Dance Magazine articles from September 2005

Dance Magazine archives from September 2005

Curtain up.(Gelsey Kirkland)(Editorial)
September 1, 2005... Gelsey Kirkland was one of the great ballerinas of the 20th century. As a dancer, she had beautiful line, quicksilver speed, and limbs that floated into arabesque as naturally as a butterfly alighting on a flower. But there was also a...

More thoughts on race.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... Thank you for the June race issue. It's so satisfying to read socially and politically interesting articles. As a young girl I bought DANCE MAGAZINE to be inspired by the pictures; now as an adult some of the articles have relevance to my life....

Quote of the month.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... "Many dancers think of performance as the audience... and themselves, that is, two dimensional. They need to build a three-dimensional world and draw the audience into it. When you radiate epaulement, let's say in croise, you are opening up a...

Pacific Northwest ballet dances into the future.(DANCE MATTERS)(Peter Boal)
September 1, 2005... Why would Peter Boal call a halt to a brilliant dancing career at New York City Ballet to assume the artistic directorship of a ballet company 3,000 miles across the country? Boal first heard about the opening at Pacific Northwest...

Exchange in D.C.(Washington, D.C.)(Washington Reflections Dance Company)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... Despite last-minute scheduling and spring showers, a capacity crowd turned out May 24 at Dance Place, where Washington Reflections Dance Company's concert featured Ballet Clasico Nacional Dominicano in its local debut. The appearance of the...

Never too old for a kick line.(Rift Markowitz's Palm Springs Follies)
September 1, 2005... The opening number of Rift Markowitz's Palm Springs Follies, the hugely successful burlesque dance review now in its 14th season at the Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, CA, includes a frank disclosure--the ages of every member of the cast. The...

Tar Heel jamboree.(DANCE MATTERS)(North Carolina Dance Festival)
September 1, 2005... For many regional choreographers, forging a successful dance career still means hitting the highway to New York. But in North Carolina, it's roads closer to home that beckon with opportunity. Currently beginning its 15th season, the touring...

Los Angeles honors its own.(DANCE MATTERS)(Lester Horton Dance Awards)
September 1, 2005... Befitting the melting pot that is Los Angeles, the city celebrated an array of multicultural talent at the 14th annual Lester Horton Dance Awards. Leading the pack was choreographer Anna Djanbazian, whose revival of her 1982 contemporary...

Tiit Helimets (from the Birmingham Royal Ballet) and Davit Karapetyan from the Zurich Ballet) as principals at the San Francisco Ballet.(Just signed)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... TIIT HELIMETS (from the Birmingham Royal Ballet) and DAVIT KARAPETYAN (from the Zurich Ballet) as principals at the San Francisco Ballet; AARON WATKIN as artistic director of the Sachsische Semperoper Ballett Dresden.

Ask La Cour to soloist at New York City Ballet; Frances Chung and Hansuke Yamamoto to soloists at SFB; Heather Ogden and Nehemiah Kish to principal dancers at The National Ballet of Canada.(Promotions)(San Francisco Ballet)(Atlanta Ballet)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... ASK LA COUR to soloist at New York City Ballet; FRANCES CHUNG and HANSUKE YAMAMOTO to soloists at SFB; HEATHER OGDEN and NEHEMIAH KISH to principal dancers at The National Ballet of Canada; SARAH, HILMER, JOSHUA REYNOLDS, EVAN SWENSON, and...

Brian Corman has been rehired by The Washington Ballet.(Reinstated)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... BRIAN CORMAN has been rehired by The Washington Ballet, which denied him a new contract last spring.

Trisha Brown, Alexey Ratmansky, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Svetlana Zakharova, and Mathieu Ganio are laureates of Benois de la Danse 2005.(Honors and awards)(Lew Christensen Medal)(Alpert Award)(Pola Nirenska Award)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... TRISHA BROWN, ALEXEY RATMANSKY, MARIE-AGNES GILLOT, SVETLANA ZAKHAROVA, and MATHIEU GANIO are laureates of Benois de la Danse 2005; SFB artistic director HELGI TOMASSON is the latest recipient of the Lew Christensen Medal; choreographer DONNA...

