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American Ballet Theatre
McKenzie brings his 'A' team to 'Swan Lake'
Swan Lake
USA, Chicago, Civic Opera House
Dancers: Brown, Corella, Cornejo, Gomes, Herrera, Lopez, Molina, Murphy, Salstein, Stiefel, Torres, Tuttle, Wiles
by Sid Smith
    "Judging from various performances of "Swan Lake" at the Civic Opera House, Kevin McKenzie's stewardship as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre is one of remarkable quality from lead dancers to newest member of the corps."
Chicago Tribune

Merce Cunningham
Still Taking Chances
Washington
By Lisa Traiger
    "In a contemporary world cluttered with chaos and commercial pop culture, Cunningham's experimentation with chance -- whether it's the roll of a die or the flip of a coin -- has been illuminating and boundary breaking. He also allows his collaborators -- composers, and set and costume designers -- the freedom to invent without meetings and planning sessions."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23685-2004Mar25.html

George Piper Dances
4 stars
Approximate Sonata, Mesmerics, Broken Fall
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Essakow, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Zamora
by Judith Mackrell
    "...this is the real buzz created by George Piper Dances. This is a company that grows exponentially every time we see them."
The Guardian

English National Ballet
5 stars
Swan Lake
UK, Manchester, Palace Theatre
Dancers: Chang, Gruzdyev, Klimentova
by Robert Beale
    "Derek Deane's Swan Lake for English National Ballet is one of the best performances you are likely to see."
Manchester Online

Paul Taylor Dance Company
Brave new dance from Paul Taylor
Dante Variations, Runes, Arden Court
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Theater
Dancers: Berest, Duckstein, Kleinendorst, LeBeau, Mazzini, Nevjinsky, See, Tice, Trusnovec, Viola, Young, Samsonmay
by Michael Wade Simpson
    "Where George Balanchine was all about women, Paul Taylor is, often as not, inclined to glorify the male."
San Francisco Chronicle

Paul Taylor Dance Company
Celebrating 50 fiery years
Dante Variations, Runes, Arden Court
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Dancers: Fleet, Mazzini, Samson, Tice, Trusnovec, Viola
by Anita Amirrezvani
    "Few choreographers can work for as long or as hard as Paul Taylor without falling into a rut. But ... Taylor proved once again that he has plenty to say, and a distinctive way of saying it."
Mercury News

Robert Heindel - painter
Called to the barre
Robert Heindel was a young, sports-obsessed illustrator when his boss offered him tickets to the ballet. One glimpse of Fonteyn and Nureyev was all it took to change his life, he tells Will Lawrence
London
by Will Lawrence
    "Pornography . . .” muses Robert Heindel. “Most people who go to the ballet don’t consider that they’re really looking at great pornography, dressed up in a different way.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1181-1051014,00.html

Nederlands Dance Theatre
Nederlands troupe fires up repertoire with allusions to modern-day anguish
Claude Pascal, Last Touch, 27'52
USA, Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall
Dancers: Blouin, Dubreuil, Euverink, Nappa, Sanchez, Scharafali, Timulak, Zeromski
by Ann Murphy
    "The taut, enigmatic feel of the all-new bill Wednesday led to a spellbinding night of dance..."
San Francisco Chronicle

Boston Ballet
Hub corps members prove not only stars shine bright
Duo Concertant, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Plan to B, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Atkins, Feijoo, Prouty, Varga
by Theodore Bale
    "I've seen Balanchine's classic 1972 ``Duo Concertant'' danced by New York City Ballet many times, but as interpreted by soloist Melanie Atkins and her partner Varga on Thursday, it looked as fresh as a premiere."
Boston Herald

Boston Ballet
The Ballet steps into new scenes
Duo Concertant, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Plan to B, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Atkins, Varga
by Christine Temin
    "On all counts the level of dancing and choreography, the intelligence and thought this was a sensationally successful evening."
The Boston Globe

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Dancers revel in freedom
Juba, Heart Song, Treading, Revelations
USA, Los Angeles, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Dancers: Boykin, Brown, Deshauteurs, Fisher-Harrell, Geordias, Jackson, Rushing
by Laura Bleiberg
    "In his new piece "Juba," choreographer Robert Battle achieved the incredible: He made the god-like dancers of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company look ugly."
Orange County Register

