfman, the answer was to go back to where it all began - his alma mater, Connecticut College - and rediscover the simple magic of the form. The New York Times 01/16/05

PBT On The Brink Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is in financial trouble again. One possible solution? The company is considering merging with another area arts group. Disappointing holiday sales and slumping subscriber renewals have exacerbated PBT's situation, and the company has been without a managing director since last May. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/16/05

Northern Ballet Cancels Season The Northern Ballet Theatre is one of only two professional arts groups still operating in Nashua, New Hampshire, and this weekend, two will become one, as the ballet announces the cancellation of the remainder of its 2004-05 season. The company will use the next several months to retool and raise money, with the aim of mounting a 2005-06 season. Nashua Telegraph 01/16/05

Previewing The Year In Dance The American dance scene will become ever more eclectic in 2005, with plenty of crossover (Savion Glover tapping his way across scores by Bach and Beethoven), a healthy dose of classic ballet (Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring will be revived in Washington), and "a veritable atlas of international dance troupes [visiting] US shores, in case Americans needed further reminder of how small the world has become." The Christian Science Monitor 01/14/05

Penn Ballet's Nutcracker Holds Steady "Though houses at the Academy of Music ran at 70 percent sold, the same as last year, the number of performances was down by three, and Nutcracker income crucial to the company fell by about 4 percent. Last month, the ballet performed its Tchaikovsky-Balanchine classic 25 times, generating revenue of $1,940,000, down from last year's $2,015,070. About 38,000 paying listener-viewers experienced The Nutcracker this season, down from 40,500 last season." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/11/05

Directors: Ballet World Needs Reform Leaders of some of the world's leading ballet companies have issued a statement calling for reforms - new emphasis on "solid training in basic ballet skills, renewed focus on nurturing choreographers and a coaxing of audiences into accepting contemporary work are vital to the future of ballet. 'There is a crisis about training young dancers. We are all worried about the ballet schools, how to have more of a dialogue. Schools have become like companies - which provides good experience for students, but at the expense of properly completing their training. There are some people who cannot do the mazurka, the czardas, the polonaise'." The Guardian (UK) 01/10/05

More Than A Tap Phenom Savion Glover is a genius, a phenomenon. "Sometimes he rides the music; sometimes he becomes one of the instruments in the ensemble; sometimes he converts the score into a concerto in which he alternately plays solo and blends back seamlessly into the group. He’s his own choreographer, of course, and his invention is wide-ranging and seemingly inexhaustible." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 01/10/05

Rockwell On Dance Longtime New York Times arts writer John Rockwell is preparing to take on a new position as the Grey Lady's chief dance critic, and he sees much to recommend a corner of the arts world which seems always to be on the edge of fiscal collapse. "Dancers are paid less than other performing artists. Dance companies, even the big ballet troupes, must furiously run in place, like terpsichorean hamsters, just to sustain themselves. But that means dancers do it for love, not fame or fortune, though some are famous, and a very few earn modest fortunes. Dance critics can still cover any and all forms of dance without feeling that they're sullying themselves." The New York Times 01/09/05

More Pay Cuts Loom in Pittsburgh The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is seeking a pay cut from its pit musicians for the third time in three years, in a desperate effort to balance a budget which has been swimming in red ink in recent years. The situation was exacerbated by disappointing ticket sales for the company's 2004 Nutcracker performances, after which PBT asked the musicians to reopen their contract, which officially expires in summer 2005. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 01/06/05

Dance: Ready For A New Boom? Has dance lost its steam, ready to settle into being a "lesser" art? Anna Kisselgoff says not: "The dance boom that exploded at the end of the 60's and lasted until the 90's has shrunk into a holding pattern of recycled aesthetics. But even this consolidation of the familiar hints at potential fresh directions. True, no one has recently or radically changed how we look at dance, as Merce Cunningham, Graham and Balanchine once did. Still, dance remains a highly creative art form. Choreographers are searching for new movement, and there is a slow-motion swing from pure-dance pieces to storytelling, no matter how indirect." The New York Times 01/06/05

Union Wants To Unionize Washington Ballet "The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), which represents dancers and singers, has accused Washington Ballet of attempting to prevent its dancers from unionizing." PlaybillArts.com 01/05/05

Deficit Forces Cuts In Salt Lake Utah-based Ballet West has announced its intention to make big cuts in its performance schedule and company size in order to compensate for three years of red ink. The company "will drop its poorly attended fall repertory program, and begin its 2005-06 season with The Nutcracker next December. Other cuts include a reduction from 40 to 35 dancers, and a trim to artists' contracts from 38 weeks to 35." Salt Lake Tribune 01/05/05

B(allet)=MC Squared The Rambert Dance Company is producing a new work based on Einstein's theory of relativity. "The work is the inaugural choreographic piece from Rambert artistic director Mark Baldwin and was commissioned by the Institute of Physics. A professor of physics is working with Baldwin to advise on the technical aspects of the work." BBC 01/04/05

Musicians Protest Bourne's Tour Plans Musicians are protesting choreographer Matthew Bourne's decision to tour his latest ballet outside of London using a 1980s-era recording rather than live musicians. "It smacks of, ‘It’s all right for audiences outside of London to put up with a recording, but London audiences shouldn’t have to accept that’." The Times (UK) 01/05/05

The Trocks - Bang For The Buck Joan Acocella checks in on the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. "Has success spoiled them? I don’t know—I wasn’t there in 1974—but when, last month at the Joyce, I watched the opening night of their thirtieth-anniversary season, thought, These people are delivering more bang fo the buck than most other classical companies in America." The New Yorker 01/03/05

The Classical Savion Savion Glover could do anything next in his career. So what has he chosen? Classical music. "I've been listening to classical music since my mom introduced us to it. So it's nothing new, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat, rat-a-rat-a-tat-tat." The New York Times 01/02/05