OCTOBER 2001
Wednesday October 31
JUST AS BALLET
SURGES... Outgoing Scottish Ballet director Robert North says he wonders why
the company's board wants to switch from traditional ballet to being a modern
company. According to new figures, Scottish Ballet scored an increase of more
than 50 percent in audience last year - from 43,000 to more than 66,000. "At the
same time, contemporary dance companies in Scotland attracted an audience of
little more than 3,000 between them." The Scotsman 10/30/01
NATIONAL
BALLET - MORE WITH LESS: The National Ballet of Canada is 50 years old, but
for all its critical acclaim, its funding and operations have been scaled back
in recent years. The company is starved for money compared to its peers.
"Measuring their budgets in Canadian dollars, that of the American Ballet
Theatre is $43-million, while that of the San Francisco Ballet is $39 million -
each roughly double the National's paltry annual budget of $15-million."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
10/31/01
Monday October 29
NOW
BEING RADICAL IS AN ASSET: Thirteen years ago Michael Clark was considered
"far too radical" to head the Scottish Ballet. "But with the ballet seeking to
modernise itself and using the dreaded C word (contemporary) he is rapidly
shaping up as an ideal candidate. Obsessed with sex and famous for using atonal
indie rock for his compositions, Clark is everything traditional ballet with its
orchestras and twee costumes is not." Scotland on
Sunday 10/28/01
Sunday October 28
MODERN
TAKE ON BALLET: William Forsyth established his reputation as a modern
choreographer. But now he's taking on ballet: "A lot of institutions are
conservative and frightened. They think they have to protect ballet because it
is so delicate. It's actually very robust. It needs to be tested, not coddled.
The mistake of balletic modernity was to avoid bravura. I think you should aim
for bravura. If you can dance the shit out of something, that is what you should
do." Financial Times
10/27/01
THE
NATIONAL AT 50: The National Ballet of Canada is 50 years old. The company
is coming out of a severe mid-life crisis after the Kimberly Glasco affair, but
its books are balanced and director James Kudelka seems to have a strong
direction. Toronto Star
10/27/01
- REPUTATION
REBUILD: Is the National a good regional company or one that deserves an
international reputation? It's always had first-rank dancers, but money
constraints have kept the company from touring and establishing its reputation.
Toronto Star 10/27/01
Friday September 26
BOSTON
BALLET, LOOKING GOOD: The poor, beat up and beaten-upon Boston Ballet may be
coming back strong. The "program that opened last night had the feeling of a
fine, fresh start, a triple bill that was about dancers dancing, which hasn't
always been the case in recent seasons so overloaded with decor and plot that
the company's excellent performers couldn't shine through. They do in this
round." Boston Globe
10/26/01
Thursday October 25
ALWAYS THE
FIRST TO GO: The city of Phoenix is feeling a bit of a financial pinch, and
members of the city council are turning against funding for local arts groups.
The city's ballet and opera companies have been specifically targeted for cuts
by two powerful councilmen. Arizona Republic
10/24/01
Tuesday October 23
THE
ROYAL'S NEW ERA: Ross Stretton's tenure as director of London's Royal Ballet
officially begins. Already there has been some controversy as a star dancer
quits the company. Stretton says he wants to make a more welcoming place for
choreographers, but warns there will be some turnover in the company's ranks
next year. The Telegraph (UK) 10/23/01
- DANCERS ON
STRETTON: “Of course there are differences. Ross is a very young man, very
active. He teaches class, he coaches, he is in rehearsals. He’s there all the
time and you feel his presence constantly. He spends more hours here than we do.
And he’s very easy to talk to, he’s very approachable.”
The Times (UK) 10/23/01
SO MUCH FOR
PRIVILEGED ARTISTS: The Bolshoi's Maya Plisetskaya was one of the great
ballerinas of the 20th Century. "The humiliations she and other artists endured
at the hands of government handlers and arts bureaucrats challenge popular
notions of the privileged lives of Soviet artists. Always forced to beg — to
travel, to prepare new works, to be paid fairly — Plisetskaya and her colleagues
more closely resembled Russian serf artists of the 18th century than cultural
workers in a modern socialist state." The New York Times 10/23/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Monday October 22
FINANCING THE CHANGE
OF LIFE: Scottish Ballet says it may ask for an extra £1 million when it
submits its budget plan to the Scottish Arts Council next month. The company,
which already receives £2.8 million a year from the Council, wants the money to
help transform itself from a traditional company to a modern company, despite
heavy criticism. The
Scotsman 10/22/01
Friday October 19
ONE-WAY TICKET TO
RIDE: Scottish Ballet management insists on transforming the company from
ballet to modern despite overwhelming opposition from all quarters. “The board
say there has been consultation but so far the consultation has been very
unsatisfactory. The dancers have repeatedly asked for another meeting for the
board to explain their decision, but there has been none."
