Dance Magazine articles from August 2004

Dance Magazine archives from August 2004

Curtain up.
August 1, 2004... The jazz age; jazz it up; quit jazzin' me; all that jazz. Jazz can be anything you want it to be. Or can it? Are there certain essentials that define jazz dance, no matter what the era? In this issue we offer several perspectives on these...

Hit the floor.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... The May tap issue was delicious! Savion Glover--wow. He's the one! It was a pleasure to read about Roxane Butterfly [see "A Butterfly Sits In," DM, page 46] and wonderful Brazilian tap [see "Listening Down: The Future of Tap Is Looking Up," DM,...

School daze.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... We read with interest Clive Barnes' "Attitudes" on the lack of good training for American ballet dancers in the May issue [DM, page 98]. With a total of sixty years of ballet dancing between us, we agree that ballet training in the U.S. is...

Yogi on yoga.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Some comments in response to "Has Yoga Lost Its Spirit?" [Mind Your Body, DM, March, page 29]. In Yoga the fads and marketing schemes come and go, but the classic postures endure. Their benefits are intrinsic. Yoga does not require an...

Pointes please.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... I have been receiving DANCE MAGAZINE for about two years now. I love reading it and am always checking the mail to get my next issue. I do have a request, though. I am a big fanatic when it comes to pointe shoes, and I would love to know as...

A dance of hope in Rwanda.(Dance Matters; Ballet National du Rwanda)
August 1, 2004... JULES MUSASIZI is not a typical ballet director, and his troupe, the Ballet National du Rwanda, is not a typical company. Ten years ago, the central African nation of Rwanda was the site of one of the bloodiest episodes of ethnic cleansing...

Fetes its own.(Los Angeles; Lester Horton Dance Awards)
August 1, 2004... CONSIDER the irony: A work celebrating the impermanence of dance, Loretta Livingston's Leaving (Evidence), captured the most honors--four--at the thirteenth annual Lester Horton Dance Awards, cementing the choreographer-performer's place in the...

India report.(Dance Matters; dance festivals at Vasantahabba, at Nrityagram)
August 1, 2004... INDIA is a land where dance first thrived over 2,000 years ago. Yet, in the South Indian city of Bangalore, a teeming metropolis where digital technology and ancient customs intertwine, two recent dance festivals reflected India's...

Heart throbmoves on.(Dance Matters; Rex Harrington retires from National Ballet of Canada )(Interview)
August 1, 2004... REX HARRINGTON is about as close as a man can get to being a household name in Canada without playing hockey. He is the most famous danseur noble this country has produced. In honor of his long and distinguished career, Harrington was appointed...

Anastasia Volochkova.(Updates; loses claim against Bolshoi Theatre general director Anatoly Iksanov)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... In Moscow, ballerina ANASTASIA VOLOCHKOVA has lost a 575,000 [pounds sterling] damage claim against the Bolshoi Theatre's general director Anatoly Iksanov

Matthew Cusick.(Updates; settles lawsuit against Cirque du Soleil )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... MATTHEW CUSICK, an HIV-positive gymnast who was fired by Cirque du Soleil last year because the company said he represented a health risk to others (See Dance Matters, DM, November 2003, page 17), has won a $600,000 settlement from the company

Paul Taylor Dance Company.(Appointments)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... WALLACE CHAPELL is the new executive director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company

Pennsylvania Dance Theatre.(Appointments)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... ANDRE KOSLOWSKI is the new artistic director of Pennsylvania Dance Theatre

National Dance Project.(Appointments)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... DANA M. WHITCO has been appointed director of the National Dance Project

William Forsythe.(Kudos; receives honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Choreographer WILLIAM FORSYTHE received an honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School

Dance/USA has given Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell its 2004 Honors.(Kudos)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Dance/USA has given Dance Theatre of Harlem founder ARTHUR MITCHELL its 2004 Honors, dancer-choreographer SAGE COWLES its 2004 Ernie, and former Washington Post dance critic ALAN M. M. KRIEGSMAN its new Trustees Award

The Malakhov era begins.(Dance Matters; artistic director Vladimir Malakhov; Berlin ballet and opera companies consolidating in effort to cut costs)
August 1, 2004... SINCE the fall of the wall in 1989 the city of Berlin has had a slight problem: what to do with its three opera houses? The oldest, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, traces its existence back 200 years to the Court Opera of Frederick the Great....

