DARK
TIME FOR DANCE: The 90s were a dismal time for dance in America.
A new study reports falling audiences, declining funding and major
debt by most companies. Which dance companies fared best? "The
ballets that most effectively coped with financial crises were
medium-sized companies with annual budgets of $1 million to $5
million." The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland) 04/01/01
A
CULTURAL BASELINE: Columbia University study looks at how the
arts are covered in American media. Newspapers have failed to keep
up with cultural boom. Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 11/16/99
AND: Chicago
Tribune, San
Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, Houston Chronicle, CBC
(Canada), New York Times, Boston
Globe (second item) Artswire,
MSNBC, Houston
Press (third item), The
Idler and a contrary view
AND: Read
the report
Boston
Ballet
SAVING
BOSTON BALLET: "The Boston Ballet
administration's recent decision to appoint Music Director and
Principal Conductor Jonathan McPhee as interim artistic director
has prompted audience and company members to question his ability
to provide artistic leadership. Notably, the man who served in
that role for more than a decade isn't among the critics. To the
contrary, Bruce Marks expresses no concern." Boston
Herald 04/04/01
WHAT
WENT WRONG IN BOSTON? One of the great mysteries of the arts
world is why one discipline can thrive while another dies a lonely
death in the very same city. Yet it happens all the time, and
Boston is the latest case in point. One of America's great arts
towns, full of top-quality music, fine museums, and a famous theatre
scene, it has simply never embraced dance, and several companies
are currently paying the price. Boston
Globe 03/25/01
BOSTON
BAKED BLUNDER: Last week, the Boston Ballet made serious waves
when it dismissed a number of dancers from its ranks, apparently at
the behest of newly appointed artistic director Maina Gielgud.
Yesterday, Gielgud herself was severed, months before she was even
scheduled to officially begin work. The move leaves the company more
or less in a state of complete chaos. Boston
Herald 02/27/01
CREATIVE
CRI$I$: Boston choreographers say their
greatest impediment is money. Boston
Herald 12/31/99
Bolshoi
THE
BOLSHOI BRAND: The Bolshoi is no longer such a revered name. But
a girl's gotta eat - so the company is franchising out its school,
opening a branch of its school in Australia (even though the
announcement seems to have surprised the school's Australian hosts).
ThWednesday
February 21
BIG
MISTAKE? The Bolshoi Ballet stumbles into London this week. The
company has been a mess the past year. There's been "talk of
missing money; of a threadbare repertoire; of a headless
organisation, because the new team of the conductor Gennady
Rozhdestvensky (artistic director) and Anatoly Iksanov (general
director) had yet to get its act together." The question is -
is this a company that should be touring right now? The
Independent (London) 01/23/01
THE
BOLSHOI'S HARD TIMES: Its theatre is crumbling, it's artistic
reputation has been battered, and its subsidies from the Russian
government have fallen off. It's probably not much of a surprise
that the Bolshoi's regime was sacked this week. The
Times (London) 09/01/00
THE
BOLSHOI BALLET IS BACK in New York after a 10-year absence.
“By any cultural standard the return is a major event. The
engagement is sold out: the company's mystique remains intact. It is
no secret, however, that the Bolshoi has had its ups and downs. Not
only do aesthetics change, but reality intrudes as well. More than
20 years of turmoil within the company, a turnover in directors and
an adjustment to a society itself in turmoil will take its toll.
New
York Times 07/20/00
(one-time
registration required for entry)
THE
STATE OF A LEGEND: The Bolshoi Ballet has been selling out and
winning raves on its current tour, reinforcing its stories place in
the ballet world. "Every large performing arts center in the
nation will no doubt shortly be calling Moscow to ask about 2002,
and there's plenty of new repertory to choose from. However,
the six Pavilion performances raised major questions about the
current artistic level of the Bolshoi and, in particular, the
quality of its coaching."
Los Angeles Times 06/27/00
NOTHING
A SOLD-OUT TOUR WON'T HELP:
The Bolshoi Ballet started their first U.S. tour since the collapse
of the Soviet Union with a three-hour “Romeo and Juliet” at
Washington’s Kennedy Center. The 224-year-old Bolshoi has recently
been recovering from an ousted artistic director and serious
financial woes - that a sell-out U.S. tour should help ease. CNN
05/31/00
Martha
Graham Company
PRESERVING
DANCE: It's quite possible with the dissolution of the Martha
Graham Company, that her works will fall into oblivion.
"Whatever its quirks, though, the Graham case is part of a
widespread phenomenon: the disappearance, real or potential, of
choreography. Even in this era of satellite imaging and fingertip
access to unfathomable resources, much of the world's dance
catalogue has been erased." Washington
Post 12/31/00
SQUABBLING
OVER MARTHA GRAHAM: Legal wrangling over the ownership of Martha
Graham's choreography. A few weeks ago it seemed like a settlement
had been made to revive the Martha Graham Company, but that may now
have fallen through. The dance company's board is also exploring
whether Graham heir Ron Protas actually owns the dance works.