Charles Linehan
Shall we anti-dance?
Grand Junction, New Quartet
Canada, Toronto, Harbourfront Centre
Dancers: Cooke, Rauch
by Susan Walker
    "Linehan's choreography is like de-constructed dance, a blend of the abstract and the gestural. The whole is much less than the sum of its carefully articulated parts."
Toronto Star

Momix
'Opus Cactus' helps desert come to life
Opus Cactus
USA, Houston, Wortham Theater Center
Dancers: Caropolo, Gibbs, Loeb, Loizides, Lomonte, Magee, Marshall, Melady, Simerson, Lampi
by Molly Glentzer
    "More than 20 years after founding his troupe, Pendleton is still the undisputed master of using bodies as props and props as extensions of bodies. In 2002's Opus Cactus, a parade of zany characters who are not like anything you would actually see in a desert..."
Houston Chronicle

Jose Mateos Ballet Theatre
Cuban' spirit moves Mateo
The Cuban Condition:
USA, Boston, Sanctuary Theatre
Dancers: Ballard, DuBois, Flaherty, Marculetiu, McMeekin, Parrott, Shinzawa, Watkins, Hubbard
by Theodore Bale
    "If you want to see some of the most thrilling dances Jose Mateo has created in years, don't miss ``The Cuban Condition'' at the Sanctuary Theatre in Harvard Square. But the program sags in a few places in its intent to offer variety."
Boston Herald

Milwaukee Ballet
`Giselle 1943' sets ballet in a Warsaw-like ghetto
Giselle 1943
USA, Milwaukee, Marcus Center
Dancers: Fote, Thrussell
by Sid Smith
    "... this is an impressive and luminous regional enterprise, nicely performed and ultimately quite moving in its cagey emotional resuscitation of a beloved, but moldy, chestnut."
Chicago Tribune

Hedwig Dances
Hedwig finds connection to the blues
Blues Dances, One Two (and a Half) Three, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb, Duet 1
USA, Chicago, Columbia College Dance Center
Dancers: Chen, Gutierrez, Larimore, McCray
by Lucia Mauro
    "Jan Bartoszek, founder/artistic director of Chicago's Hedwig Dances, extends the rhythmic reach of modern dance through her latest collaboration with local blues pioneer Erwin Helfer."
Chicago Tribune

Parsons Dance Company
Parsons' substance catching up with style
Caught, Sleep Study, Rise and Fall
USA, Skokie, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Skarpetowska
by Sid Smith
    "David Parsons is not America's deepest choreographer... He is something of a genius at dance lite, a gift pleasing for audiences and ultimately healthy for the art."
Chicago Tribune

Smuin Ballet (Italian Tour)
Smuin Ballets, Symphony on the road again, in Italy and back East
San Francisco
by David Wiegand
    "Among the travel-related calamities: The costumes were delayed in customs and only arrived at the theater minutes before the first performance on Tuesday night. And the company encountered its first raked stage (built on a slant toward the audience -- anathema to dancers)."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/24/DDG6P5PFSL1.DTL&type=performance

Daniel McCusker
Troupe has a hand in `Breadcrumbs'
Boston
By Theodore Bale
    "For example, I teach a phrase and then ask them to personalize it and make it more congenial, to speed it up or slow it down, make it bigger or smaller, hold on to something longer, perhaps. I might go three-quarters of the way around to do something, and they might go only one-quarter. It's a very subtle kind of variety.''http://theedge.bostonherald.com/artsNews/view.bg?articleid=875

Daniel McCusker, Anna Myer and Dancers
Veteran choreographers delve into love, loss, improvisation
Boston
By Christine Temin
    "Those who actually like surprises in dance performances should enjoy this weekend: Daniel McCusker presents his new "Breadcrumbs," which he bills as "a movement project," at Green Street Studios tomorrow and Saturday; and Anna Myer and Dancers perform "The Presence of That Absence" at the Tsai Performance Center on the same nights."
Boston.com

"A Few Good Men ... Dancin" Show
Hunky chorus guys emerge from shadows into spotlight
New York
By Robert Johnson
    "Through history men have always been at the forefront of dance," said Amsden, a former ballet dancer turned musical theater and television choreographer. "But I hadn't ever seen a show that proved it. So I created one..."
http://www.nj.com/theatredance/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1080285273118230.xml

