Dance

“It could be a dream or a nightmare. You’re 84. What would it be like to have an artistic conversation with your 30-year-old self? [Rainer] is finding that out as she reconstructs, in collaboration with Emily Coates, Parts of Some Sextets, which she created in 1965 for 10 performers and 12 mattresses. A complex braiding of movement, text and, yes, mattresses, it builds an invigorating labyrinth of choreographic activity.” – The New York Times

“I learned that the dancer inside me doesn’t care about this wheelchair. She just wanted to find a way to keep dancing. I think I’m living the life I was born to live. That was an accident, this is a choice.” WWL-TV (New Orleans)

The violence, the hopelessness and the misery in the slums of Rio de Janeiro are all a direct result of the lack of guidance, role models or future prospects — except drug trafficking — for young people. That’s why the 31-year-old Daiana began offering young girls an alternative: a ballet school in the favela. – Der Spiegel

Seventy-five years ago, in a San Francisco busy with Naval activity in the middle of WWII, the San Francisco Ballet staged the first full-length Nutcracker in the U.S. The snow is still falling – but there’s a lot more of it now than there was in 1944, when 16 white-clad ballet corps members danced with sparkler-style sticks around the stage. – San Francisco Chronicle

In a lot of Asian countries, “hip-hop rose to popularity as a form of self-expression and resistance, sometimes in the face of colonialism and oppressive regimes.” But current Asian American hip hop groups are all about finding each other, and finding community. – Noisey

Colin Dunne doesn’t wear the Celtic-ized costumes or hold his torso and arms rigid; he frequently dances in sneakers or barefoot; he sometimes improvises, which is almost unheard-of in traditional Irish dance. And in his newest show, he’s collaborating with a dead fiddler who was even more nonconformist than he is. – The New York Times

“Countless dancers find themselves at a crossroads when they question whether they still love dance, whether the sacrifices are worth it or whether a professional career is truly what they want — or truly possible. We spoke with three dancers who faced this crucial turning point and achieved the right balance of ballet in their lives.” – Pointe Magazine

Gia Kourlas: “He had a different partner this week because his regular one, Lindsay Arnold, had a death in her family. It didn’t make his dancing better or worse. It remains consistent in its awfulness.” – The New York Times

“Often when I work with directors, or when I’m directing myself, what you think at the beginning often changes. That’s fair and normal. But with this show [American Utopia], the ideas David first presented me with have not changed. … I’ve worked with him for so long that I can literally get in his body.” – Vulture

“I was never ashamed of being a sissy, and I wore the bullying as a badge of honor,” he writes. “I knew what was going on and I knew who I was, so I took care of myself by being funny. Nevertheless, every solo I made up in the first part of my career was a humiliation dance in one way or another.” – Washington Post

Says one 79-year-old dancer, “While I am dancing, I am very focused. I listen to the music and the lyrics. I also think about my movement: How can I dance beautifully? I actually forget that I am aging.” – The New York Times

Stephen Beagley was a leading classical ballet dancer in the 1970s and 1980s in Britain, and starred in CATS as well. He’s been jailed for 10 years for molesting girls ages 9-13. – BBC

The Nutcracker, which is the source of much funding for ballet companies across the Western world and especially in the U.S., is a huge tradition – and one that, increasingly, audiences are finding disturbing. So ballet companies are making changes for this year’s and future productions. “On Friday, the Kansas City Ballet announced the company has signed on to a national campaign called Final Bow for Yellowface, a pledge to remove outdated caricatures.” – KCUR

Last week in Montreal was the annual conference of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. Kathleen McGuire was there’s and she brings news of nine interesting pieces of research presented there, answering questions from “What effect does training load have on injury?” to “How does perfectionism play out in dance?” and “Do padded socks work?” – Dance Magazine

Paul “liked watching the dancer figure it out. He liked giving you a challenge or an obstacle or a directive and then sitting back and seeing what you would do with it. He was also famous for giving you two notes that contradicted each other. Like “I want you to crawl slower but get off faster.” For him, there was something in the spirit of the try, the spirit of the effort. I intend on keeping that.” – The New York Times

Of course, age creates physical limitations. But there is artistry in their dancing and musicality, in the way they hang a fraction behind the beat to create the lilting sensation of floating. It’s soulful. By the end of their sessions, which do involve breaks — cookies and coffee are essential for recharging the body — they seem to transform into lighter, younger versions of themselves. – The New York Times

“A Chorus Line” is the ultimate ensemble musical, a compilation of autobiographical material about the emotional travails and aspirations of Broadway dancers, as they audition for spots in the singing and dancing chorus of a new musical. – Washington Post

Ever since Michael Smuin founded Smuin Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco in 1994, the company has had to scrounge rented studio space as it could, sometimes even ending rehearsals so that children’s classes could use the space. Now, at last, they own their own building — in a former ballroom that was spotted by a former company dancer who became a real estate agent. – The San Francisco Chronicle

“Indeed, the world’s love of flamenco has long created problems within Spain, where the performance was once considered a vulgar and pornographic spectacle. Over the years, many Spaniards considered flamenco a scourge of their nation, deploring it as an entertainment that lulled the masses into stupefaction and hampered Spain’s progress toward modernity. Flamenco’s shifting fortunes show how Spain’s complex national identity continues to evolve to this day.” – Zócalo Public Square

“That question took us on a journey from Appalachian front porches, to dance classes across our nation, to the halls of Congress, and finally a Kansas City convention center. And along the way, we uncovered a secret history of square dancing that made us see how much of our national identity we could stuff into that square, and what it means for a dance to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.” (audio) – Radiolab

A spokesman for the University of South Wales said “projected recruitment figures for the degree mean that we will not have enough students in future to be able to continue to provide a high quality education”. – The Stage

Jacques d’Amboise started the nonprofit organization while he was a principal dancer at New York City Ballet to expose children to what he feels is the transformational power of dance. Today 6,500 children in New York City participate in N.D.I. school programs each year. The N.D.I. Collaborative teaching program will offer on-site intensive training and professional workshops to teaching artists, dancers and classroom teachers at the institute’s Harlem headquarters. It will also provide consulting services to other dance education organizations. – The New York Times

The announcement comes nearly 15 years after Kain assumed the creative reins in 2005 and 50 years after joining the company as a dancer in 1969. Kain commissioned and acquired 65 works for the company, and is directing and staging a new “Swan Lake” in June 2020. – Toronto Star

“The figures are still shocking in terms of people who don’t exercise or who are not aware of the reality that diet is actually extremely important,” she said. “If you want to have a future, you’ve got to provide for that now.” – The New York Times

The organization — which used to be called the American Dance Institute until it moved from Rockville, MD into a huge former lumberyard in Catskill, NY — lets dance artists spend one or two weeks at its specialized facility holding advanced technical rehearsals before a new work’s premiere. Lumberyard director Adrienne Willis says that “there hasn’t been a single artist who didn’t say that if they didn’t have this time at Lumberyard, this piece wouldn’t have happened.” But she’s having a very hard time getting funders to agree. – Dance Magazine

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s artistic director, Patricia Barker, “says she realized that a season devoted to women’s works shouldn’t be seen as a huge undertaking, but something that could and should be commonplace. ‘It’s just as easy to hire a female choreographer as a male one.'” – Pointe Magazine

“Touring with a message is not for the faint of heart. From considerations about how to market the work to concerns about safety, touring to cities where, in general, that message may not be so welcome requires companies to figure out how they’ll respond to opposition. Yet many artists find that venturing away from their typical audiences offers an unparalleled opportunity to raise awareness, spark conversations and, in the best cases, even change minds.” – Dance Magazine