Village Voice 11/28/00
"BUT
IT'S MY LIFE" Dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company
are stunned by the suddenness of the company closing last week. New
York Times 05/27/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
MARTHA
GRAHAM COMPANY TO CLOSE: Citing major financial difficulties,
trustees of the Martha Graham Dance Company have voted to shut down
the company. "They haven't raised the money to go on,"
said Graham Center board member Ron Protas, Graham's heir and head
of the trust that owns all of her choreography.
Washington Post 05/26/00
Cleveland
San Jose Ballet
THE
HIGH COST OF DANCING: Why is ballet so expensive? In the wake of
Cleveland San Jose Ballet's death by red ink, the question needs to
be raised. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
10/29/00
MONEY
OWING IN CLEVELAND: Cleveland San Jose Ballet left a lot of
unpaid bills when it went out of business last month. It's difficult
to shut down a dance company "in an orderly fashion."
Cleveland Plain Dealer 10/26/00
SAN
JOSE DANCE IS BORN: From the ashes of failure in Cleveland, the
Cleveland San Jose Ballet company is reborn this week as a new
company in San Jose. "It is the latest and most important
chapter in a tale of artistic integrity and civic pride, of
all-American optimism and resourcefulness, of triumph. What could
have been a major tragedy for dance in the Bay Area - and what in
fact was a senseless loss for Cleveland - has been turned into a
major victory for American culture."
San Francisco Chronicle 10/08/00
AFTERMATH
OF CLEVELAND BALLET FAILURE: The collapse and disbanding of the
Cleveland San Jose Ballet was a shock for dancers/staff. Meanwhile,
the San Jose board will try to extend a season there.
The Plain
Dealer (Cleveland) 09/09/00
Australian
Ballet
INSIDE
THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET: It appears from the outside that the
Australian Ballet is in trouble. "Yet, as dancers leave the
company in what look like droves, the board and management react, as
they usually do at times of looming crisis, by appearing not to
notice that something is wrong." So maybe it isn't. The
Age (Melbourne) 12/16/00
AUSTRALIAN
BALLET TURMOILS: There's been an exodus of dancers from the
Australian Ballet. Is it just a seasonal thing as contracts come up
for renewal or is there something more worrisome? "Right now,
many dancers of the Australian Ballet are unhappy. And while it's
easy to say dancers are always fearful, their state of mind matters
because they are the assets of the company. And if the assets are
unhappy, word gets out." Sydney
Morning Herald 10/13/00
INVESTMENT
IN DANCE: Australia Ballet gets $1 million extra from the
government to hire ten new dancers and continue its national touring
program. Without additional government money, the company had said
it would "retreat" from its present program of touring and
choreographic innovation, following last year's $665,000 deficit. The
Age (Melbourne) 05/29/00
TURNING
50 IN POOR HEALTH:
The English National Ballet celebrates its 50th
anniversary this week, but all is not well at Britain’s second
largest ballet company. "It doesn’t have the money to stage
the kind of ballets that would bring it greater artistic adventure -
and greater critical acclaim." Not to mention that Derek Deane,
the company’s artistic director since 1993, has finally given up
on pleading for more funds and is leaving at the close of the
season. The
Times (London) 1/10/01
BALLET
SHAKEUP:
The British ballet world has been turned upside down this year, with
directors of three major companies announcing their departures.
English National Ballet’s Derek Deane is the latest to go, citing
insufficient funding and a lack of board support for his more
adventurous work. The
Telegraph (London) 12/05/00
BRITISH
BALLERINA BADDIES: It's been a bad year for British ballerinas -
there were fights on a Royal Ballet flight, name-calling that led a
dancer to quit a major tour, and then the infamous posing by English
National ballerinas in their underwear for a magazine. It's as
though "the ballerina, once the representative of what was most
graceful about British femininity, was a fiction that no one could
be bothered to keep up."
London Telegraph 11/20/99
HAPPY
DISBELIEF: After 28 years in cramped quarters, the Royal Ballet
moves into enormous new studios at the newly-refurbished Covent
Garden.