Harold Cromer Cobi Narita, and LaVaughn Robinson are winners.(Honors and awards)(Flo-Bert Lifetime Achievement Awards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... HAROLD CROMER COBI NARITA, and LAVAUGHN ROBINSON are winners of Flo-Bert Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Flight of mind.(New York Notebook)(dance)(Dance Theater Workshop)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... Birds have been on Jennifer Monson's brain since she noticed a sky full of pigeons in her Brooklyn neighborhood. For three years Monson traveled over 7,000 miles following the migratory paths of gray whales, ospreys, and ducks and geese. Flight...

Dive in.(New York Notebook)(Agora )(dance juxtaposing public spaces and fears)(Brief Article)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... The abandoned 50,000 sq. ft. McCarren Pool in Williamsburg is the site of Noemie Lafrance's latest work, Agora. Meant to mimic the intricacies and randomness of urban life, Agora (marketplace in Greek) is both a celebration of public space and...

Easy listening hard dancing.(New York Notebook)(Evening Stars festival)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... More and more dances are being choreographed to the sounds of "easy listening." But that doesn't mean the dancing is easy. Take Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs, which reveals the combat between the sexes just below the seductive surface. This...

Centering work: integrating movement.(Mind your BODY)(Body-Mind Centering practice)
September 1, 2005... A bunch of dancers lie in a quiet studio on their stomachs, trying an unfamiliar move--lifting their heads without relying on muscles in the back and neck, instead initiating the movement from deeper in the torso, from the level of the heart....

Advice for dancers: former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton, Ph.D., is lecturer, a psychologist in private practice, and the author of Advice for Dancers (Jossey-Bass). She has been offering advice to Dance Magazine readers since 1992.
September 1, 2005... I THOUGHT THE BFA PROGRAM I'M IN WOULD BE THE ONE OF MY DREAMS, BUT IT'S A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. I WANT A COLLEGE DEPARTMENT WITH SMALLER DANCE CLASSES AND MORE ATTENTION FROM MY TEACHERS TO HELP ME PROGRESS. SO HOW COME I FEEL SO WEIRD ABOUT...

Straight from the heart: Gelsey Kirkland looks back ... and ahead.(Interview)
September 1, 2005... Last May, after a 13-year absence, Gelsey Kirkland was back at American Ballet Theatre. Kirkland, a dance legend who has been out of the limelight for nearly 20 years, came to New York from her home in Melbourne, Australia, at the invitation of...

Fall preview: cutting edge companies take to the road, while salutes and anniversaries lead off performances on home turf.(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... In Portland, OR, the fall dance season begins outdoors with members of Streb leaping on a trampoline in Pioneer Square. In Berkeley, CA, activities start indoors at Zellerbach Hall with the National Ballet of China offering the West Coast...

Lula Washington dance theatre.(FALL PREVIEW: HOME TURF HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Celebrating her Company's 25th anniversary, Lula Washington continues to expand her repertoire beyond themes on African American life; she put dancers in pointe shoes for the first time earlier this season. Another first: Postmodern...

Repertory dance theatre.(FALL PREVIEW: HOME TURF HIGHLIGHTS)(Salt Lake City)(Capsule)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... For its 40th anniversary, Salt Lake City's RDT premieres Time Capsule, a retrospective of American dance from Isodora Duncan to Zvi Gotheiner. The program links social and political influences to the works of masters like Glen Tetley, John...

Global rhythms.(FALL PREVIEW: HOME TURF HIGHLIGHTS)(international tap dancing festival)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... When the six companies of "Global Rhythms" hit the stage in Chicago, there will be as much to hear as there is to watch. The international artists have infused their cultural aesthetics with American tap dance, and the results fire on all...

Sarasota ballet company.(FALL PREVIEW: HOME TURF HIGHLIGHTS)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... Eva Peron, both loved and hated by the Argentinean public in the 1940s, lives again in Eva Peron: A Dance Portrait, by artistic director Robert de Warren. Known for his stunning theatrical presentations, de Warren grew up in Argentina and is...