Ballet Hispanico
Tower on West 90th Street Is Mixing Students and Dancers
New York
By Edwin Mcdowell
    "onstruction is under way on a 12-story building on West 90th Street that will house both the Stephen Gaynor School, which teaches children with learning disabilities, and dance studios for the Ballet Hispanico."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/realestate/28APOST.html?ex=1080968400&en=ef7a81a0a891339f

Stapleton School of the Performing Arts
Cuban father, daughter team for 'Swan Lake'
Performance at Marin Center
San Francisco
Stan Sinberg
    "Some other schools only take dancers who want to be professional," Stapleton said. "We take them as they are -- with different body types, skills ... Our goal is to have them use what they've learned in dance to carry them through their lives and make them full people."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/26/NBG485PQVJ1.DTL&type=performance

Scottish Ballet - Ashley Page + Patricia Neary
Paying tribute to a dance genius
Edinburgh
By Jackie Mcglone
    "Page is unapologetic: "I’m driving them hard, but I believe in pushing dancers to their limits. We’re doing well, although we need more money, but what’s new? I couldn’t believe how well our Nutcracker went - we did great business with it, so I’ll definitely be creating more new pieces myself. "
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/artsandbooks.cfm?id=355092004

Mark Morris
The choreographer Mark Morris isn’t afraid of treading on toes wherever he goes — and Ireland is next. By Karina Buckley
London
by Karina Buckley
    "Typically, he says, choreographing a 20-minute piece would involve between six and eight weeks of listening to the piece in question, five or six days a week, three to five hours a day..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2101-1050389,00.html

Li Cunxin
Former Houston Ballet star reinvents himself as a writer
Houston
By Molly Glentzer
    "Li already has firm offers from reputable Australian and British film producers, but he's waiting to see if other offers develop after the book's American release. "I think my story's really more American, and my entire career happened in America," he says. "And really, it's a Chinese story."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/2468096

Royal Ballet
Death becomes him
Mayerling
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Bond, Cojocaru, Cope, Keating, Kobborg, Morera, Rojo, Rosato, Tapper, Yanowsky
by David Dougill
    "Cope portrays the emotionally tormented, drugged and diseased, sex- and gun-obsessed crown prince heading for destruction with a seething conviction that makes your hair stand on end."
The Sunday Times

Tango por dos
Tango Una Leyenda
UK, London, Peacock
Dancers: Zotto
by David Dougill
    "But by the end of a long evening, I felt I had seen and heard more than one tango too many."
The Sunday Times

Henri Oguike Dance Company
There’s something about Henri
FPS (Frames Per Second) Part 1, Front Line, Dido And Aeneas, Finale
UK, Edinburgh, Traverse
Dancers: Oguike, Storer
by Ellie Carr
    "this London-based troupe have the hungry look of artists with their sights set on greater things.... And how they deserve it."
Sunday Herald

Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961-2001 Exhibition
Performance meets visual art
Seattle
By Mary Murfin Bayley
    "Did she find it a challenge to gather the artifacts of four decades of work? "I tended to keep everything in a cardboard box somewhere," she said. "And I always asked people to bring home the programs of my European performances in their suitcases."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/classicalmusicdance/2001889420_brown28.html

Miami City Ballet - Iliana Lopez
Miami City Ballet's 'prima' ballerina Iliana Lopez bids farewell to the stage
Miami
By Guillermo Perez
    "If ever a local ballerina merited the qualifier "prima," it's been Iliana Lopez in her 17 years at Miami City Ballet. Choreography lives through her, audiences adore her."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-enilianamar28,0,2477468.story?coll=sfla-home-dots-right-utility

Ballet San Jose
`Out of Africa' ballet captures only some of Dinesen's legend
Out of Africa
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Dahlhoff, Dalle, Lapshin, Meijer, Strong, Bo
by Anita Amirrezvani
    "Dinesen's life is the stuff of legend, but this production doesn't capture its special magic."
Mercury News

Ballet San Jose
Dane takes S.J. ballet to 'Africa'
Out of Africa
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Meijer, Strong, Tai, Dahlhoff
by Ann Murphy
    "When the choreographer set a scene in silence or chose bird song to accompany the dance, a sudden stillness entered the scene. Only then did Flindt capture a hint of Blixen..."
San Francisco Chronicle

