"The story is old, the steps are old, and that's all part of Swan Lake's endurance – it's a classical ballet. So how does a ballet company make their Swan Lake different from the Swan Lake next door?" Here's how four prominent choreographers have differentiated their versions. - New York Observer
And so experts are helping them, along with athletes from other arenas entirely, learn to avoid injury. Aside from the art, the biggest difference: "There's no other athlete who spends as many hours training." - ABC (Australia)
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has upended ballet, as prominent artists shun Russia's storied dance companies; theaters in the West cancel performances by the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky; and dance in Russia, which had opened up to the world ..., seems to be turning inward again." - The New York Times
"Intimacy work for screen and theater doesn't entirely translate to dance. In those fields, intimacy directors choreograph sexually charged scenes by setting the performers' moves in advance, but for existing dance works, the choreography mostly can't be altered, which limits their potential input." - The New York Times
For 25 years, an enterprising Texan named Nancy Henderek has been bringing major artists to her hometown for a three-day festival with "bite-size samplings" (hence the name) from multiple works and companies on each program. And she helps edit some of those works herself. - The New York Times
"The dance company announced Thursday that Alejandro Cerrudo, 41, will be its next leader. Cerrudo has worked as a dancer and choreographer for 24 years, most recently as resident choreographer at the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle." - The Charlotte Observer
The disparities between the dance and tech communities can seem pretty vast, yet the two have found an odd, contemporary synergy in NFTs: non-fungible (as in, one-of-a-kind) tokens (as in, a thing). - Dance Magazine
I’m struck by what the company could accomplish with a leadership choice that looks to the future of ballet. A choice that makes a strong statement about representation and progress, and acknowledges a new generation of artists — and potential audience members. - Washington Post
Freed of London, based in Hackney, has been making pointe shoes for almost a century. But while being one of the only producers of the shoes in the UK means that business is booming, the technique has been added to a red list of endangered crafts at risk of being lost. - BBC
The former ABT star, now artistic director of the Australian Ballet, wanted to bring together leading dance companies from all over the country for a festival. That gathering, called DanceX, was to open last September but was foiled by a COVID lockdown. DanceX will happen this October. - The Age (Melbourne)
Mansiya V.P. was three when her mother took her and her older sister to Bharatanatyam lessons. The family persisted despite opposition from the local mosque committee, and, at 27, she's pursuing a doctorate in Bharatanatyam. Now a Hindu temple has refused to let her dance there because she's Muslim. - BBC
"(They're) two celebrated dance artists with different styles, temperaments and cultural backgrounds. What they have in common is willingness — hunger, really — to take on weighty issues. Otake has been illuminating the environmental damage caused by nuclear accidents. Jones is intimately connected to the struggle against racism." - The New York Times
"My life totally changed in one day. In the morning, I didn't know I was going to leave Russia. And in the night, I was sitting on the plane. ... I never followed politics. But politics became impossible to ignore, which is why I spoke out against the war." - The Guardian
"I'm in an abandoned-looking house, where a woman appears like a dancing apparition. Then I'm going down a rabbit hole into a tea party in a bright yellow field. I'm conducting avatars moving to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring; taking a dance class where the teacher is a hologram." - The Guardian
