His charm was colossal and effortless, his love for many people effusive and happy. I keep coming across poems and messages he sent me. They were signed “Your Jacques.” How lucky was I? Everyone who knew him has similar tales to tell. How lucky were we. - Alastair Macaulay
"Pointe spoke to four U.S. ballet companies — Milwaukee Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Avant Chamber Ballet and Columbia City Ballet — about how they have cautiously made their way back to live audiences. For each, the road back to the stage meant a combination of lessons learned throughout the pandemic, adhering to government and health and safety policies,...
"Performances during the tour will take place outdoors on a custom-built stage designed to unfold from an 18-wheeler truck. At each stop, 20 members of the company will perform a 50-minute show comprising four pieces." - The New York Times
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's social media post that claimed "Cancel culture is killing" are deeply harmful - they place "a burden of guilt on victims who may have come forward during the investigations, at a time when the ballet world is finally reckoning with the way it has normalized abuse over time." - Dance Magazine
After the shootings in Atlanta, the already planned 10,000 Dreams Virtual Choreography Festival transformed into something that Asian American ballet dancers and choreographers have been missing and wanting for years - community. "There was a deep moment where we sort of were committing to building a network, building a community, taking up space, being loud, being bold. This festival...
"Each Permanent domestic stamp, designed by Stéphane Huot, features a dynamic image of its subject in performance. Karen Kain almost breaches the borders of the three-by-four-centimetre stamp as she flies through the air as the Black Swan in a 1977 photograph by Andrew Oxenham. Fernand Nault is equally airborne in a 1947 outdoor photo shoot on Montreal’s Île Sainte-Hélène."...
"Some factors that helped the studio persevere? A landlord who is postponing the studio’s $22,000 monthly rent payments, PPP loans totaling more than $110,000, the launch of a subscription-based platform for dance tutorials, and the studio’s nearly 30-year legacy and global brand with franchises in cities including Las Vegas, Nashville and Shanghai." - Los Angeles Times
"The ballet world is filled with stories of dancers who first pointed their toes as toddlers and became professionals as teenagers. But what about those who started ballet as teenagers — and then realized that they wanted to make it their career? Their experience can be as thrilling as it is overwhelming, and also inspire a bit of panic."...
"Contra and square dancing involve lots of other people, not just a single partner. Dancing involves live music, played with precision. It involves callers who stand with the musicians and direct the dancers' moves. It involves a dance floor. These were all issues that had to be figured out. By the summer of 2020, they were." - The Washington...
"Scarlett’s death raises many issues. Foremost has been a widespread unease about the way that many dance companies in recent years have seemed to hush up various scandals or crises that purportedly involve a range of alarming sexual matters, heterosexual and homosexual, adult and under-age, on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as cases of violent assault." -...
Rajan Zed, an advocate and the founder of the Reno-based Universal Society of Hinduism, has previously called on other companies, including Houston Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London, and, just this month, the Korean National Ballet and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, to remove "this deeply problematic ballet … blatant belittling of a rich...
"Yat-Sen Chang, 49, has been charged with 12 counts of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration against a female aged 16 or over. The alleged offences are said to have taken place at the English National Ballet and Young Dancers Academy in London between December 2009 and March 2016. Chang, who lives in the German port...
Enter SB 805, which is up for a hearing by the California Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee on April 26. If passed, the bill would greenlight low-cost payroll and paymaster services for small nonprofit performing arts organizations that make $1.4 million a year or less. It would also create a fund to award grants so that these...
The JaQuel Knight's company Knight Choreography & Music Publishing will see to the rights to Knights dance moves while operating as a music publisher as the company will broker licensing deals and protect IP. - Geo
It was both arduous and oddly pleasant for the dancers, used to touring - and to playing for packed houses; only 10 percent of the theatre can be sold in this case (but the ballets are available to stream online). "Jose Sebastian, one of the eight dancers performing Lovette’s 'La Follia Variations,' said the experience of living and rehearsing...