The silent majority: surviving and thriving in the Corps de Ballet.
September 1, 2005... Imagine a ballet company without its corps de ballet. There would be no lines of wilis in arabesque drawn magnetically together in Giselle, nor any grand polonaise for the ensemble in Theme and Variations. The corps de ballet is to a dance...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 tips for new corps members.
September 1, 2005... It's a big shift to go from being the star of a ballet school to the corps of a company. At once, your dream has come true while all your passion and excitement about dancing must fit a new mold--and it doesn't always include the tiara you...

Nicole Grand: you're on your own.(EVERY CORPS MEMBER HAS A STORY)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... It would have been easy for 20-year-old Nicole Grand to get lost in San Francisco Ballet's large corps this past season. Grand; who came from a much smaller company, could have crumbled under the pressure, but she didn't. Instead she took the...

Heidi Cruz: a choreographer in their midst.(EVERY CORPS MEMBER HAS A STORY)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... "Choreographing has made me a better dancer," says Heidi Cruz, 29-year-old Pennsylvania Ballet corps member. "It's helped me develop my own style," Cruz joined PB's corps in 1995 and decided to try her hand at choreography five years later. The...

Marian Butler: steadfast at ABT.(EVERY CORPS MEMBER HAS A STORY)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... "Compared to the rest of the company," says American Ballet Theatre's Marian Butler, "the corps works a lot." But this 10-year veteren doesn't bemoan her heavy schedule. Quite the contrary. Butler, who spent eight months in Houston Ballet...

Hiromi Ushino: trading big roles for a bigger company.(EVERY CORPS MEMBER HAS A STORY)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... After nine years of major roles in Ohio's BalletMet, Hiromi Ushino traded small company life for big company aspirations in Houston Ballet. She'd worked before with HB artistic director Stanton Welch-he'd cast her as Kitri in his production of...

Jesse Marks: one of the guys.(EVERY CORPS MEMBER HAS A STORY)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... They don't wear tutus or pointe shoes and their hair isn't in buns. So what's it like being a man in the carps de ballet? After morning class they typically gather to do tricks like a group of skate-boarders giving each other's backs a pat When...

In the stretch: leotards have a long way from baggy black cotton to sleek and chic. A look at new--and old--and the shape of things to come.
September 1, 2005... Houston Ballet principal Sara Webb has 150. San Francisco Ballet soloist Elizabeth Miner says she's got too many to count. Fellow company member Pauli Magierek owns at least 60. And Houston corps de ballet member Jaquel Charlesworth says, "I'm...

Ballet slippers: anything but flat!(D M STYLE)
September 1, 2005... The ballet slipper is a danseur's best friend but, in the hearts of ballerinas, it's been overshadowed by the pointe shoe. Not anymore. Finding a slipper to flatter, support, even strengthen your foot has never been easier. Whether you prefer...

Tapping into tap: resources for tap lovers.(DANCE MAGAZINE RECOMMENDS)(Video Recording Review)(E-book Review)(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Tap Heat, The Complete DVD TAP HEAT, Inc. 2004. DVD (64 mins.). $34.95. www.tapheat.com. Jason Samuels Smith is playing basketball for a New York minute with a first-rate team that (surprise!) metamorphoses into a band of terrific tappers....

Righting a wrong: dance that takes social issues to heart.(TEACH-LEARN CONNECTION)(David Popalisky)
September 1, 2005... DAVID POPALISKY'S Barred from Life is a stark multimedia look at men who were incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. The work ends on a heart-stopping note: A man and woman step forward and read names of those wrongly convicted for...

Honor roll.(ACROSS THE FLOOR)(Daniel Nagrin)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Daniel Nagrin was a mesmerizing performer. He had a smoldering intensity, as though he would catch fire at any moment. He danced in Broadway musicals, his teaching influenced Meredith Monk and Bill Evans, he wrote books on dance, and he...

Kudos.(ACROSS THE FLOOR)(Lynn Garafola)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Professor of dance Lynn Garafola of Barnard College at Columbia University has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2005 Class of Fellows. Garafola is the author of Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance (2005) (see "DM...

