Gay men aren't as ubiquitous in that world as some civilians think, but they're not rare. Yet gender norms in classical ballet are even more rigid for females than for males, and queer women in the profession have tended to feel very isolated indeed. That, however, is something that the hiatus and the move online caused by the pandemic...
" Lane and ABT parted ways last summer, although no announcement was made; rather, in September, her name was quietly taken off the roster. … She recently opened up to Pointe about her departure from the company, although for privacy reasons certain details are remaining undisclosed." (Hmm.) - Pointe Magazine
Eileen Kramer still dances every day. And she also "writes a story a day from her Sydney aged-care facility, publishes books and has entered Australia's most prestigious painting competition. After decades living abroad, Ms Kramer returned to her home city of Sydney aged 99. Since then, she's collaborated with artists to create several videos that showcase her primary talent...
The British choreographer, aged 35, died in April, one day after the Royal Danish Ballet announced it was cancelling its staging of his Frankenstein over #MeToo allegations against him; similar accusations led to his firing from London's Royal Ballet in 2020. The widespread assumption was that Scarlett committed suicide after the release of the news from Copenhagen; in fact,...
As a crowd marched in Bogotá against poverty and police violence, three twenty-something queer folks whose dance video had gone viral a couple of weeks earlier were urged by their fellow demonstrators to go right up to the riot police on the stairs at Plaza Bolívar and work it. And they did. - The New York Times
An investigation reveals psychological abuse, abuse of power, nepotism, and "serious pedagogical dysfunctions" at the Rudra Béjart School, "leading the Board to terminate the contract of the director, Michel Gascard and his wife Valérie Lacaze, manager of the school." (Article in French; translation available using Google Translate.) - FranceInfo
Leslie Cuyjet has recently created a dance "so conceptual and personal. Moriah Evans and Yve Laris Cohen — who curate Dance and Process, an incubator that affords choreographers the space and time to develop work — were impressed. Evans said she admired the nuances of seemingly simple gestures in the piece, as well as its 'delicate shifts,' which 'contain...
And this didn't happen once, bad as that would have been. The company says "two black dancers had people scream racial epithets at them while driving by, and it happened on two separate occasions last week." - KSL
"Even in Petit's home country, his works haven't been staged with great regularity. Nor do companies seem especially interested in resuscitating any of the dozens of full-length works or shorter ballets he created over the course of a long career. It's a curious schism: Despite the relative obscurity of much of Petit's work, he remains much-revered in France, where...
"The Australian Ballet forfeited $32 million in ticket revenue for 2020, a pandemic blow that it has only survived thanks to an outpouring of community and government support, plus a decision to raid its reserves and sell off investments. … It bucks the trend of many other major arts organisations including Victorian Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and...
As one of the very few women to lead a major ballet company, Morgan championed women choreographers long before the rest of the dance world turned its attention to the lack of equity for women in the field. It has not been unusual for more than half of a season’s offerings to be choreographed by women. - Cincinnati...
"For Lovette, becoming a choreographer was something she grew into. 'When I was 18 and I had just joined the New York City Ballet and the corps, I remember doing a piece next to Justin Peck … and I thought, 'That's a choreographer. I'm not. I'll just stick to dancing. I don't think I have what it takes.' And...
Patrick Makuakāne understands well the value of the traditional dances passed down through generations. ("I love those little gems. They're like family heirlooms … they're very precious and you understand they don't need to be changed and their inherent value is just the way they are.") But that doesn't mean that, in his longtime base of San Francisco, he...
"Before Halprin, American dance was cast in Graham's regal mold, presented formally onstage, and performed by highly trained bodies that acted out the choreographer's vision in a rarefied movement language. Halprin's rebellion was to declare that any movement, performed with presence and intention, could be a dance, and anybody could be a dancer." - San Francisco Chronicle
"When asked to describe the energy at this month's Youth America Grand Prix Finals, judge Sascha Radetsky had one word: 'Stratospheric.' More than 800 dancers from around the United States … competed onstage at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa … from May 9 to 16. And after months of cramped kitchen-counter barres and delayed Zoom...
