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SEPTEMBER 2001
Thursday September 27
ATTACKING THE
CRITIC: Houston Ballet didn't like a story about the company in the
alternative weekly Houston Press. So the company has withheld review tickets
from he publication's critic and refuse to talk to reporters. Houston Press 09/26/01 [second
item]
- WHAT
HOLDS HOUSTON BALLET BACK? "Ben Stevenson is the longest-serving head of a
major American ballet company." He's built the company into a respected
institution. So why is it that "every five years or so, it seems he might be out
of a job"? Houston Press 09/01
SUZANNE
FARRELL - FROM DANCER TO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: "The greatest ballerina this
country has produced is moving into a new sphere as a leader. The woman who for
nearly 30 years did what she was told is now calling the shots. For dance
lovers, her arrival here as artistic director of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet - an
entity conceived and wholly funded by the Kennedy Center - is as momentous as
basketball great Michael Jordan moving in to run the Wizards."
Washington Post 09/26/01
IN
SEARCH OF SUPPORT: Alberta Ballet faces a life-threatening deficit. The
company's "financial problems reflect an inability to match expansionary
artistic ambitions with the realities of its fundraising prospects. Calgary is a
rich city in a rich province. On a per capita basis, its citizens support
charitable causes as generously as does any other Canadian city, but they are
notoriously niggardly when it comes to supporting Calgary's struggling
non-profit arts groups." National Post
09/26/01
Wednesday September 26
ROOM FOR
POP CULTURE IN THE HIGH ARTS: The Scottish Arts Minister has attacked what
he calls elitism in the arts, saying, "I think there is, in certain quarters,
intense snobbery that still prevails. People get hung up on classical ballet -
the whole point of the business plan is to have dance in the widest
sense." The Herald (UK) 09/25/01
- Previously: CLASSICS BEFORE
MODERN: Scottish National Ballet recently got rid of its artistic director
and announced it was abandoning classical ballet to reinvent as a modern
company. Now top dancers with the company may strike in protest of the
plan. The Scotsman 09/23/01
Tuesday September 25
DISCARDING
A STAR: For the past 11 years, Irek Mukhamedovhas was the Royal Ballet's
biggest star. But 'there was no regretful but grateful meeting between star and
boss to declare time on a lustrous career, let alone an announcement." The
dancer even had to organize his own public farewell. The Telegraph (UK) 09/25/01
Monday September 24
CLASSICS BEFORE
MODERN: Scottish National Ballet recently got rid of its artistic director
and announced it was abandoning classical ballet to reinvent as a modern
company. Now top dancers with the company may strike in protest of the plan.
The Scotsman 09/23/01
- MAD
PLANS: Dancers also object to a board proposal to sell their historic
headquarters. The 36-strong troupe is "also demanding the removal of the current
Scottish Ballet board and the scrapping of the restructuring plans, which they
describe as 'madness'." The Sunday Times (UK)
09/23/01
Tuesday September 18
NORTHERN
PLUCK: The UK's Northern Ballet has had a string of bad luck. "During the
past three years the Leeds-based touring company has had to cope with the death
of its long-time artistic director Christopher Gable, the departure of his
replacement, and arson. How did it survive such a string of soap opera
adversities?" The Times (UK)
09/18/01
Monday September 17
NOT
DANCE ON THE CHEAP: Is Scottish National Ballet abandoning classical dance
in favor of going modern because it wants to do dance on the cheap? Not at all,
says the company's board chairman. Our commitment to quality remains.
Scotland on Sunday 09/16/01
Sunday September 16
DANCING IN THE
LIGHT: Is dance ready to sell out in return for larger audiences?
