As in last year’s column, a couple of these books were published recently; the others earlier in the century. All, in one way or another, are about dancing and dance, the people who make it, practice it, teach it, and, no small thing, the passion that drives them. - Oregon ArtsWatch
The National Labor Relations Board ruled in their favor and they're getting compensation, but the ten dancers are declining to return to DBDT. So they got together for one last performance — a program of new pieces collectively titled Emergence —before figuring out where their careers will take them next. - KERA (Dallas)
Two weeks ago, comedian Steph Broadbridge cancelled Raygun: The Musical just before its Sydney premiere after notorious-Olympic-breaker-and-viral-sensation Dr. Rachael Gunn's lawyers sent a cease-and-desist notice. Then the producer got a demand for $10,000 for Gunn's legal fees, and Broadbridge had another idea. - The Sydney Morning Herald (MSN)
"Cervilio Miguel Amador has served as interim artistic director since Jodie Gates’s abrupt departure in September 2023 – just 14 months after she took the job." - The Cincinnati Enquirer (Yahoo!)
"During the dance company’s roughly 200 shows over eight weeks, a dancer can do up to 650 kicks in a single day. ... While this signature kick is a festive feat of physics in its own right, the math on stage also makes the magic." - Popular Science
The decision by the city council — to redistribute the $248,000 previously allocated for DBDT to other organizations — comes just a few days after DBDT settled, by paying $560,000, a complaint brought to the National Labor Relations Board by the dancers DBDT fired last summer." - Dallas Observer
"The troupe never strayed from its comedic roots but has evolved in other ways. … The quality of dancing is much higher than it used to be. … (And) because the new generation of dancers has been exposed to drag all their lives, they gravitate more toward ... the elegance of the art form." - Pointe Magazine
The version we see today is about half the length of Ailey's 1960 original; nine songs were removed for an overseas tour in 1962, and the cuts have stuck. But interim artistic director Matthew Rushing and composer Du’Bois A’Keen have reimagined those missing scenes for a piece titled Sacred Songs. - Dance Magazine
The artistic director of the Montreal-based troupe Le Patin Libre ("free skate") stresses that audiences shouldn't expect anything like Merce Cunningham or Pina Bausch or Alvin Ailey but in an ice rink. Yet their work is to conventional figure skating something like what contemporary dance is to ballet. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
The strike, following unsuccessful negotiations, concerns the remuneration of preparation time before performances. According to the union, only six hours of monthly preparation are paid, compared to a real average of 30 hours. - Gramilano
Attorneys for Rachael Gunn, who gained global notoriety with her last-place performance at the Paris Olympics, put the kibosh on Raygun: The Musical, arguing that the show would damage her reputation and that she owns the IP of her moves. Does she have a leg to stand on? Here's an explainer. - Crikey (Australia)
Under a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board, "10 fired dancers, and three whose offers of employment were rescinded, will receive over $560,000 from the dance company in back pay, front pay and compensation for damages incurred through the loss of their employment." - KERA (Dallas)
If there were ever an argument for dance (and a sense of humor) as a way to extend one’s life, well: Dick Van Dyke in a suit and tie, barefoot, dancing in his California backyard as he nears his 99th birthday, is it. - Vulture