New assignments.(ACROSS THE FLOOR)(California, Arizona)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... School director Roberto Munoz left Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at the end of August. Indiana University has reinstated its modern dance major. The program, which resides in the Department of Kinesiology, is one of the oldest in the country,...

Two teachers, one classroom, boundless possibilities.(STUDIO TALK)
September 1, 2005... One has been teaching for 40-plus years, the other for 10. But they have no qualms about sharing a classroom and their teaching methods in an enriching arrangement for both their students and themselves. Martha Wittman and Margot Greenlee,...

Teacher's wisdom: Frank Hatchett.(THIS MONTH)(Interview)
September 1, 2005... Hailed by ABC's Good Morning America as "The Doctor of Jazz," Frank Hatchett was a jazz performer in theater, movies, television, and concerts before turning to teaching. He is the creator of the "VOP" style of jazz, taken from the sound he...

Neal Beasley: from NTU's Tisch School of the Arts to the Trisha Brown Dance Company, this fountain of energy is getting noticed.(On the Rise)
September 1, 2005... As Trisha Brown's Present Tense begins, Neal Beasley is alone onstage before a backdrop of interlocking colored shapes, rib the sounds of John Cage's prepared piano he leans on the air and twists his upper body against his lower so that it...

On broadway: broadway bound: season highlights include imports, revivals, and Tharp's Bob Dylan salute.
September 1, 2005... For lovers of Broadway dance, the big news of the new season can be summed up in two words: Twyla's coming. After fashioning the songs of Billy Joel into the terrific musical Movin' Out, this time Twyla Tharp is tackling the Bob Dylan songbook....

Royal Danish Ballet.(La Ventana, Kermesse and Mime)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... Royal Danish Ballet, Bournonville Festival Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark June 3-4, 2005 If The Kermesse in Bruges and Napoli were novels, we would call them page-turners. Like his compatriot Hans Christian Andersen, August...

Billy Elliot the Musical.(Theater Review)
September 1, 2005... BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL VICTORIA PALACE THEATRE, LONDON, ENGLAND MAY 3, 2005 The award-winning film Billy Elliot has leapt from the silver screen into a London theater. The gritty story of a coal miner's young son who dreams of becoming a...

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg.(Anna Karenina)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... EIFMAN BALLET OF ST. PETERSBURG CITY CENTER, NEW YORK, NY MAY 24-29, 2005 The cinematic sweep of Boris Eifman's epic ballets is undeniable; his Red Giselle, Don Quixote, and Russian Hamlet combine psychology with Terpsichore in fast-paced,...

Carolina Ballet.(Swan Lake)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... CAROLINA BALLET RALEIGH MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM, RALEIGH, NC MAY 19-22, 2005 Inspired by a children's-book version of the Swan Lake story, Carolina Ballet artistic director Robert Weiss has stripped down the ballet and delicately built it up...

Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life.(Preview)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... The plot: talented dancer works hard, gets chorus jobs, then leads, then stardom. It's not exactly original, but the subject is that one-and-only Broadway icon, Chita Rivera, who won a DM award in 2003. In Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life,...

Deja Donne.(Preview)(Bella Copia)(Dance Review)
September 1, 2005... This edgy company, based in Italy and Prague, treads the line between dance and theater--and between sanity and insanity. The fiercely physical performers of In Bella Copia might hinge at or caress each other, or strip themselves bare. A tender...

International Ballet Festival of Miami.(Preview)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The best of the yearly International Ballet Festival of Miami often comes to this: A ballerina, perhaps not seen locally before, sparks through a variation with such clarity and force that she turns a classical chestnut into a crown jewel....

Akua Parker, a lead dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem (which is still on hiatus), has signed with Cincinnati Ballet as a corps member. Parker said she is "ecstatic about the new opportunity.".(MOVING WESTWARD)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Akua Parker, a lead dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem (which is still on hiatus), has signed with Cincinnati Ballet as a corps member. Parker said she is "ecstatic about the new opportunity." Artistic director Victoria Morgan, who auditioned...

