Dance Magazine articles from June 2008

Dance Magazine archives from June 2008

Curtain up.(Daniel Ulbricht)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Daniel Ulbricht is the boy next door. But he's also the boy wonder who can jump high and land noiselessly, turn forever, and infuse every role with buoyancy and finesse. He's not an elegant Dane, a passionate Russian, or a sexy Cuban. He's just...

Wowed by women.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... Thank you for examining the gender divide in the world of choreography in the April issue. As a female choreographer I have been acutely aware of the disparity of funding in this field. Audience members, however, often do not realize that many...

Black is beautiful.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... I am disappointed in "What's in a Name" ("Rant and Rave," Feb.). This article seems like an attack on the International Association for Blacks in Dance. Eleo Pomare has said that the reason why early black choreographers chose the word was that...

Nikolais returns.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... I read Doris Hering's "Dance Magazine Recommends" in the Feb. issue and was fascinated with her take on the aesthetic similarities of Loie Fuller and Alwin Nikolais. However, in response to the last paragraph, I want to reassure everyone that...

Robbins on display.(Jerome Robbins )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you're visiting the Big Apple this summer, check out The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for its gorgeous tribute to one of America's greatest choreographers. New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His...

This land is our land.(Ananya Dance Theatre's Call to Action)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Land rights controversies are raging all over the world--but it's rare that a dance company would cite them as artistic inspiration. Enter Ananya Dance Theatre. Their newest politically-charged work, Daak: Call to...

Vital stat.(vital signs)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Jacob's Pillow has presented 1,083 different dance companies from around the world. This summer, in their 76th season, they will add 30 more companies to that roster.

Dance of the living dead.(Thriller)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Michael Jackson's original "Thriller" dance sequence took place on the street--so what better place to reenact it? Surprised pedestrians have vacated sidewalks--and even subway cars--for dancers performing the famous...

From all corners of the earth.(San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, spans dance styles from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Each of four weekends offers a different program showcasing...

Choreography for the big screen.(Dance Media Festival)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dance on the silver screen is still going strong today, and the seventh annual Dance Media Festival, hosted by L.A.'s Dance Camera West, celebrates the best and brightest. The series features screenings of...

Czech-mate.(Wendy Osserman Dance Company and Iva Bittova in Tanec Praha festival)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Wendy Osserman Dance Company and the haunting Czech singer and composer Iva Bittova are bringing their combined efforts to Prague's Tanec Praha festival. A truly collaborative piece, Out of Place requires the dancers to sing and Bittova to...

ENB goes Gershwin.(English National Ballet )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The English National Ballet honors classic Americana in Strictly Gershwin, premiering June 13 at London's Royal Albert Hall. Performed in the round, the dance spectacular uses Gershwin's iconic music--including selections from An American in...

From dancing to drawing.(Trisha Brown as an artist)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many know Trisha Brown for her groundbreaking choreography. But the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has been honoring her second, lesser-known talent as a visual artist since late April. Trisha Brown: So That the...

Make way for more dance on TV.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In April, another reality TV dance competition hit prime time. Bravo's Step It Up & Dance (below) puts 12 contestants in a house together to compete for the ultimate prize of $100,000. The competitors, from diverse dance backgrounds, are...

Quick Q&A: Trey McIntyre.(Interview)
June 1, 2008... As a popular freelance choreographer, Trey McIntyre has created works for companies like American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, and The Washington Ballet. In 2004 he founded the Trey McIntyre Project, a 10-member, summer-only touring...

Ballet across America: companies come together in DC for a new festival.
June 1, 2008... The idea of the Kennedy Center presenting a program of ballet companies from across the country makes so much sense that it's surprising it hasn't happened before. It seems the perfect venue for an overview of arts from around the nation. But...

Rhythmic women unite: a report from the Women in Tap conference.
June 1, 2008... Sole sister energy gathered on UCLA's campus in February, as four generations of women descended for three days to keynote, orate, panelize, perform, and give voice to tap dancing women. Lynn Dally, artistic director of the Jazz Tap Ensemble...