The Scotsman 10/19/01
Thursday October 18
NATIONAL
BALLET'S "SYMBOLIC" SURPLUS: Canada's National Ballet posts a small
"symbolic" surplus for the year despite declines in funding and donations. "The
company's accumulated deficit of $4-million almost exactly matches what the
National Ballet has lost through cutbacks in Ontario government funding."
National Post 10/18/01
BALLET WEB
CENSORED: Scottish Ballet company members are contractually prohibited from
publicly criticizing the company. But the dancers are furious about management's
decisions to turn the company into a modern company, so they started a website
with a forum where they discussed their unhappiness. After the company
threatened the website managers, saying "that some of the content was defamatory
and should be removed," the offending comments were deleted.
The Scotsman 10/17/01.
Wednesday October 17
NEW ABT
DIRECTOR: American Ballet Theater has suffered under a series of managerial
woes and money woes. Tuesday ABT appointed Wallace Chappell, 60 as its new
executive director. Chappell is "the director of the Hancher Auditorium at the
University of Iowa since 1986, who has also held ranking staff positions with
the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and the
Repertory Theater of St. Louis." The New York Times 10/17/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
OAKLAND
STRUGGLES: Oakland Ballet is struggling. Last weekend's performance was "a
disappointing affair that brings the company's recent struggles painfully to
light. After hiring a new artistic director last year, Karen Brown, the company
has been trying to knit together a mostly new group of performers and to fill
its ranks with enough qualified male dancers, all on a shoestring budget. It's a
big job, no doubt, but the results Sunday were dismal."
San Jose Mercury News 10/17/01
BALLET
BIG PASSES: "Willam Farr Christensen, a Utah dancer who started on the
vaudeville stage and went on to become one of the most important figures in
American ballet, died Sunday. He was 99." Dallas Morning News
(AP) 10/17/01
Sunday October 14
A
NEW DEFINITION OF 'SUCCESS': "Despite incurring a disastrous $459,626
deficit in their 2000-01 season, Alberta Ballet officials asserted that the past
season was a success Friday at their annual general meeting." Calgary Herald 10/13/01
MEN IN THE
WORKPLACE: "American modern dance, a genre spawned and nurtured by women
over the last century, has also produced a proliferation of extraordinary male
dancers in the last decade. Wider public acceptance of men entering the dance
field, the fostering of versatility among dancers and the accessibility to
better training across America have produced discernible results. More men in
contemporary dance have stronger techniques, dance with refined musicality and
possess a more mature artistry than ever before." The
New York Times 10/14/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Friday October 12
WINNIPEG
BALLET BACK IN THE RED: "The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is in the red after three
years of financial surpluses. In the mid 1990's, it managed to clear a debt of
$900,000. But at a meeting Wednesday evening, the company announced it lost
almost $170,000 last season, leaving a new deficit of $158,000." CBC 10/12/01
Wednesday October 10
THE ODD COUPLE:
Choreographer Twyla Tharp and rock-star-turned-classical-composer Billy Joel are
collaborating on a show which likely will open on Broadway next year. One thing
they might want to change is the name. "The Thoel Project" just doesn't trip
lightly on the tongue. New York Post
10/10/01
DIAGHILEV IT AIN'T: Chunky Move
sounds like a gangsta rap group. Actually, it's an Australian dance company. But
the name isn't altogether inappropriate, with "works that critics have described
as 'dangerous,' 'ugly' and 'uncomfortable." Or you can get a hint from titles of
the two works in the American debut this week - "Crumpled" and "Corrupted
2" International Herald Tribune
10/10/01
Tuesday October 9
HEALING WITH
CASH: "National Lottery funding, supplemented by private and corporate
donations and other public support, is giving British dance a major face-lift.
The result is the construction of new, purpose-built centres for training,
research and performance across the land, or the complete refurbishment of
existing institutions." The Times (UK)
10/09/01
- NEW
WRAPPER, SAME PRODUCT: "Across Britain, huge sums are being spent upgrading
old dance centres and building smart new ones. [But] though these centres are
undoubtedly good for modern architecture's health, whether they have any value
in improving the quality of modern dance performance itself is a moot point."