The Chicago Dancemakers Forum.(Kudos; choses grant recipients)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... THE CHICAGO DANCEMAKERS FORUM has chosen Lane Alexander, Shirley Mordine, Hema Rajagopalan, and Eduardo Vilaro as its 2004 grant recipients

William Forsythe.(Coming attractions; reviving ballet Limb's Theorem)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... WILLIAM FORSYTHE will revive the full-length Limb's Theorem for the Bavarian State Ballet Munich in December

Dybbuk.(Coming attractions; revival by San Francisco Ballet)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... San Francisco Ballet will produce the first major revival of Jerome Robbins' 1974 DYBBUK in April

Thanks to a three-year grant from Travelex.(Coming attractions; offers reduced tickets at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Thanks to a three-year grant from Travelex, top tickets for approximately half the Monday evening performances (ballet and opera) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, will cost only 10 [pounds sterling]. The policy begins in September.

Who's dancing? Who's watching?(Dance Matters; National Endowment for the Arts report on Survey of Public Participation in the Arts)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Despite the events of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 81 million adult Americans attended at least one arts activity during the twelve-month period ending in August 2002, the National Endowment for the Arts reports in the 2002 Survey of Public...

Shards of Shambards.(New York Notebook)(Dance Review)
August 1, 2004... A stunning scalloped fence of linked dancers greeted the eye in Christopher Wheeldon's new Shambards for New York City Ballet. The formation broke apart, as did almost every sure thing in this ballet. Ingenious partnering for Jock Soto and...

Unhinged.(New York Notebook; Terese Capucilli's performance in Medea )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Terese Capucilli's Medea in Graham's Cave of the Heart is a woman consumed by the fire of jealousy. In the April season of the Martha Graham Dance Company at City Center, the intensity of her rage was visible on her face and in her gouged-out...

The name lives on.(New York Notebook; Greenwich Village strret named in honor of choreographer Anna Sokolow )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... The city has co-named Christopher Street in Greenwich Village Anna Sokolow Way. Known far its involvement in the Gay Pride movement, Christopher Street was also where choreographer Sokolow (see "Transitions," DM, July 2000, page 50) lived for...

Back to the future.(New York Notebook; Dallas Black Dance Theatre performance at Lincoln Center)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... On August 24 and 25, Ron K. Brown/EVIDENCE shares an evening with Dallas Black Dance Theatre at the bandshell in Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park. Both Brown's luscious amalgam of West African and contemporary moves and DBDT's muscular...

Advice for dancers.
August 1, 2004... How MANY MINUTES DOES A DANCE AUDITION VIDEO HAVE TO BE? I WANT MY VIDEO TO LOOK LIKE IT'S PROFESSIONAL, BUT I DON'T KNOW THE USUAL FORM FOR AUDITION TAPES.--CHRIS JAMES, LA MIRADA, CA It's hard to believe, but the best audition videos are...

Stop blowing smoke--here's how.(Health and Fitness)(quitting smoking)
August 1, 2004... HOW DID YOU START YOUR DAY? With a couple of cigarettes and a soda? It's a cliche by now, but in spite of many well-publicized Surgeon General warnings, it's still a typical dancer's breakfast. Why do dancers smoke despite by now well-known...

The electric company: when Koresh Dance Company performs, audiences leap to their feet.(Ronen Koresh)(Biography)
August 1, 2004... Ronen Koresh leans forward as nine company dancers run through his Backtracks, the explosive piece that often cuds their shows. Intensely intimate couplings ballistic kicks, feral pounces and feisty rolling hips raise the energy level in his...

Call it post-jazz: the category-defying dance form finds common ground in energy and emotion.
August 1, 2004... A pool of light illuminates a barefoot dancer striking a defiant pose, her scarlet skirt whipping around her. A driving, percussive score intensifies as she and bet fellow dancers savagely thrust themselves into and out of their partners'...

The dreamer: opus 1: supreme classicist Peter Boal belies his image with an edgy new chamber group.(Cover Story)(Biography)
August 1, 2004... In the adagio solo at the center of George Balanchine's Square Dance, Peter Boal exudes a beautiful meditative melancholy from each perfectly articulated phrase. Never overtly virtuosic, never overly dramatic, Boal is an exemplar of an...