Royal Swedish Ballet
Pippi Longstocking gets the pointe
    "Pippi Longstocking, the freckle-faced girl whose antics have fired the imaginations of children around the world for years, will strut her stuff for the first time in a new ballet created by the Royal Swedish Ballet."
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/Entertainment/story_55699.asp

Company Chaddick
Company Chaddick finds flow in 'Moon'
Eclipse: Behind the Moon, Glances, When Where Why 1, Brother to Brother
USA, San Francisco, ODC Theater
Dancers: Aggen, Ashby, Chaddick, Ibarra, Litwinowicz, Malkoclar, Mata, Vogt, Wright
by Rachel Howard
    "...its best moments hint at the secrets behind artistic director Cheryl Chaddick's creative longevity."
San Francisco Chronicle

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, Sean Curran in Jacob's Pillow lineup this summer
Rhode Island
Who's on when...
http://www.projo.com/theater/content/projo_20040328_jacobs04.212191.html

Gabrielle Lansner
Truth? Yes. Reconciliation? Maybe.
New York
By Christopher Reardon
    "In "Salt Chocolate," she zooms in on the case of the Guguletu Seven, a group of young men who were gunned down by the police in a Cape Town slum in 1986. The apartheid regime held two inquiries, clearing all 25 officers of wrongdoing each time..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/arts/dance/28REAR.html

Nederlands Dance Theater
The turn of NDT
A preview of two programmes to be performed at Orange County Performing Arts this week.
by Laura Bleiberg
“...change, which has been in the wind since Kylián stepped down in 1999, is blowing more forcefully now.”
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=87515

Sofia Golovkina
Bolshoi’s Sofia Golovkina dies at 88.
Sofia Golovkina, who danced for the Bolshoi Theater for nearly three decades and directed its school for more than 40 years, has died.
‘She danced the key role in "Bright Stream," which was denounced by the Communist Party newspaper Pravda in 1936 as "false ballet" and removed from the Bolshoi's repertoire.’
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/people/8298436.htm

Moscow Festival Ballet
Moscow's 'Cinderella': Some Charm, No Magic
Cinderella
USA, Washington, Mason University Center for the Arts
Dancers: Nekhlyudova, Vasiliev, Zenkovich, Kaukov, Shevetsova, Smirnova
by Sarah Kaufman
    ...it wasn't just the heroine of the classic fairy tale who seemed on shaky footing....There was a surprising lack of technical polish throughout the cast, though the dancers worked hard to make up for that with earnest good spirits and robust, full-throttle efforts.
Washington Post

Mark Morris
A preview from the Chicago Tribune as the Mark Morris Dance Group prepares to perform at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
by Sid Smith
"He is deeply in love with dance and music, and it shows," says Peter Taub, director of performance at the MCA . "I view him as a restless explorer. He takes a lot of risks."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0403280174mar28,1,4233242.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed

Scott Ambler
As ‘Play without Words’ embarks on its tour of the UK, stalwart of Adventures in Motion Pictures and now New Adventures, Scott Ambler talks about his collaboration with Matthew Bourne and his rise within the company.
'His friends thought it was a great joke buying Scott Ambler ballet lessons for his birthday. “They couldn’t imagine anyone less likely to be doing ballet,” grins Scott.'
http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0800whatson/entertainment/tm_objectid=14093308&method=full&siteid=50003&headline=the-present-that-made-scott-s-future-name_page.html

Martha Graham
Let’s put the emotion back into motion
A former dancer with Martha Graham teaches dance students what it means to dance from the “inside out”.
by Laura Bleiberg, Orange County Register.
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=87514

George Piper Dances
George Piper Dances/Ballet Boyz
Approximate Sonata, Mesmerics, Broken Fall
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Zamora
by Zoe Anderson
    Christopher Wheeldon's Mesmerics is a full company work. Since the company is George Piper Dances, the ambitious but tiny group founded by William Trevitt and Michael Nunn... that's still only five dancers. Wheeldon's sense of space gives them the impact of a full corps de ballet, using the full depth of the stage in mirrored patterns.
Independent