National Ballet of Canada.(NEW APPOINTMENTS)(Karen Kain)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Karen Kain, former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, was appointed artistic director of the company, effective July 1st. Kain will continue to fulfill her 5-year term as chair of Canada Council for the Arts.

Twyla Tharp Dance, American Ballet Theatre, and White Oak Dance Project was named the new associate producer of Dancers Responding.(NEW APPOINTMENTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Jamie Bishton, a leading dancer with Twyla Tharp Dance, American Ballet Theatre, and White Oak Dance Project, was named the new associate producer of Dancers Responding to AIDS in June.

Raisa Struchkova (1925-2005).(DEATHS)(Bolshoi Theater)(Obituary)
September 1, 2005... Raisa Struchkova was a great Bolshoi ballerina with a rhapsodic style and impeccable technique, although always dancing in the shadow of Galina Ulanova's genius. She was trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School under Yelizaveta Gerdt, and in 1937...

Jarmila Weissenbock.(DEATHS)(Curator of Austrian Theater Museum (Vienna))
September 1, 2005... Jarmila Weissenbock, 64, librarian and dance curator of the Austrian Theater Museum in Vienna, died in May. The dance exhibits she organized were shown not only in Austria but traveled to other countries, including Great Britain and the United...

Karin Averty, premiere danseuse with the Paris Opera Ballet who entered as a corps member in 1979, made her final appearance with the company as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in July.(RETIREMENTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Karin Averty, premiere danseuse with the Paris Opera Ballet who entered as a corps member in 1979, made her final appearance with the company as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in July. Fans of the San Francisco Ballet might remember Averty from...

Pennsylvania Ballet.(RETIREMENTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Pennsylvania Ballet principal David Krensing retired in June after 19 years with the company. Krensing was one of the original producers and directors of PB dancers' yearly performance Shut Up and Dance, benefiting Metropolitan AIDS...

Oregon Ballet Theatre.(RETIREMENTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Oregon Ballet Theatre honored three retiring dancers--Tracy Taylor, Matthew Boyes, and Karl Vakili--at the closing performance of their Masters & Moderns program in May. Taylor was with the company for 16 years, Boyes joined in 1995, and Vakili...

May Nevada Ballet Theatre.(RETIREMENTS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... In May Nevada Ballet Theatre bid farewell to two of its beloved dancers: Tess Hooley, principal, who was with the company for 10 years; and soloist Lissa Daniggelis, who danced there for 20 years.

Schools, studios, colleges, universities, companies, teachers, dancers, choreographers, somatic practices, movement arts, dance medicine, yoga.(DANCE FINDER)(Directory)
September 1, 2005... United States ALABAMA ALABAMA BALLET Wes Chapman, Artistic Director Alice Cox, Director of External Affairs 2726 1st Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233 (205) 322-4300; Fax (205) 322-4444 www.alabamaballet.org ALABAMA DANCE THEATRE...

Back to the roots.(A CAREER & LEARNING RESOURCE GUIDE)(Rulan Ttangen (indigenous nations; dance company))(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Native American Rulan Tangen combined her rich traditional heritage and her love of dance when she founded Dancing Earth in 2004. A collective of 13 artists who represent indigenous nations from the Apache in the Southwest to the Papanga in the...

Attitudes.(Martha Graham Dance Company)
September 1, 2005... New works are a crucial problem. How do you keep a furniture workshop going when the sole carpenter has left the building? Survival is not renewal. Renewal involves creation and re-creation, and the only creative act the Martha Graham Dance...

Beyond performance II: success stories.(Dancers' new careers)(Interview)
September 1, 2005... It's a fact of life in dance that a performance career is often short-lived. Whether occasioned by injury, age, financial necessity, or the desire to do something new, countless dancers each year find themselves searching for a new or...

Taking the biggest leap: career transition for dancers helps cushion the landing.
September 1, 2005... It is often said that dancers die two deaths: one when they stop dancing, and the other when they stop living. The staff of Career Transition for Dancers (CTFD) prefers to view it as living two lives: one when they are dancing, and the other...