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Edit: corrected link to last weeks thread. BM

Two ‘Swan Lakes’ reviewed in one article:

REVIEW:   Festival Ballet Providence
Big Pond, Little Pond
Swan Lake
USA, Purchase, Purchase College
Dancers: Akulov, Burov, Di Marco, Kennedy, Martinez, Putrius
by Jeffrey Gantz
    "The corps looked bad in the waltz, where the ensemble in the lifts was embarrassing; after that it firmed up. The worst aspect of the production was the music: the recorded performance wasn’t terrible, but it was piped in at ear-splitting volume."
Boston Phoenix

REVIEW:   Boston Ballet
Big Pond, Little Pond
Swan Lake
USA, Boston, Wang Theatre
Dancers: Atkins, Busby, Combes, Cornejo, Diaz, Dossev, Gurevich, Hough, Kuranaga, Madrigal, Molina, Ponomarenko, Prouty, Rykine, Seneca, Varga, Wroth
by Jeffrey Gantz
    "The concept — that Odette’s love can save Siegfried rather than the other way around — is powerful, but it needs more visual expression as the music surges from B minor into B major: tower crumbling; dawn-like lighting; Siegfried and Odette dancing out their joy; swans acting less like swans and more like girls."
Boston Phoenix

REVIEW:   ZooNation
Into the Inner City Groove
Into the Hoods
UK, London, Novello Theatre
by Liz Hoggard
    "Funny, original and exuberant, ZooNation’s Into the Hoods is a hiphop interpretation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, transposed to an inner-city tower block. The set is wittily postmodern, the soundtrack a cool mash-up of Prince, Bob Marley, Kanye West and James Brown. "
Evening Standard

REVIEW:   Ivy Baldwin
Oral Gratification Drives 'Nice' Work
Could be nice ...
USA, New York, La Mama Club
Dancers: Cassella, Nelson, Workum
by Robert Johnson
    "They're the slobbering offspring of American abundance, growing up in a culture where consumption has run amok, producing eating disorders in which people gorge and/or starve themselves, while columnists obsess over fad diets, health foods and nutrition."
The Star-Ledger

Preview: Rubberbandance Group Returns to LA
Troupe set to make debut in founder’s home town
Los Angeles
By Victoria Looseleaf
“Quijada, the recipient of a number of choreography awards, says that good timing has helped him seize each opportunity life has presented him -- something he ascribes to his parents' immigrant status.”
LA Times

Preview: Havana Nights at The Lowry
Nilda Guerra dedicates Havana Rakatan to her grandmother
Manchester
By Kevin Bourke
“The show, which Nilda worked for three years on other productions to raise the money for, is a journey in dance which 'expresses the roots of Cuban culture. We go from the folk dances of the Spanish and African settlers to the kind of dance you see here in Havana in the street, which expresses the freshness, the excitement of Cuban life as it is now'.
Manchester Evening News

Preview: Enter the Dragon
How the Shaolin Monks have influenced Sidi Cherkaoui’s new production
By Flora Bagenal
London
“Using 17 of the temple monks as performers, Cherkaoui has set their violent, disciplined, spiritual and gravity-defying martial arts to music by the young Polish composer Szymon Brzóska and placed them in a stark, modern set designed by the British sculptor Antony Gormley.”
New Statesman

Sharp, Steady Footwork Needed to Stage a Swordfight
Dancers learn how to ‘make their blades sing’ for their upcoming Romeo and Juliet
By Steve Brown
Charlotte, North Carolina
“Members of NCDT's audience often ask to see the big story ballets, he says. And performing them is good for the dancers. The title roles of “Romeo and Juliet” are among the richest in ballet: “You need to be as good an actor,” Bonnefoux says, “as you are a dancer. The technique is important. ... But you have to be believable. The feelings have to come through.”
Charlotte Observer

Preview: Tallchief Documentary Gets Chicago Premiere
Maria Tallchief, now 83, is the subject of a new documentary
By Hedy Weiss
Chicago
“How is this for ballet mythology? Her father was a chief of the Osage Nation, her mother was Scots-Irish, and she was born on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief would go on to become Maria Tallchief, one of the great American ballerinas -- renowned for her performances in Fokine's "The Firebird," as well as in such other feathery classics as "Swan Lake" and "The Black Swan."
Chicago Sun-Times