If the shoe fits: six professionals tell their pointe shoe secrets.
August 1, 2004... High arches, wide feet, bunions, or tapered toes--there's a pointe shoe that is perfect for you. Properly fitted, a dancer's foot can articulate, gesture, and emote as well as a hand. The "best" shoe is just a matter of opinion, because each...

In the shadow of the Reich: modern dance in Hitler's Germany.(Dance Magazine Recommends)(Liebe Hanya: Mary Wigman's letters to Hanya Holm)(Book Review)
August 1, 2004... Liebe Hanya: Mary Wigman's letters to Hanya Holm Compiled and edited by Claudia Gitelman. Introduction by Hedwig Muller. Translated by Marianne Forster and Catherine T. Klingler. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. 200 pages, paper,...

Lyn Cramer.(Honors)
August 1, 2004... LYN CRAMER, associate professor of dance at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, received the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters' 2004 Artistic Achievement Award.

Cynthia M. Hogan.(Honors)
August 1, 2004... CYNTHIA M. HOGAN has been named the National Dance Association K-12 Dance Educator of the Year. Hoban is the chair of the art department at Moore Square Museum Magnet Middle School in Raleigh, North Carolina. www.aahperd.org/nda.

Miguel Terekhov.(Honors)
August 1, 2004... MIGUEL TEREKHOV was honored for lifetime achievement by the Corps de Ballet International at its conference in Columbia, South Carolina in June. Terekhov, principal dancer and regisseur of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, developed a ballet...

Charles McNeal.(Honors)
August 1, 2004... CHARLES MCNEAL, who received the 2004 Levi Strauss & Co. Award for Outstanding Teachers and Administrators in the Arts, manages San Francisco Ballet's Center for Dance Education.

The Ailey School.(Noteworthy)
August 1, 2004... The Oprah Winfrey Foundation's gift of $I million to THE AILEY SCHOOL will allow four to eight students to study each year. The first students to benefit are from the Chicago area. www.alvinailey.org.

David J. Popalisky, assistant professor of dance at Santa Clara University in California, collaborated with Kathleen Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project, to create and perform Barred From Life.(Noteworthy)
August 1, 2004... DAVID J. POPALISKY, assistant professor of dance at SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY in California, collaborated with Kathleen Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project, to create and perform Barred From Life. To prepare, Popalisky...

The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance.(New Assignments)
August 1, 2004... California Institute of the Arts renamed its school of dance THE SHARON DISNEY LUND SCHOOL OF DANCE following a gift of $11 million from the Sharon D. Lund Foundation. www.calarts.edu.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.(New Assignments)
August 1, 2004... American Ballet Theatre's pre-professional training program has been named the JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS SCHOOL. www.abt.org.

NYC Department of Education.(New Assignments)
August 1, 2004... JOAN FINKELSTEIN left her position as director of the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center in New York City to become Dance Programs Manager for the NYC DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. She is part of a group that will develop a new arts curriculum for...

Minnesota Dance Theatre School.(New Assignments)
August 1, 2004... MARJORIE THOMPSON leaves her post as school director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to direct the MINNESOTA DANCE THEATRE SCHOOL in Minneapolis. www.mndance.org. PBT Ballet Master ROBERT MUNOZ becomes school director, www.pittsburghballet.org.

Teacher's wisdom: Lynn Simonson.(This Month)(Interview)
August 1, 2004... Jazz dancer Lynn Simonson created the Simonson technique when chronic injuries drove her to investigate an anatomically sound approach to movement. Writer Michelle Vellucci talked with her following class at Dance Space Center in New York,...

Scholarships guide 2004.
August 1, 2004... Do you dream of spending a summer at Jacob's Pillow, or getting a degree without working double-shifts after dancing all day to pay for it? DANCE MAGAZINE's second annual Scholarships Guide lists opportunities offered by studios, colleges,...

Scholarship listings.(Scholarships Guide 2004)
August 1, 2004... $25K-$100K Ajkun Ballet Theatre Scholarship Fund Performing in New York Jeffery Hover Sr., Executive Director New Rochelle, NY; 718.885.3629 Ajkun@aol.com; hometown.aol.com/ajkun/scholarships.html Deadline: 12-31-04; Number...