George Piper Dances
Everyone falls for the boyz
Approximate Sonata, Mesmerics, Broken Fall
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Essakow, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Zamora
by Jenny Gilbert
    The clever twist is that though Nunn and Trevitt tip, flip, haul and toss the woman's body as if it were a plank, we're never in any doubt who's calling the tune.... when Panchenko fell backwards from Trevitt's shoulders like a felled tree (Nunn's receiving arms held inches from the floor), you believed that she dared them to do it - just to scare them rigid.
Sunday Independent

Kirov Ballet
Historic Mariinsky troupe claims its modern credentials
4th International Festival: Steptext, Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Chopiniana, Les Noces
Russia, St Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre
Dancers: Bolle, Fadeyev, Gumerova, Krebtov, Lopatkina, Pavlenko, Sarafanov, Sologub, Sukhorukova, Vishneva, Zhelonkina
by Clement Crisp
    What they found in Forsythe's choreography was its classic roots and, without destroying its modernity, they reasserted fundamentals and, in so doing, claimed it rightly for their own.
The Financial Times

Shobana Jeyasingh
Out of step with the times
Transtep
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Chaudhari, Hari
by Zoe Anderson
    ...Transtep is a puzzle. You need a map to see who did what, because they don't switch choreographers until after the music has changed, so the programme note is a triumphantly confusing line diagram, with colour and pattern representing dance and music. Unpicking it all feels like doing a cryptic crossword.
Independent

Dance Theatre of Harlem
Arthur Mitchell: That old Harlem magic
The world’s best-know black dance company is coming to Britain - still run by the man who founded it 35 years ago. Zoe Anderson of the Independent meets the grand old man.
"When you watch Dance Theatre, you don't think: they're black, white, coloured, green, red. The magic when they hit the stage, that's what's important. And the passion, in that there's a great love for the dance."
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/interviews/story.jsp?story=506240

Boston Ballet
A Finn Goes to Boston With Some Explosive, High-Tech Ideas
Duo Concertant, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Plan to B, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Atkins, Beppu, Budzynski, Di Marco, Feijoo, Gurevich, Lamb, Madrigal, Ponomarenko, Prouty, Redick, Ribeiro, Salamanca, Varga, Whiteside, Potter, Ribagorda
by Anna Kisselgoff
    "Plan to B" is a high-tech ballet in human terms, and its impact as pure movement is explosive. If movement were sound, "Plan to B" would be called high-decibel choreography.
The New York Times

David Dorfman
Nothing Less Than Life or Death
Lightbulb Theory, Impending Joy
USA, New York, The Duke
Dancers: Matteson, Nugent, Poulson, Dorfman, McArdle
by Jennifer Dunning
    The two new pieces Mr. Dorfman and his superb performers presented...had strong fresh things to say about some of the most complicated yet fundamental human predicaments, in handsome, urgent movement abstract enough for the most extreme dance purists.
The New York Times

Dance for ballerinas past their prime
And finally. It’s never too late! - a note of encouragement for those ballet-co posters currently looking to take to dance later in life.
“Every Tuesday morning at 9, instructor Susan Silverman leads an unlikely troupe of ballerinas to the barre at Dance Studio West in Arcadia.”
http://www.azcentral.com/health/fitness/articles/0329sr-dance29Z8.html

Dance Theatre of Harlem
Bravura dancing lifts this earnest dud
Serenade, Thais, A Song for Dead Warriors
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Morrissey, Sturm
by Zoe Anderson
    "Serenade" is an earnest dud, a melodrama without nuance or even much energy. It's a dreadful piece, but it's bravura dancing.
Independent

Paul Taylor Dance Company
New 'Puppetier' plus old classics show breadth of Taylor's genius
Program B: Mercuric Tidings, Le Grand Puppetier, Promethean Fire; Program C: Aureole, 3 Epitaphs, Sunset, Piazzolla Caldera
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Theater
Dancers: Khobdeh, Mazzini, Nevjinsky, See, Trusnovec, Viola
by Rachel Howard
    You want to shout at these dancers to run out and share these treasures with the whole country, which is exactly what they plan to do.
San Francisco Chronicle

Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Dancers just one element in eclectic Cunningham show
Fluid Canvas, Pond Way, How to Pass Kick Fall and Run
USA, Washington, Kennedy Center - Eisenhower Theater
by Jean Battey Lewis
    The fey side of Merce Cunningham was a prominent feature of the program the celebrated choreographer brought to the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater over the past weekend.His company of dancers, making one of its rare Washington appearances, fielded works that were sometimes absurdist or touched with deadpan wit.
Washington Times