Bad boy Michael Clark tours again: his new Stravinsky Project comes to Lincoln Center.
June 1, 2008... The Brit who caused a stir in the '80s is making a comeback by bringing his fresh, hot take on Stravinsky to the U.S. One of the most notorious dancers ever to graduate from The Royal Ballet School, Michael Clark rejected an offer from the...

The Joyce brings Ailey to BAM.(Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Three of New York's most vibrant cultural institutions come together to celebrate Ailey's 50th anniversary. These performances--the first time Ailey will have a second NYC season--will be like coming home for Alvin...

Classical soap.(Nicholas Leichter )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... No doubt, Nicholas Leichter can face down a daunting piece of music without flinching. The young choreographer took on major commissions from the Brooklyn Philharmonic: Orff's Carmina Burana and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Now he sets his...

Park place.(208 East Broadway)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New York City's unforgiving economics have provided Susan Rethorst with fodder for her new work, 208 East Broadway. Last year's first part took place in her re-created living room, which doubles as her studio. The...

Arantxa Ochoa & Alexander Iziliaev.(ballet dancers)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] He helps her adjust her rehearsal tutu, they take their places a few paces apart and stretch arms wide. As the pianist starts playing Tchaikovsky, they are transformed into storybook lovers. The pleasure on his wide...

Sleep secrets.
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After several nights of restless sleep, Ballet Austin's Paul Michael Bloodgood isn't at his best in company class. "It's more difficult to focus," he says. "It takes me longer to find my groove." There's more to...

QA.(Column)
June 1, 2008... Why do I feel lazy whenever I try to take a break? I'm exhausted after 20 dance classes a week but when I try to sit one out, I feel like I'm shirking. I tell myself that I should be able to push through my fatigue if I want to become a...

The flier: the gravity-defying thrill of NYCB's Daniel Ulbricht.(New York City Ballet)(Cover story)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Being short is no handicap for male dancers whose low centers of gravity can be a springboard to airborne virtuosity. Those possessing the artistry and technique to compensate for their stature include Vaslav...

Brave new worlds: a crucible of modern dance, American Dance Festival celebrates 75 years.
June 1, 2008... A woman in a red dress changed Paul Taylor's life his first summer as a student at the American Dance Festival. Celebrating its 75th season this summer, the six-week modern dance festival offers a double bill of potentially life-changing...

Moving pictures: photographer Rose Eichenbaum salutes the legends in her traveling show, The Dancer Within.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Dancer Within, a traveling exhibit of 48 photos by Rose Eichenbaum, celebrates the act of dancing and the lives of dancers. It includes images of ballet stars, Broadway legends, and choreographers of every genre....

Enter: reality: how one student dancer got her foot inside the door to the dance world.
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Moving to New York as a dancer is like gaining access to a party you've heard about your entire life. Suddenly, there's a space for you at the barre next to the latest Broadway star. Although you may be catering the...

Fast track to auditions.
June 1, 2008... You've been working hard for many years as a student, and you want to enter the dance world with a bang. But lining up the right auditions can be tricky, and the auditions themselves are nerve-wracking. What's an ambitious student to do? Dance...

Summer days.(dancers' travel accessories and stuff)(Buyers guide)
June 1, 2008... Heading off to a summer intensive? We found everything you need to make the most of your experience, from travel accessories to the perfect leotard. Packing your on-the-road dance bag has never been this much fun! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training.(Teaching Tools: New books and DVDs for teachers and students)
June 1, 2008... The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training Edited by Melanie Bales and Rebecca Nettl-Fiol. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 280 pages. $30. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In The Body Eclectic, form follows function...

The Finis Jhung Ballet Technique: A Guide for Teachers & Students.(Teaching Tools: New books and DVDs for teachers and students)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The Finis Jhung Ballet Technique: A Guide for Teachers & Students By Finis Jhung. New York: Ballet Dynamics, Inc., 2007. 343 pages. $75. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The basics of ballet are difficult to master yet essential for the...

Lifts, Volume II with Jeff Amsden.(Teaching Tools: New books and DVDs for teachers and students)(Brief article)(Video recording review)
June 1, 2008... Lifts, Volume II with Jeff Amsden Featuring Katy Spreadbury. DVD; 60 mins. www.liveatbroadwaydancecenter.com. $49.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a useful supplement to studio training, master teacher Jeff Amsden draws on his own...