The Telegraph (UK) 10/09/01
BALLET + OPERA =
CHALLENGE: Members of the Scottish Parliament "are set to challenge the
controversial merger between Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera, after
conducting an inquiry into the dance company's proposed change in artistic
direction. The news will be welcomed by the ballet's 36 dancers who have
threatened strike action over the proposed change." The Scotsman 10/09/01
Monday October 8
PROTESTING
SCOTTISH BALLET: Opposition is mounting against Scottish Ballet management's
decision to abandon classical dance and become a modern company. Scottish
politicians called company leaders "gutless and spineless" in their treatment of
the company's artistic director and said the dancers had been dealt with in an
'appalling' way. Sunday Times 10/07/01
Sunday October 7
DEATH
OF THE ENGLISH BALLET BLOODLINE? Does London's Royal Ballet star ballerina
Sarah Wildor's departure bode ill for the future of the company? "Dark omens are
being read in this parting. The death of the 'English' ballet bloodline appears
imminent, and to many concerned watchers the triumph of foreign all-comers and
guest stars in the new regime may end the last vestiges of individuality that
the Royal Ballet had as a company. Well, I'm not sure I see it quite like that,
though I do confess to anxiety. These are tricky times." The Telegraph (UK) 10/06/01
THE PULL OF THE
OLD, THE ALLURE OF THE NEW: "The classics are infinitely renewable and in
the public domain. They can also be the aesthetic equivalent of comfort food.
Yet when invested with a life of their own, with the kind of faith and
commitment that colored Soviet ballet performing in the mid-20th century, the
classics do approach the pure vitality of dance. That ideal is probably too much
to ask, however, of choreographers and performers living in so different a
time." The New York Times 10/07/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
BRINGING
NEW SHOCK VALUE TO 'SACRE': The outrage that greeted the first performances
of the Stravinsky/Nijinsky collaboration 'The Rite of Spring' has never been
equalled, and the ballet, credited with reinventing both musical and dance
forms, has become nearly as innocuous a piece of the standard repertoire as
'Swan Lake.' So what can a forward-thinking company do to breathe new life into
a work that was designed to shock and surprise? Chicago's Joffrey has some
ideas. Chicago Tribune
10/07/01
Friday October 5
CAMBODIAN
DANCERS DEFECT: At least six members of a touring group of dancers and
musicians from Phnom Penh abandoned the troupe's US tour Monday and appeared to
be planning to seek US residency. "In Cambodia as a performer, you can hardly
survive on that profession. There are no stages to perform on. There's only one
theater, and it's been burned down. The government has no money to fix it up."
Washington Post 10/05/01
CANADIAN
DANCER DEFECTS: Last spring Royal Winnipeg Ballet star Tara Birtwhistle quit
the Winnipeg and joined Alberta Ballet. The Winnipeg is one of Canada's top
companies, and the move was seen as a coup for Alberta. But only a few weeks
into the new season, Birtwhistle has quietly left Alberta and rejoined the
Winnipeg... National Post (Canada)
10/05/01
Wednesday October 3
ROYAL
TURMOIL: Ross Stretton has only been director of London's Royal Ballet for
about a month, but already the complaints are starting. Stretton says "I need to
change the concept of what ballet is". But that concept won't include star
dancer Sarah Wildor. Wildor suddenly announced her resignation last week after
it was obvious she didn't figure high in Stretton's plans. The Royal's
subscribers are also less than pleased by some of Stretton's other moves.
Sydney Morning Herald 10/03/01
Monday October 1
DANCE
UPDRAFT: Dance might be languishing elsewhere. But in the UK it's ascendant.
"An Arts Council survey last year discovered that, while audiences for all the
other performing arts had dwindled during the 1990s, the audiences for dance
increased by more than 13%, and those for contemporary dance by nearly 30%. This
audience is getting younger and trendier, too. And supply is more than keeping
up with demand." Sunday Times (UK) 09/30/01
LONGTERM
DANCE: Professional dancers may be forced to retire in their 30s or 40s but
some make dance a lifelong practice well into their later years. Dallas Morning News 10/01/01
SCOTTISH
BALLET'S NEW SCHOOL: "Christopher Barron, the man behind controversial moves
to change the Ballet’s direction from classical to contemporary, is in
discussions with Glasgow City Council about a training school - which should
also ensure the long-term future of the dance company." Scotland on Sunday 09/30/01