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Home > DANCE

DECEMBER 1999

DANCE DREAMS:Dance in Boston has languished, but a resurgence of interest in a local choreography commissioning project sets up new hopes.Boston Globe 01/02/00

CREATIVE CRI$I$: Boston choreographers say their greatest impediment is money. Boston Herald 12/31/99 

SUCCESSIVE SPLENDOR: Ten years ago the Alvin Ailey Dance Company was in the red. A decade into Judith Jamison's direction, now it's got the largest budget of any modern dance company and popular and critical success. "I don't think there's any doubt that Judy is the principal reason that Ailey is one of the few modern-dance companies that's survived the death of its founder," says Ailey board president Henry McGee. New York Magazine 12/29/99

LIFE AFTER MARTHA: The Martha Graham Dance Company has had a rough time since its founder died. Suddenly there was no big personality around which the universe turned, no fund-raising lucky charm. Can former Graham dancer Janet Eilber revitalize things? Los Angeles Times 12/19/99

MODERN DANCE: Tracing movement across a century. Orange County Register 12/12/99

TOUGH NUT: The New York City Ballet musicians strike is over, but the issues were legitimate. Says a former board member on the state of the music: "Ugly sound, wrong notes, missing notes have become increasingly familiar. The musical direction has grown slacker and slacker – it’s no secret that the company has been unable to hire a strong new musical director because of the absurd rules and attitudes that have come to govern the orchestra’s performance." It was time to confront the issue. New York Observer 12/10/99

DEEP CHILL: Has it come to this? - the Kennedy Center stage covered with ice and a "Nutcracker" atop it that would be better suited to the local municipal skating rink rather than a major performing arts venue. Washington Post 12/10/99

NEW YORK CITY BALLET comes to agreement with striking musicians. New York Times 12/7/99 (one-time registration required)

Musicians vote to accept contract 12/8/99

STREET HOCKEY, MOUNTIES AND A HUDSON'S BAY BLANKET: Royal Winnipeg Ballet's new "Canadianized" Nutcracker has audiences jumping to their feet to cheer. Some critics, on the other hand... Toronto Globe and Mail 12/7/99  

A STRANGER'S TASTE: Siobhan Davies was given four weeks to create an opening piece for the Royal Ballet's reentry to Covent Garden. "While the Royal Ballet is badly in need of new ideas and fresh choreography, Davies was a strange choice. Barefoot, weighted and understated, her choreography is a wriggly, dense, slippery kind of calligraphy in which the entire body seems to slither in a constant motion that you can never quite freeze in your head." London Telegraph 12/7/99

BALLET SMACKDOWN: Want to save ballet? How about some lessons from the brilliant marketers of the wildly popular World Wrestling Federation? Seattle Weekly 12/10/99

RENEWING TRADITION: Ailey successor Judith Jamison has become a High Priestess of American dance. Washington Post 12/5/99

TOE SHOE TYRANNY: They may look glamorous, but the physical pain is the stuff of legend. Los Angeles Times 12/5/99

BETWEEN PLEASURE AND PAIN: Scientists who study pain say ballerinas withstand more pain than any athlete, even football players. New medical study reveals that every dancer examined in Canada's National Ballet has arthritis from dancing on pointe. National Post (Canada) 12/2/99

THE SAME SPEED - EVERYTIME: New York City Ballet is using taped music while its orchestra is on strike. For the dancers, not such a bad thing, maybe? The Guardian 12/2/99

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