Preview: Joffrey Ballet’s “American Moderns” I
Chicago company’s new program includes works by Tharp, Lubovitch and Taylor
By Sid Smith
Chicago
“A good cry will be had by all. If you see only one Joffrey program all year, make it this one. Who would have thought? We have two ballet bookings in the near future, not bad for outdoor-beckoning May.”
Chicago Tribune

Ballet’s Growth Impresses Choreographer
Today’s Company can handle “Carmina Burana”
By David Lyman
Cincinnati, Ohio
“It took the better part of a decade to make it happen. But Victoria Morgan has finally gotten Mauricio Wainrot to Cincinnati to stage his monumental version of ‘Carmina Burana’. “I must tell you that the company that was here in 1989 could not have done it.” The standard of the dancer around the world is so much better than it was 15 years ago. So for me, a choreographer, this is pleasure."”
Cincinnati Enquirer

We have had some server problems today and normal TodaysLinks service will be resumed tomorrow.

Thanks for your understanding!

BM

REVIEW:   San Francisco Ballet
From Beautiful to Dutiful
Thread, Ibsen’s House, Within the Golden Hour, Joyride, Changes, Naked, Double Evil, and others
USA, San Francisco, War Memorial Opera House
Dancers: Anderson, Bauer, Blanc, Blanco, Chung, Elizabeth, Feijoo, Genshaft, Grand, Kochetkova, LeBlanc, Long, Martin, Miner, Molat, Nedvigin, Norman, Olson, Orza, Perez, Rucker, Smith, Tan, Villanoba, Waldo, Yamamoto
by Janice Berman
    "It’s a success. Not all the ballets are fabulous, but the music and dancing that propels them is unequivocally wonderful, permeating the air in the War Memorial Opera House with a sense of fizzy delight."
San Francisco Chronicle

Antony Tudor
Under Analysis: The Psychology of Tudor’s Ballets
New York
By Alastair Macaulay
    "WHEN the choreographer Antony Tudor, whose centenary is being celebrated this year, moved to America in 1939, the moment could not have been more right. He was known as the psychological choreographer, and he arrived when psychology entered American popular culture. In 1938 Fred Astaire played Ginger Rogers’s psychoanalyst in “Carefree”; in 1942 Claude Rains steered Bette Davis back from a nervous breakdown in “Now, Voyager.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/arts/dance/11maca.html

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
City Ballet’s Itinerary: Robbins and Beyond
Piano Pieces, Les Noces, Andantino, Opus 19/The Dreamer, An American in Paris, Valse Triste, The Chairman Dances, Russian Seasons
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: Evans, Garcia, Gilliland, Mearns, Whelan
by Alastair Macaulay
    Opus 19: "Ms. Whelan’s emphatic, harsh style is riveting and objectionable in equal measure. She often seems City Ballet’s most decisive artist and its most unappealingly awkward dancer at the same time."
New York Times

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
Robbins Shows His Roots
Andantino, Opus 19/The Dreamer, Piano Pieces, Les Noces
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: Angle, Carmena, De Luz, Fairchild, Garcia, Gilliland, Hanna, Mearns, Ramasar, Stafford, Whelan
by Joel Lobenthal
    "Robbins’s old-country roots certainly were deep, and he was interested throughout his career in plumbing them, returning with increasing frequency to folk themes and folk dance vocabulary over the course of his career. But the works collected here do not show his roots’ most fruitful aesthetic abundance."
New York Sun

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
Dance legend is celebrated worldwide - Hometown New York joins tribute for Robbins
Andantino, Opus 19/The Dreamer, Piano Pieces, Les Noces
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: Angle, De Luz, Fairchild, Garcia, Mearns, Whelan
by Susan Walker
    Opus 19: "Only 20 minutes long, it seems like a full-evening ballet narrative. Garcia partnered Whelan. The dance is spare, like the music, and Garcia played an ancient Greek god, a riveting hero perhaps inspired by Robbins' recollections of his clash with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953."
Toronto Star