London Telegraph 11/11/99
THE
ROYAL WINNIPEG'S REVOLVING DOOR: The Royal Winnipeg Ballet has
had three artistic directors in eight years. And, with the dismissal
late last week of Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles, three executive directors
in the same period. What's happening to one of Canada's great dance
companies? National Post 11/29/00
ROYAL
WINNIPEG FIRES DIRECTOR: The Royal Winnipeg Ballet has fired its
executive director. Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles had been widely credited
with turning the company's financial fortunes around since he
arrived in 1997. CBC 11/27/00
IRELAND'S
IMPOVERISHED DANCE: In Ireland, the Arts Council has awarded £433,000
to stage a major dance festival. Great - but even in Ireland's
prosperous times, its dance infrastructure is in need of major
repairs. Irish Times 03/28/01
WHAT
IS IT WITH THE BALLET PEOPLE? Last month, the Houston Ballet's
artistic director announced that he was stepping down, shocking the
company's dancers and board members. Now, after further
consideration, Ben Stevenson says he will stay on, albeit in a joint
role with his former assistant. Dallas
Morning News 03/07/01
DANCE
WAS NO. 1: Dance may not be today's dominant art form, but, says
an Israeli archaeologist, it was 9,000 to 5,000 years ago. He
"thinks he has pieced together a significant body of evidence
for dancing, if not at its beginning, at least at a decisive and
poorly understood transitional stage of human culture." The
New York Times 02/27/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
DANCING
AROUND THE LAW: Dance, as a specific art form, tends to be
rather difficult to catalogue. How can anyone set down on paper the
mere motions of a body, let alone the passion and theory behind the
dance? This conundrum has always caused legal problems for dance
companies wanting to put on productions of famously choreographed
works, and dancers say U.S. intellectual property law is getting in
the way of their art. Boston Globe
02/25/01
DANCE
AS A BUSINESS: While most dance companies struggle with paying
the rent, the 11-member David Parsons Company "operates firmly
in the black with a remarkable 90 percent earned income, and has
been touring roughly 40 weeks a year. Four months ago, the company
moved into a brand new building on 42d Street in Manhattan,
affording it a 1,500-square-foot office and luxurious rehearsal
space." Boston Globe 02/18/01
GOT
US A DANCE COMPANY - NOW WHAT? The celebrated Jose Limón Dance
Company comes to San Jose, and "only about 50 bodies filled the
nearly 500-seat theater. Such a low turnout brings up the question,
once again, about the status of the arts in San Jose. Is the
community willing to support the best that the performing arts world
has to offer? Are arts marketers willing to roll up their sleeves
and promote such work? If not, why would a company like Limón
bother to return?" San Jose Mercury
News 11/13/00
THE
RIGHT DIRECTION: The National Ballet of Canada will lose only
$165,000 this year, compared to the $1 million it lost last year.
National Post (Canada) 10/30/00
MENTORING
& THE ART OF CHOREOGRAPHY: Where are the mentors for today's
choreographers? Who helps midwife a dance and develop it into
something finished, something unique? Boston
Herald 09/24/00
OH
OH OHIO: Ohio Ballet is on the ropes - artistically and
financially. "This is a shocking predicament for a 32-year-old
dance troupe that has long maintained a reputation for no-frills
productions and fiscal responsibility. Over the years, many
subscribers said they preferred the Akron company’s bare-bones
style to the extravagance of Cleveland San Jose Ballet, and they
also appreciated the skillful management and strong board commitment
that kept Ohio Ballet from having to beg for bailouts."
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/20/00
TAKE
A CHANCE ON DANCE: Is there any such thing as an avant-garde in
dance? The Lincoln Center Festival keeps bravely asserting that
there is. But this year's trio of "experimentalists"
didn't do much to provide evidence for same. New York
Magazine 08/07/00
THE
NEW DANCE: The line between performance and entertainment has
blurred considerably in the last few years. Riverdance, Matthew
Bourne's 'Swan Lake' and most notably the teaming of the
experimentalist Julie Taymor with Disney to produce Broadway's 'Lion
King' have forged significant links between art and commerce.
Choreographer Elizabeth Streb, herself a hybrid of working class
roots and MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant' credentials, cites
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, Cirque du Soleil, Stomp,
'Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk' and Zingaro as precedents. New
York Times 08/06/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
MONEYDANCE:
"As a cultural phenomenon, Riverdance has been closely parsed
from top to bottom, hailed by some as an expression of a confidently
globe-conquering new Ireland, dismissed by others as a pile of
Celtic clichés. What has been ignored, however, is the gargantuan
financial muscle that promises to make Riverdance the country's
biggest cultural export. The three Riverdance shows touring the
world, along with their myriad merchandising spin-offs, have grossed
an estimated £½ billion to date." The
Sunday Times 07/09/00
DANCE
COMPANY TAKES A YEAR OFF: Dance Connecticut, the one-year-old
company founded out of the ashes of Hartford Ballet, surprises
everyone and announces it will take a year off. The company - which
had a well-received first season - will use the year to plan for the
future, organizers say. Hartford
Courant 06/04/00
AND
THE LATEST STAR ON BROADWAY? Dance. All the best shows gotta
have it these days.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/04/00
FIRST
AID: The National Dance
Program gets a $6 million grant from the Doris Duke Foundation to
support dance. "To date, the National Dance Project has reached
approximately 820,000 people in 41 states, and provided production
grants to 65 dance projects and touring grants to 271
presenters." Boston
Globe 05/02/00
DANCING
ON HISTORY: The Paris Opera
Ballet was once one of the dullest dance companies on earth,
complacent to a fault. But "nobody dances like the
French," and today the oldest dance company in the world is
also one of the most admired.
The
Telegraph (London) 04/26/00
GOTTA
DANCE: Ballroom dancing is very hot right now. Not just in
studios and nightclubs, but onstage too. "The way I see it,
ballroom has existed in this sort of cocoon, in the studios and
competitions. It was almost its own unique little world, like a step
back in time. When you think of ballroom, you think of the
slicked-back hair and the fake tans and the sequins.... We want to
sort of deconstruct that myth."
Christian Science Monitor 03/31/00
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
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