Stephen Petronio
Joyride to Noirville
Island of Misfit Toys, City of Twist, Broken Man
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
Dancers: Casel, Dao, Demianenko, Grenek, Leite, Paz, Petronio, Tirabassi, Wells
by Deborah Jowitt
    The piece is a marvel; I'm torn between wanting to pull the covers over my head and wishing I could heal the world.
The Village Voice

Ballet San Jose
Ballet San Jose's 'Out of Africa'
Out of Africa
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Anderson, Dahlhoff, Dalle, Gabay, Glenn, Jacobs, Lapshin, Meijer, Strong, Tai
by Keith Kreitman
    It is an artistic triumph, with flawless principal dancers and corps de ballet, and a driving African tribal dance in the second act that is among the greatest choreographic sequences and performances I have seen.
Alameda Times-Star

Berlin Staatsoper Ballet
Cinderella
Cinderella
Germany, Berlin, Staatsoper
Dancers: Malakhov, Saidakova, Savkovic, Semionova, Shpilevsky
by James Woodall
    Malakhov's choreography is refined, if a little staid. He himself danced one of the Ugly Sisters at the premiere, a simpering chocoholic with a good line in pratfalls.
Financial Times

Minnesota Dance Theatre
MDT revives itself with revival, 2 new ballets
A Moor's Pavane, The Perilous Night, Murder EnTrois Temps
USA, Minneapolis, Illusion Theatre
Dancers: Berenova, Bergeman, Feipel, Homko, Ko, Sayegh
by Camille Le Fevre
    With this concert of one revival and two new contemporary ballets by company members, MDT is once again showing its mettle, emotional depth and technical finesse.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Jonathan Burrows-Matteo Fargion
Joyride to Noirville
Both Sitting Duet
USA, New York, Kitchen
Dancers: Burrows, Fargion
by Deborah Jowitt
    Two middle-aged men sitting on chairs for 98 percent of 45 silent minutes, moving their arms, heads, and torsos—how fascinating can that be? Very very.
The Village Voice

George Balanchine
New York City Ballet host a discussion on the choreographer and his efforts to promote ballet in the US.
From Radio Free Europe
‘More than two decades after his death, his works continue to be performed throughout the world. His 400-plus dances remain a standard-bearer of modern choreography.’
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/03/c2e23bb4-f4cd-47d2-8939-ef0f8030616e.html

>     "Serenade" is an earnest dud, a melodrama without
>nuance or even much energy. It's a dreadful piece, but it's
>bravura dancing.

This must come high on the list of all-time embarrassing misprints!

Do you know what she meant, then, Jane? (My own suspicion is that clumsy editing resulted in this nonsense).

Here's one I missed earlier. Hope this one hasn't got any clangers in it

Henri Oguike Dance Company
Henri Oguike Company, Swan, High Wycombe
Front Line, White Space, F.P.S. (Frames per Second) Parts 1 2, Finale
UK, High Wycombe, Swan Theatre
Dancers: Campos, Oguike, Silva
by Zoe Anderson
    Oguike's dance is half-courtly, half-affected. It is highly organised, with grid floor patterns to match the film behind it. Little turns suggest country dances, and the dancing has a confident ease.
Independent

Ismene Brown's of Kobborg/Acosta Mayerling:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/03/31/btmayer31.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/03/31/ixartleft.html

i love the pictures that are being printed with all the reviews... each picture i've seen so far has been wonderful! i'm even raiding my college's recycle pile to get the hard copies!

and Rupert Christiansen:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/03/31/barts31.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/03/31/ixartright.html

I must say... the past few nights at the ROH, while not as distracting as the Acosta performance I saw (i really do not care where the people behind me bought their new trainers!!!! especially in the middle of the any of the act-closing pdd!!!!) were still some of the randomest i've seen - and i go often! one woman left in the first bedroom scene of act 3, after the hunting scene... kobburg, in all his dishevelled glory, and she announces 'i simply can't stand this any longer' and then procedes to complain to the poor usher that she doesn't know if what is in her hand is her coat, as it is much too dark and they need to turn on some lights! last night, a woman put her mobile on silent but kept staring at it and receiving calls, with this big flashing iridescent light and thus kept getting up to go out of the auditorium to talk. considering that she was sitting right in front of me and i'm very short while she was very tall... ARGH.

that said, i think i need to change my dphil topic to the distracting powers of ballet.co.... i seem to write paragraphs, even chapters, much easier on this site than i do in microsoft word!

and with that, back to 'work'!

