Dozens of students from Nairobi's Kibera Ballet School, which provides free instruction to impoverished children and teens, donned Santa hats and sequined outfits to perform holiday choreography they had practiced for months. - AP
Darius Kuolys who was the first culture minister after a 1990 declaration of independence, said it was obvious that the Kremlin often exploited culture for political ends. But he added, “It never occurred to me as a minister to tell people what to watch or listen to.” - The New York Times
In her contentious essay, Croce, one of the finest dance critics of the 20th century, railed against what she called victim art: “By working dying people into his act, Jones is putting himself beyond the reach of criticism. - The New York Times
"Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar asked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to examine whether the Batsheva Dance Company is in violation of its state funding over a performance that included the Palestinian flag" — among 40 other flags onstage. - The Times Of Israel
The dancers fired this summer won their case, but they've chosen to take severance pay rather than return to the company. The current dancers are new and all crossed picket lines to be there. And, because of all this turmoil, the city of Dallas has cut off funding. What next? - Dance Magazine
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
