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Home > DANCE

JANUARY 2001

  • FEAR OF THE DANCE: "The idea of uncontrolled, wild dancing as something dangerous stays with us: the club must be licensed for entertainment; the rave strictly policed. The idea of people enjoying themselves, whirling like banshees out of control is deeply unsettling to authority. Uncontrolled passion must be restrained. Yet in the not-so-distant past, hundreds of thousands of people took part in frenzied outdoor orgies and wild displays of dancing that lasted for weeks. From as early as the eighth century and as late as the 17th, these dance manias spread across Europe." The Guardian (London) 01/27/01
  • NORTHERN BALLET'S NEW DIRECTOR: David Nixon, a former star of the National Ballet of Canada, is to become the artistic director of Britain's popular Northern Ballet Theatre." National Post (Canada) 01/27/01
  • Thursday January 25

    • BIG MISTAKE? The Bolshoi Ballet stumbles into London this week. The company has been a mess the past year. There's been "talk of missing money; of a threadbare repertoire; of a headless organisation, because the new team of the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky (artistic director) and Anatoly Iksanov (general director) had yet to get its act together." The question is - is this a company that should be touring right now? The Independent (London) 01/23/01

    Tuesday January 23

    • HAPPILY EVER AFTER? In 1998, six male stars of London's Royal Ballet left to start their own company. "The central question was whether it would genuinely be a new kind of company, a democratic, intensely creative Gang of Six. And so, what happened? Have the six friends lived happily ever after? No, of course they didn't. Did the company become a star vehicle? Yes, of course it did. Are they all still friends? Have a guess." The Telegraph (London) 01/23/01

    Wednesday January 17

    • NO RESPECT FOR THE DEAD: Ron Protas, the Martha Graham heir and owner of the trademark of her name has filed a lawsuit against the Martha Graham Center. "The suit seeks to stop the center, which encompasses the school and company founded by the legendary choreographer, from using Graham's name. Triggering the lawsuit was the reopening of the Martha Graham School, which yesterday began operations in temporary quarters in lower Manhattan after a seven-month hiatus." Washington Post 01/17/01

    Tuesday January 16

    • THE IDEAL DANCER? So why do dancers have to look the same, skinny and tall? ''This new model of dancer based on zero body fat - somehow it's captured the complete imagination of the ballet directors. This sounds like how people used to talk about the stewardesses in the '50s." Boston Globe 01/16/01

    Sunday January 14

    • DANCE WITH ME: Should all kids have access to dance classes meant to lead a student to dance's professional ranks? The issue is brought up in San Francisco where a mother charges her 8-year-old daughter was rejected by the San Francisco Ballet School because she has a "short, athletic body" that doesn't fit the classical ballet ideal. The New York Times 01/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)
    • EXTREME DANCE: What does it mean to be a contemporary dancer? "Traditional" contemporary dance is changing and "idealized images of the body are increasingly being replaced with new models of what is dance and what is a dancer. Contemporary dance has been increasing "investigations into the avant-garde by employing people who openly defy expectations." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/13/01
    • NIJINSKY'S MAGIC: What was it about Vaslav Nijinsky that he so mesmerized the world - "that he should have inspired so many books, films, plays and pieces of artwork? He belonged in ballet's rarefied circles, yet during his career he captured popular imagination across the world. Fifty years after his death he still does. The Independent (London) 01/13/01

    Wednesday January 10

    • MAD ABOUT MARTHA: Martha Graham may be dead, and her company defunct. But Richard Move recreates the dance diva in drag. "He describes his dances as 'Cliffs Notes versions' that use none of Graham's copyrighted material but evoke its essence. 'She has an evening-length Clytemnestra. I do a 10-minute version where I eliminate the minor characters and just go right for the love triangle and the murders'." Village Voice 01/09/01
    • TURNING 50 IN POOR HEALTH: The English National Ballet celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, but all is not well at Britain’s second largest ballet company. "It doesn’t have the money to stage the kind of ballets that would bring it greater artistic adventure - and greater critical acclaim." Not to mention that Derek Deane, the company’s artistic director since 1993, has finally given up on pleading for more funds and is leaving at the close of the season. The Times (London) 1/10/01

    Tuesday January 9

    • UNBERABLE LIGHTNESS OF DANCING: Choreographers Seth Riskin and Mia Keinanen have developed a new form of dance. "When I am onstage, I'm not really being a gymnast, and I'm not really being a dancer, either. I have no dance training. I am a light dancer, which is something different. It's not just the movement of the body, it's the movement of the space as well, since the light defines all of the space around me.'' Boston Herald 01/08/01

    Tuesday January 2

    • GRAHAM DANCE SCHOOL OPENING: The Martha Graham Company may be dead but the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Center is opening a new school this month. No, that doesn't mean the disputes between the Graham heir and the Center's leadership have been sorted out. New York Times 01/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)
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