Having said that...it would have taken a lot more than that to ruin a wonderful evening of dance!

Thanks for posting the Telegraph reviews....and as usual thanks to Ann for doing this difficult job every day!

Thanks Sim for that last bit, but it's not just me. There is the other Ann (Williams) and Bruce who share the job between us. I'm just a newcomer and still learning. Ann and Bruce put me to shame.

But it has to be said that some papers put up stuff on their website a bit too late for inclusion in the morning Links (the Indie and Telegraph are pretty good at this) so it's important that whatever is missed out is picked up by the other member of the Links team next day. A lot of ballet.co-ers are quick to pick up on what we have missed from their printed paper, so please patient. We'll get there eventually .

George Piper Dances
Approximate Sonata, Mesmerics, Broken Fall
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Essakow, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Zamora
by Graham Watts
    "This is a fascinating exhibition of three of the best choreographers at work today by a company that has a strong enough identity to have had these important works made on it and the courage to continually search out and present new work."
Ballet.co Magazine

Nederlands Dance Theatre
Symphony of Psalms, Click-Pause-Silence, Walking Mad
USA, San Francisco, Zellerbach Hall
Dancers: Euverink, Kunel, Marin, Zeromski
by Renee Renouf
    "She is too engaged in her hesitations. She is oblivious, even as he scales the wall, pauses at the top before dropping behind it, leaving her in the indelible posture of emotional constipation marking those who lose opportunity in the excessive wallow of hesitation."
Ballet.co Magazine

Nederlands Dance Theatre
Last Touch, Claude Pascal, 27' 52
USA, San Francisco, Zellerbach Hall
by Renee Renouf
    "Coming out of Zellerbach, I felt I had inhabited, briefly, an entirely different landscape, disturbing, perhaps, but utterly absorbing."
Ballet.co Magazine

San Francisco Ballet
Pierre Francois Vilanoba debut as Apollo
Programme V: Serenade, Apollo, The Four Temperaments
USA, San Francisco, War Memorial Opera House
Dancers: Diana, Garcia, Hohenstein, LeBlanc, Tan, Vilanoba
by Renee Renouf
"With Vilanoba, there is an Apollonian-sized young god, with a head which might have served as the model for Michelangelo's David."
Ballet.co Magazine

Ballet San Jose
Out of Africa
USA, San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts
Dancers: Anderson, Bo, Dahlhoff, Gabay, Glen, Grow, Jacobs, Kai, Linh, Moreno, Namey, Noda, Perez, Yoshimoto
by Renee Renouf
    "Hopping side to side in a broad a la second demi plie with beige unitards for color does not an African celebration make, by any stretch of the imagination."
Ballet.co Magazine

Paul Taylor Dance Company
Dante Variations, Runes, Arden Court
USA, San Francisco, Yerba Buena Theater
Dancers: Berest, Chen See, Duckstein, Khobdeh, Kleinendorst, LeBeau, Mahoney, Massini, Nevjinsky, Samson, Tice, Trusnovec, Viola, Young
by Renee Renouf
    "Even with the clinging and circling of one woman, or the rapt expression of another, the lifts, the picture is delightful, definitely sly in spots, and very much an exposition of the formative conventions of Western male-female behavior and deportment."
Ballet.co Magazine

Bolshoi Ballet
La Sylphide
Russia, Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre
Dancers: Balukova, Filin, Gracheva, Malkhasyants, Medvedev, Osipova, Petukhov, Rebetskaya, Stebletsova, Yevdokimov
by Paul Arrowsmith
    "The Bolshoi certainly showed great Bournonville style - crisp footwork, bouncing leaps, wonderfully sinewy upper body work."
Ballet.co Magazine

Birmingham Royal Ballet
Beauty and the Beast
UK, Bradford, Alhambra
Dancers: Antonucci, Cao, Helimets, Mackay, Smolen, Vallo, Willis, Yamamoto, Payn
by Janet McNulty
    "I almost feel as though this is a chamber ballet with the intensity of the relationship between the Beauty and the Beast."
Ballet.co Postings Review