Tap Styles.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
June 1, 2008... Tap Styles With Lyn Cramer. DVD; 60 minutes, www.cathyroe.com. $44.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This DVD captures Lyn Cramer, a professor of musical theater dance at the University of Oklahoma, teaching two short intermediate-level...

Jazz x 3.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
June 1, 2008... Jazz x 3 With Bob Rizzo, Rhonda Miller, Gregg Russell. DVD; 90 minutes. www.bobrizzo.com. $49.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jazz veterans Rizzo, Miller, and Russell give 15 combinations aimed at intermediate-to-advanced students. The...

Betty Oliphant: The Artistry of Teaching.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Betty Oliphant: The Artistry of Teaching A Series of Ballet Classes. By Nadia Potts. Toronto: Dance Collection Danse Press/es, 2007. 268 pages. $60. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is impossible to cover the entire scope of Betty...

A BFA in ballet? Why more ballet dancers are choosing to go to college.
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lauren Fadeley's young adulthood offers the kind of storyline that every aspiring ballerina dreams about. Dancing from age 4, she moved to New York at 15 to study at the School of American Ballet. A year later, she...

Improving extension.
June 1, 2008... The feeling that your body can go anywhere, reach any position, and never be confined by muscle tightness is one of a dancer's supreme joys. With great flexibility, you have physical freedom. But for too many dancers, the quest for eye-popping...

Joffrey in Texas.(Robert Joffrey's workshop school)
June 1, 2008... In 1978, Robert Joffrey selected San Antonio as the home of what was then the only workshop that bore his name. He couldn't have possibly predicted that three decades and thousands of dancers later it would still be going strong. The Joffrey...

Contact improvisers unite. (teach-learn connection.(Contact Quarterly/Contact Collaborations)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Huntington, PA, will feel the impact June 8-18 when Juniata College hosts CI36, a celebration for contact improvisation's 36th birthday. Hosted in collaboration with Contact Quarterly/Contact Collaborations, the...

Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Russian American Foundation presents the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive in NYC and Middlebury, CT, this summer for the first time in nearly a decade. Students can choose either a three-week or five-week session starting June 30....

Sara Rudner.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Choreographer/dancer Sara Rudner gave a workshop at Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA, March 23-28 through Summer Stages Dance. Participating dancers learned material from her 2007 piece Dancing-on- View. Rudner opened every session to...

Moving On Center.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Moving On Center in Oakland, CA, presents Embodiment in Education: Professional Development for Dance/Movement Educators, June 16-20. The workshop serves as an introduction to using somatics with teenage and college-level students. It aims...

The Ailey Extension.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Ailey Extension offers Finis Jhung's 2008 NYC Teacher Workshop, June 20-22. The workshop will include Leap 'N Learn, an early childhood dance method, and the Ailey Experience Student Workshop for students ages 12 and up. Members of the...

American College Dance Festival Association.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The American College Dance Festival Association holds their national festival in NYC for the first time this month (see "Competing in Creativity," March). The top pieces from regional ACDFA conferences around the country will be shown at...

American Dance Festival.(award for Dianne McIntyre )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The American Dance Festival awards Dianne McIntyre the Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching this month. McIntyre (see "Reviving the Past," Jan.) has taught dance and theater for over 30 years at several...

Ivies@Cunningham.(Merce Cunningham Dance Company)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Merce Cunningham Studio hosted Ivies@Cunningham March 7 and 8, featuring original choreography created and performed by students from the dance departments of Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard Universities.

Eleanor D'Antuono: inspiring dancers to take a chance.(Interview)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Eleanor D'Antuono got her start professionally at the age of 14 as a dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her long career included stints at the Joffrey Ballet and 20 years as a leading ballerina with...

Hee Seo: radiant and assured, the ABT corps member has striking stage presence.(American Ballet Theatre )
June 1, 2008... Seeing young dancers emerge and sparkle can be one of the great pleasures of watching a company's corps de ballet. That's the case with Hee Seo, an American Ballet Theatre corps member with ballerina potential written all over her. It helps...

South Pacific's grunts: an ensemble crammed with out-of-town stars.
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Peggy Sawyer, the ingenue of 42nd Street, comes to New York, lands a spot in the chorus of a Broadway show, takes over for the leading lady, and presumably never looks back. Real life is rarely that neat, and you...

