Wednesday, December 24 Options

[dirac]

A preview of the holiday program "Salute to Vienna" by Robert Johnson in The Newark Star-Ledger.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index..._years_vie.html

In "Salute to Vienna," the glittering New Year's program that Hungarian impresario Attila Glatz brings once again to stages in New Brunswick and New York, the waltz naturally takes pride of place. Yet the concert also features energetic polkas danced by artists of the Budapest Ballet -- aerobic exercise to compensate for a musical program piled high with whipped cream and sentiment. Sascha Goetzel will conduct the Strauss Symphony of America in beloved waltzes by Johann Strauss Jr. and his brother Joseph Strauss, with soprano Ingeborg SchÃpf and tenor Michael Baba warbling arias from such operettas as "The Gypsy Baron" and "The Land of Smiles."

[dirac]

Company XIV presents "The Judgement of Paris."

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Company_X..._18_21_20081224

Company XIV is a non-profit mixed media dance/theater company based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded by Artistic Director Austin McCormick in 2005, the company works in the mediums of live dance/theater and film. Company XIV is contemporary, yet baroque inspired, with a mission to produce compelling theatrical dance productions that create a beautiful affecting experience. Company XIV is the resident company of 303 Bond St., a space converted from a tow truck warehouse to a theater.

[dirac]

Members of the Royal Ballet visit Southern Utah University in February.

http://www.thespectrum.com/article/2008122...0CITY/812240338

According to SUU's Director of Development Michael Anderson, who is coordinating the project locally, "The purpose of this visit is to provide a cultural exchange for local dance students and teachers with students and teachers from the Royal Ballet School. This unique visit will also provide school children and citizens of southern Utah an opportunity to witness some of the rising stars in the world of ballet."

In addition to the master classes, the ballet will conduct a lecture demonstration for Iron County school children, special teacher training and instruction for elementary teachers and a special master class for SUU dance students.

[dirac]

Swansea Ballet Russe performs next month.

http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/leisure..._with_a_ballet/

As an added extra to its performances, Ballet Russe is offering a behind the scenes peek to fans by opening their doors for the pre-performance class. Chika said: “We will do a warm up for maybe 20 to 30 minutes which include things like bar work and small jumps which we normally do before our rehearsals. “We will then do a rehearsal, it won’t be in costume, just leotards but it will be a good opportunity for people to watch.” Fairfield Halls, Behind the scenes, Jan 6, 1.05pm, £5.

Chika Temma has been with the company since it decided to move base from Eastern Europe to the UK ten years ago and is now one of their principal dancers.

[dirac]

Nutcracker ticket sales will not be enough to keep Ballet B.C. going. Story by Kevin Griffin in The Vancouver Sun.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...b1-872994a7aad6

Graeme Barrit, the company's president and chair of the board, said the public has helped keep Ballet BC alive by buying more than 12,000 tickets to six performances of the annual Christmas ballet being performed at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

But that's not enough. He said the company has already raised $25,000 in pledged donations towards the $200,000 it believes it needs to bring artistic director John Alleyne and the dancers back into the studio beginning Monday, Jan. 12.

Related article.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...59-11a4570b04bf

It did anything but. Now more than 50 years and 1,500 performances later, Balanchine's version of Nutcracker is still being performed by the NYCB.

Since Balanchine's bold gamble, performances of Nutcracker have become crucial annual sources of income for ballet companies around the world.

[dirac]

Carolina Ballet 's Nutcracker is doing well at the box office this year.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/wake/story/1344710.html

That's good news for ballet fans, because this show helps keep Carolina Ballet in business all year. And after a disappointing fall season, a strong run for "The Nutcracker" was needed more than ever.

"This is our cash cow," said Lisa Jones, Carolina Ballet's executive director. "We were worried."

[dirac]

Charleston Ballet Theatre makes a plea for funds.

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobas...oid=oid%3A56776

Charles Patrick, board president, and Jill Eathorne Bahr, CBT's long-time choreographer, told the audience at Gaillard Auditorium that the dance company needs $180,000 by year's end. They did not say what would happen without the money, except that 2009 programs might be "curtailed."

In an interview with City Paper, Patrick said CBT anticipates a fund-raising shortfall of as much as $270,000. If $180,000 is not raised immediately, he said, CBT might not be able to pay employees. He also allowed for the possibility of having to cut dancers.

[dirac]

A year-in-dance review by Rita Felciano in The San Francisco Bay Guardian.

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=775...mp;issue_num=13

Still, it signaled a commitment to the future. Margaret Jenkins' and Julia Adam's pieces were not critically acclaimed, but both choreographers dared to go outside the conventionally balletic.

**Ballet San Jose impressed with first-rate programming. Just Balanchine, Swan Lake, The Firebird, and The Toreador highlighted just how fine a group of dancers they are — with an excellent repertoire the South Bay can call its own.

[dirac]

A look at Alexei Ratmansky's tenure at the Bolshoi by Raymond Stults in The Moscow Times.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts/2008/12/24/373409.htm

From Jan. 1 of the coming year, his center of activity moves to New York, where he is due to join the American Ballet Theater in the newly created position of "artist-in-residence." Succeeding Ratmansky will be his former ballet-school classmate Yury Burlaka, an expert in restoring choreography of the 19th century and long associated with a local dance company known simply as "Russian Ballet."

On Sunday, the Bolshoi plans to honor Ratmansky with a gala evening of ballet that is scheduled to include performances by members of both his present and future home companies, as well as leading dancers from St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater and the New York City Ballet.

[dirac]

A review of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by Kenneth Turan in The Los Angeles Times.

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/la-et-b...0,2751131.story

A lot of things happen to young Benjamin growing up in New Orleans, from chatting with a Pygmy to visiting a bordello, but except for his life-changing meeting with young Daisy (Elle Fanning), each event seems more arbitrary than the last. When he decides to go to sea, it's anyone's guess why he ends up in Murmansk and has an affair with an unhappily married woman (the always reliable Tilda Swinton). Maybe the opportunity to go even icier was more than anyone could resist.

When Benjamin and Daisy, who's been in New York studying dance with George Balanchine (don't ask), finally hit those years when they can play their real ages, it's a relief to see, but not enough of a relief to save this film. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" leaves you colder than it should, and it shouldn't leave you cold at all.

[dirac]

A preview of upcoming dance performances by Ann Murphy in The Contra Costa Times.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/theater-and-arts/ci_11304246

Fortunately, there is nothing funereal about San Francisco Ballet. Its "Nutcracker" this season was its meatiest, most comprehensible production yet, coming together with narrative magic and running at an almost leisurely pace ("Nutcracker" runs through Sunday). This is the inestimable Tina LeBlanc's last season, so even moderate fans of the ballet might want to catch the tiny ballerina's enormous artistry before she leaves the Opera House stage. The 2009 season begins Jan. 27 in a mixed-rep program that showcases a new work by choreographer-in-residence Yuri Possokhov; and reprises Helgi Tomasson's elegant "Prism" and George Balachine's jazz-inflected modernist masterpiece, "The Four Temperaments."

[Helene]

A heads up from an email to us, Gia Kourlas writes about Columbia University's Columbia Ballet Collaborative for The New York Times.

Path Back to Dance, by Degrees

In 15 minutes [Victoria North] would be dancing in the first off-campus performance of the fledgling Columbia Ballet Collaborative, a group she had formed at Columbia University in late 2007 with four other students, all professional dancers coming late to college and frustrated by the lack of ballet opportunities outside established companies.