King's dynamic young Prince talks about his artistic process.(On the Rise)(Alonzo King, Prince Credell)(Interview)(Biography)
August 1, 2004... Onstage, Prince Credell's keen focus is as commanding as his gyroscopic pirouettes, solidly centered extensions, and elegant hearing. Whether he's powering through a twisting, demanding solo in Rite of Spring or entranced by his partner in a...

It may be the very freedom to go all over the map that has made jazz dance the lingua franca of Broadway.(On Broadway)
August 1, 2004... Think about the stellar Broadway jazz dancers and sooner or later you'll find yourself considering Gwen Verdon. Whether vamping an unwary young baseball player in "Whatever Lola Wants" in Damn Yankees or romping in a movie star's bedroom in...

Lyon Opera Ballet.
August 1, 2004... LYON OPERA BALLET BAM HOWARD GILMAN OPERA HOUSE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK APRIL 20, 22-24, 2004 Wondrous dancing specimens--bungee cord-swinging ballerinas, loping flipper-footed men, inflatable marshmallow--like beings, and stranger...

DanceBrazil.
August 1, 2004... DANCEBRAZIL JOYCE THEATER NEW YORK, NEW YORK APRIL 20-MAY 2, 2004 New York dance audiences don't give a hoot about good choreography; it's great dancing that floats their boats. Evidence: the tumultuous ovation that greeted the premiere of...

DanceWorks '04.
August 1, 2004... DANCEWORKS '04 CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE CLEVELAND, OHIO MARCH 11-APRIL 4, 2004 Bring it on! shouted the theme of Cleveland Public Theatre's twentieth-anniversary season, and that's exactly what the seven companies on the alternative...

Remembering Homer (1955-2004).(Transitions)(Homer Avila)(Obituary)
August 1, 2004... Homer Avila didn't stop dancing until the cancer that cost him his leg reached his lungs and took his breath away. He was in Zvi Gotheiner's ballet class on a Friday morning, went to a concert at Dance Theater Workshop Saturday night, checked...

Josephine Schwarz (1908-2004).(Transitions)
August 1, 2004... Josephine Schwarz, founding artistic director of the Dayton Ballet, overflowed with creative ideas. As a dancer she was what people call a "natural mover." Her choreography was less spontaneous, perhaps because she had to suit it to relatively...

Kelucharan Mohapatra.(Transitions)
August 1, 2004... Kelucharan Mohapatra, legendary Odissi (Indian classical) dancer and teacher, and recipient of one of India's highest civilian honors, the Padilla Vibhushan, died in April at the age of 78.

Ernie Smith.(Transitions)
August 1, 2004... Ernie Smith, lover of the Lindy Hop and collector of 352 dance and music films (now at the Archive Center of the Smithsonian Institute), died in April. He was 79.

Rex Harrington.(Retirement)
August 1, 2004... Rex Harrington, principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, gave his final performances with the company in May. (See Dance Matlers, this issue, page 24.)

Dede Barfield.(Retirement)
August 1, 2004... After twenty years with Pennsylvania Ballet, principal dancer Dede Barfield retired in June. Her final performances were as Odette/Odile in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake.

Yen-Li Chen-Zhang.(Retirement)
August 1, 2004... Yen-Li Chen-Zhang, dancer with Ballet Arizona for twelve seasons, retired in June. In a special tribute to her, she danced excerpts from signature ballets that defined her career.

Schools, studios, colleges, universities, companies, teachers, dancers choreographers, Somatic practices, movement arts, dance medicine, yoga.(Dance finder: a career & learning resource guide)
August 1, 2004... Contents United States 82 International 93 Somatic Practices, Movement Arts, Dance Medicine, and Yoga 94 United States ALABAMA ALABAMA BALLET Wes Chapman, Artistic Director Alice Cox, Director of External Affairs 2726 1st Avenue...

A place to shop for Diaghilev memories.(Russian Seasons)
August 1, 2004... Russian Seasons, a new shop tucked amid the boutiques between Broadway and Avenue of the Americas, takes its name from Diaghilev's ballet years in Europe. It sells photographs and lithographs of famous Diaghilev dancers, and those who appeared...

Attitudes.
August 1, 2004... WHAT IS this thing called jazz? Or, more pertinently, what is this thing called jazz dance? Jack Cole, one of the earliest practitioners of jazz dance as a theatrical form, was fond of calling it "urban folk dance," which certainly cute, even...