Paul Taylor Dance Company.
June 1, 2008... New York City Center February 28-March 16, 2008 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This season displayed the remarkable breadth of Taylor's work and his protean company in a wide-ranging 19 dances, with twin premieres and 17 revivals. The...

Royal Danish Ballet.(Dance review)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Old Stage, Copenhagen, Denmark March 7-20, 2008 Golden shafts of light and billowing smoke spilled out of a gaping horizontal crack set high in the black depths of the Old Stage as silhouettes of thin,...

Dance Salad Festival.
June 1, 2008... Wortham Center, Cullen Theater Houston, TX March 20-22, 2008 The 13th season of Houston's only international dance festival was a study in contrasts, with offerings mostly divided between the dark and light. National Ballet Theater,...

Houston Ballet.(PREVIEW)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The five couples dressed in dreamy pastels from Stanton Welch's Falling may seem to say a farewell to spring, but they'll also say a confident hello to Houston Ballet's repertoire this summer. A playfully fresh homage to classicism set to...

Gus Giordano (1923-2008).(DEATHS)(Obituary)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] August Thomas "Gus" Giordano, 84, died in Chicago in March of pneumonia. Known as a founder and promoter of American jazz dance, he opened a school in Evanston, IL, in 1953 with his wife, Peg. In 1962 he formed...

Phyllis Spira (1943-2008).(DEATHS)(Obituary)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Phyllis Spira was one of the most interesting dancers South Africa has ever produced. Although she started her career with The Royal Ballet, Johannesburgborn Spira was comparatively little-known outside her native South Africa. She danced only...

Amanda Smith (1944-2008).(DEATHS)(Obituary)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... One of NYC's most dedicated dance writers, Amanda Smith died in March from complications from pneumonia. She covered performances around town, from Lincoln Center to the smallest loft, and was a keen observer of, and passionate advocate for,...

Lisa Viola.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... At this season's closing City Center performance, Lisa Viola ended Paul Taylor's sublime Esplanade as usual, by saying goodbye to the audience with a port de bras and a warm smile. But this time, it meant more than ever--it was her final...

2008 Dance Annual Directory.(Directory)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Welcome to Dance Magazine's 2008 Dance Annual Directory. Its an essential guide for every dancer and dance professional. We've gathered up-to-date info on over 700 dance companies, schools, presenters, dancewear...

United States.(Directory)
June 1, 2008... ALABAMA ALABAMA BALLET Wes Chapman, Artistic Director Alice Cox, Director of External Affairs 2726 1st Avenue South, Birminghan, AL 35233 (205) 322-4300; Fax (205) 322-4444 www.alabamaballet.org ALABAMA DANCE THEATRE Kitty Scale. Dir....

C'mon get happy.(Summerdances)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dance department is brewing up its annual "Summerdances," featuring work by guest choreographer Uri Sands. Happy, a lighthearted piece for four dancers that Sands set during his...

International.(international directory)(Directory)
June 1, 2008... ARGENTINA MANUEL VALLEJOS DANCE JAZZ STUDIO Lavalle 1579 C.P.1048-Buenos Aires Tel/Fax (541) 371-6811 AUSTRIA SALZBURY INTL BALLET ACADEMY (SIBA) Yehuda Maor, Ballet teacher/Master Salzburg Ballet. Phone +43+069911134586...

Somatic practices, movement arts, and dance medicine.(Directory)
June 1, 2008... Certification and Training in Somatic and Movement-Based Arts. Contact: dcastro@dancemagazine.com AERIAL DANCE/ ACROBATIC/CIRCUS ARTS LAVA HOME STUDIO / BROOKLYN, NY Acrobatics & trapeze emphasizing strength, flexibility, communication...

George Washington who? John Kriza, Paul Godkin, Jerome Robbins, and Robert Barnett were full of a special pep and vigor that I didn't associate with European dancers.(George Washington Smith)
June 1, 2008... Think of it as one of those TV Jeopardy reverse-questions. The subject is classical ballet. The answer is, "The first great American-born male classical dancer." And the question was? Your mind quickly reviews the possibilities--perhaps you...