“It was six weeks of being unable to move, ... to participate in life at all, before she could get out of bed. And then Lauren Cuthbertson, the biggest British dance star since Darcey Bussell, … had to persuade her useless limbs, now stripped of their strength, to listen to her brain again.” - The Times (UK)
Ballet has a reputation for upholding rigid body standards. In recent years, though, the art form has been rethinking its relationship to diversity in areas like race and body type. - The New York Times
Why so much dance on TV lately? “Where the goal is to quickly get and then hold the viewer’s attention, energetic movement is a straightforward strategy. Dance’s graphic elements immediately catch the eye, and they can make that gaze linger.” - Dance Magazine
“Maceo Harrison deftly designs routines that emphasize charisma over technical precision and spotlight the teams' natural showmen while camouflaging the players with two left feet. ... Sometimes he has mere hours to choreograph and just as little time to teach his routines to the players.” - ESPN
Alice Topp, a former principal dancer and choreographer-in-residence at the Australian Ballet, already had the idea of basing her first commission for Houston Ballet on the Finnish concept of sisu (stubbornly determined resilience). Then, this past January, came unhappy inspiration: bushfires struck her rural hometown 75 miles northwest of Melbourne. - Houston Chronicle (Yahoo!)
Despite reaching new artistic heights, Australia’s leading contemporary dance troupe has posted four annual deficits in a row, totaling $5.2 million (US$3.7 million) and attributable mostly to the higher running costs of its revamped headquarters. Luckily, paying students are flocking to SDC’s new classes. - Australian Financial Review
Ashley Ferro-Murray of the Doris Duke Foundation: I’m interested in … funding resilient models for the future as well as legacy models that ... value the labor of the artist. One way the Doris Duke Foundation is doing this is by combining our grant-making capacity with other resources like marketing and communications. - Dance Magazine
What is the International Dance League? The N.B.A. of dance. The W.W.E. of dance. Formula 1 racing meets the TV show “America’s Best Dance Crew.” These are some of the analogies that came up in conversations with the league’s founders and participants. - The New York Times
“I choreograph because it is the only language in which I feel completely uninhibited. … Words remain fragile. They can be misinterpreted or fail to capture the depth of what we truly mean. Movement, however, transcends the invisible barriers that divide us — culture, borders, language, religion — and speaks directly to something instinctive.” - Dance Magazine
“After 18 years as artistic director and two years in dual roles as chief executive and artistic director, Debbie Blunden-Diggs, daughter of DCDC founder Jeraldyne Blunden, has passed the artistic director baton to Qarrianne Blayr, … (who) has served as associate artistic director for five years.” - Dayton Daily News
Adam Sklute, who came to Salt Lake City in 2007, will depart at the end of next season. His tenure, the longest in Ballet West history, saw the company stabilize its finances, increase its subscriber base, triple its budget, and sextuple its school's enrollment. - KSL (Salt Lake City)
“Ballet can be a pretty conservative artform, with many companies trundling out Swan Lakes, Nutcrackers, and Cinderellas year after year. Every now and again, though, someone like Rojo comes along and truly shakes things up – even if that has meant ruffling tutus in the process.” - NPR
“For nearly three decades Cuba’s Danza Voluminosa regularly filled prestigious venues like the 2,000-seat National Theater. Directed by Juan Miguel Mas, the troupe pioneered a new movement by working exclusively with larger-bodied dancers. ... (Now) Mas’s daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.” - AP
LubDub is the fourth and final piece of Barton’s three years as Hubbard Street’s resident choreographer. “Asked to discuss the movement vocabulary she employs here, Barton demurred. But when the descriptor 'unruly' was suggested, she was quick to embrace it. … (And) there are plenty of quirky, unexpected sights in the piece.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
