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FEBRUARY 2002
Wednesday February 27
RAGGED
LEGACY: The Kirov Ballet is one of the world's most-stories dance companies.
But "on the evidence of its recent season at the Kennedy Center, though, the
company is in a state of confusion, rushing pell-mell in two different and
opposite directions at once." New York Observer
02/26/02
Tuesday February 26
HERE
THEY GO AGAIN IN BOSTON: "Mikko Nissinen won't arrive in town for good until
April, but the Boston Ballet's incoming artistic director has let go of six of
the company's 43 dancers and decided not to renew contracts for three of its
four instructors. This is less turmoil than there was last year, when 15 dancers
were laid off. Only a week later, Maina Gielgud, hired to take over as artistic
director, resigned abruptly, complaining that cuts had been made without her
involvement." Boston Globe
02/26/02
Friday February 22
NORTHERN
BALLET CROSSROADS: Northern Ballet's new director David Nixon is taking the
company in new directions. "It’s a crucial time for both Nixon and NBT -
arguably the most popular ballet company in Britain. The pioneering outfit has
done much to popularise the artform with its unique 'dance drama' approach to
storytelling. But last year the company was treading water after the critical
drubbing of its 'exotic' - read whips, chains and leather - production of
Jekyll and Hyde." The Scotsman
02/22/02
Tuesday February 19
DANCING
ON ICE: Art or sport? Figure skating likes to have it both ways. And while
there's no question that there's an art component to ice dancing, "it's hard to
get past the frozen smiles and smug cuteness. So why are critics so eager to
review these works?" Irish
Times 02/18/02
Sunday February 17
DANCING
FOR THE GOLD: As part of the Olympic Arts Festival (see companion story in
Visual Arts,) the Salt Lake organizers have commissioned several dance
pieces to be performed during the games. The performances highlight the fine
line between dance and sport - after all, what is figure skating but dancing on
ice, and what is dancing but an Olympic event sans crooked judges and
endless press coverage? Los Angeles Times
02/16/02
Tuesday February 12
WHAT'S WRONG WITH
DANCE... The recent ballet season in New York was as excellent as you'll
find anywhere. "But all of this effort only made the truth more glaring: we were
wowed, but rarely moved; impressed, but almost never inspired. Where was the
edge, the exhilaration, the sense of having been a part of something larger than
a masterful pirouette? Has ballet been reduced to a series of sensational
athletic moves, a gymnastics of turns, jumps, and splits--and are audiences
content to be cheerleaders? Are we so seduced by pyrotechnics that we have
forgotten that ballet might also offer something more complex and daring?" The New Republic
02/12/02
Sunday February 10
PIRATE
DANCE: "Most of the great dance performances telecast in our lifetimes can't
be bought or borrowed, and probably never will be until their copyrights lapse.
If you taped them off the air, great, and if you can afford to visit archives in
New York, Paris, Copenhagen and other dance capitals to view company
collections, even better. Otherwise, your choice is to do without or to join the
unholy ranks of dance video outlaws." It's a thriving subculture. Los Angeles Times
02/10/02
REINVENTING LES
GRANDS: Montreal's Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal is one of
Canada's premiere dance companies. But two years ago it was awash in debt and on
the downside of a decade of shrinking audiences. But the company's new director
decided to reinvent - transforming a repertory stuffed with modern abstract
classics, to one featuring new works with strong narratives. Cheering audiences
suggest the strategy is working. The New York Times
02/10/02
Friday February 8
THE ONCE AND
FUTURE KIROV: "The Kirov Ballet is to get modern new premises that will
alter the pre-Revolutionary architectural landscape of the former Imperial
capital of St Petersburg... Yesterday a design by Eric Owen Moss, a Los
Angeles-based architect, was presented in the Kremlin. Ultimately, President
Putin will decide whether his home town will make the jump from the architecture
of the 18th century to that of the 21st. If he favours the project, he will face
tough opposition from St Petersburg’s snobbish cultural elite, its hardened
Soviet architects and city planners." The Times (UK)
02/07/02
Thursday February 7
DANCE DOESN'T
STUNT GROWTH: A new study finds that, contrary to popular perception, "there
is no evidence to show that rigorous exercise affects a young ballerina’s growth
or delays sexual maturity." The Scotsman 02/07/02
MEANING
TO DANCE: Is expressing the same as communicating? "Dance is not a universal
language. Movement is human, yes, but dance is more specific and has numerous
dialects that are like foreign languages to many people. We can’t assume that
through our dancing we will communicate with others."
Dance Current 02/02
Wednesday February 6
KOREAN
WINS TOP INTERNATIONAL DANCE PRIZE: Three Korean dancers won top prizes,
including first prize in the Prix de Lausanne international dance competition.
Choe Yu-hui, 17, beat 115 dance students from 21 countries to win the
competition, which is staged to identify the world's top young dancers. Korea Times
02/06/02
Sunday February 3
THE MAN BEHIND
MARK MORRIS: Behind every great artist there's a manager. Barry Alterman
plts Mark Morris's course. "Barry meets people that I don't meet, he knows
producers that I've met and maybe can't even remember the names of, and he's on
the phone with them all the time, encouraging, cajoling."
The New York Times 02/03/02
THE TYRANNY OF
MUSIC: "American dance is obsessed with, or even tyrannized by, music. Of
course, dance and music have been partners for ages and deserve to continue
their pas de deux. Yet fundamentally dance does not need music. Dance needs
rhythm." The New York Times
02/03/02
Friday February 1
GETTING
FIT FOR DANCE: Who's in better shape than dancers? But it isn't just dance
that keeps them fit - members of the Alvin Ailey Company add swimming, tae-boe,
weight lifting, step-aerobics, and jogging. "Your body is never going to be
perfect. You want it to be better, sure. And you always want what someone else
has." Atlanta
Journal-Constitution 01/31/02
REINVENTING
A CLASSIC: Just how popular is Riverdance? There are some 15 touring
companies doing Irish dance worldwide right now. Before Riverdance came along
there was no way to make a living as a step dancer...
Glasgow Herald 01/31/02
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