"Contemporary gallery and museum art glows with attention and lucre while modern
dance, surviving on a diet of instant noodles and staticky sound systems, is as
pale and wan as ever. Now that they're willing, why don't choreographers get to
be must-see sensations with big, hip followings? Why do you have to be a 'dance
lover' to love downtown modern dance?" The New York
Times 09/16/01 (one-time registration required for
access)
Wednesday September 12
A HOME OF THEIR
OWN: Mark Morris's new dance home opens. "The Morris Dance Center — perhaps
the most lavish dance center in New York, created at a cost of $6.2 million —
has become something of a symbol. For Mr. Morris and his dancers, it is a place
to call home. For other dance companies, it is a place to envy, a place where
dancers have their own cubicles, their own physical therapists, their own
mailboxes." The New York Times 09/12/01 (one-time registration required for
access)
Monday September 10
A
BARBIE BALLET: Barbie is sponsoring the English National Ballet's production
of Nutcracker this year. "Mattel said the £85,000 sponsorship deal, due
to be officially announced on Tuesday, was designed to encourage young girls to
become more interested in ballet." BBC
09/10/01
Sunday September 9
THE
DIFFICULTY OF DANCE: Why is ballet such a difficult art to warm up to? "The
problem is that we are most comfortable with art that achieves its effects
verbally. It's no coincidence that the mass art forms are literature, cinema,
pop, television and theatre. Even with a Beethoven or Mozart symphony, it's
comforting to have a programme or sleeve note revealing what the piece is
"about". With dance I always felt as if the audience had to provide mental
subtitles for a silent movie. Some choreographers compensate with the use of
mime, but this further repelled me, mime being the only art form lower on my
list than ballet." The Guardian (UK)
09/08/01
Friday September 7
YES,
MIKKO IN BOSTON: The new artistic director of Boston Ballet is 39-year-old
Finnish dancer and choreographer Mikko Nissinen. He seems to be "a born
impresario, whose dream of leading a major troupe could give Boston's stumbling
dance company the energy and elan it needs. Nissinen... will commute between
Boston and Calgary until his contract with the Alberta Ballet runs out next
June." Boston Globe 09/07/01
- MIKO'S
BIG PLANS: He thinks the Ballet should be a leader among dance companies in
the United States, performing repertory that cannot be seen elsewhere. He wants
the Ballet to tour internationally, and he would like its school to become an
example for others across the country. He also intends to cultivate
choreographers from within the company. Boston Herald
09/07/01
- STORMY PAST: Nissinen, 39, has had a stormy tenure with Alberta Ballet. "His
appointment makes him the youngest artistic director of any American or Canadian
troupe of comparable size." National Post
09/07/01
- Previously: MIKKO
IN BOSTON? Is Finnish choreographer Mikko Nissinen
about to become artistic director of Boston Ballet? Last week Nissinen quit as
head of Alberta Ballet, and he's widely assumed to be Boston bound. Boston will
admit only that Nissinen's been interviewed along with "several other
candidates." Boston Globe 08/24/01
Tuesday September 4
A MAN'S
WORLD: From the outside, the dance world looks overwhelming female. But
according to a new study of 25 dance theaters and festivals in New York last
season, 147 male choreographers were produced and only 85 female choreographers.
Of publications writing about dance - including The New York Times and
The Village Voice - and the fund- raising letters of two major producing
organizations last fall, while 70 men were written about, only 25 women were.
The New York Times 09/04/01 (one-time registration required for
access)
Sunday September 2
DROPPING
BALLET FOR MODERN: So Scottish National Ballet has killed off its classical
ballet and plans to reinvent as a modern company. Why? "Money is suspected to be
the motive. No-frills contemporary dance, with its smaller forces and taped
music, costs less to do than ballet, with its spectacle, corps de ballet and
orchestra. Plus, I fancy, there is a vague feeling that Scotland is a culturally
go-ahead place (as the Edinburgh Festival annually reinforcess) and certain
influential people chafe against ballet's old-fashioned values and senior
audiences." The Telegraph (UK) 09/01/01
MONEY FOR NEW
DANCE: New York's Joyce Theatre announces a new $1 million program to
commission new dance works. The New York Times
09/01/01 (one-time registration required for
access)
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