Scottish Ballet - Krzysztof Pastor, Ashley Page, Claire Robertson and others
Scottish Ballet rethinks Romeo and Juliet
Dancer Claire Robertson fulfils a long-held ambition as star of a bold new production choreographed by Krzysztof Pastor
London
By Anna Burnside
    "I think you can do Romeo and Juliet many different ways,” he says in enviably good but heavily accented English. “Like the RSC does. It is such a universal story, it doesn't need to be set in the Renaissance. And you don't need swords."
The Times

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
3 stars
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Zoe Anderson
    "Trevitt and Nunn have been brave and canny in running their company. Part of that cleverness is in their use of their own personalities. Even in a muted evening, they know how to reach an audience."
Independent

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Watch out, men and mums: the Boyz are back in town
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Dzierzon, Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Jenny Gilbert
    "The self-deprecating video diaries threaded through the Ballet Boyz' live shows have made men want to be them, women want to marry them, mums want to mother them, and everyone love them to bits."
Sunday Independent

REVIEW:   Alina Cojocaru
Watch out, men and mums: the Boyz are back in town
Hospices of Hope Gala: Bird as Prophet, Afternoon of a Faun, Flames of Paris, Coppelia solo
UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dancers: Cojocaru, Kobborg, Marquez, Walter
by Jenny Gilbert
    "...a solo specially made for Cojocaru by Kim Brandstrup, Bird as Prophet, set to wistful Schumann piano music, caught the very essence of this ballerina's quail-boned delicacy, as well as her heart-stopping spirituality..."
Sunday Independent

REVIEW:   Breakin Convention
Breakin' Convention 08
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Bustah, Jonzi D, Mexalon, Samuels, Smith
by Clement Crisp
    "Here was that ideal dance-state ... where the watchers are as dedicated, as knowledgeable, as the performers; where, indeed, there seems no separation between public and stage, between art and consumer. To everyone concerned in this convention, tremendous gratitude."
The Financial Times

REVIEW:   Breakin Convention
Breakin’ Convention thrills to a Brazilian beat, but the BRB looks lost in Ashton’s Inferno
Breakin' Convention 08
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Jonzi D, Bustah, Claudia, Mukhtar, Vieira
by David Jays
    "Jonzi D, co-compering with Bustah, is an immensely cheery presence - if ever he tires of this hip-hop lark, panto beckons. The energy is friendly, even cosy."
The Sunday Times

REVIEW:   Birmingham Royal Ballet
Breakin’ Convention thrills to a Brazilian beat, but the BRB looks lost in Ashton’s Inferno
Dante Sonata, Small Worlds, Elite Syncopations
UK, Cheltenham, Everyman Theatre
Dancers: Sakuma
by David Jays
    Dante Sonata: "Rather than an elemental conflict, it looked like a fight breaking out in Ann Summers."
The Sunday Times

REVIEW:   Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Akram Khan Crosses Many Borders - Two men make a world
Zero Degrees
USA, New York, City Center
Dancers: Cherkaoui, Khan
by Deborah Jowitt
    "Having had this closeness so thrillingly demonstrated, we spectators pour out of the theater on a wave of happiness, clustering in small knots to question and marvel. Critics go to the theater, Joan Acocella once wrote, "like dogs to dinner," ever hopeful. In zero degrees, as in his Kaash (2002) and ma (2004), Khan gives us a feast."
The Village Voice

Complexions - Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson
Complexions: an era of connectivity
The chemistry between choreographer Dwight Rhoden and dancer Desmond Richardson ignites the work of the company.
Los Angeles
By Lewis Segal
    "From 1994, when we started Complexions, until we broke up," Rhoden said, "all my works were centered around him. I was in love with him, in love with his movement, with who he was -- completely enamored. And what a great thing for me: developing my work on someone like that."
LA Times

Evidence - Ronald K. Brown and Charles Harris
One Shot merges photography with choreography
Houston
By Nancy Wozny
    "When choreographer Ronald K. Brown was approached about creating a dance that incorporated images by a photojournalist, he had a shock of recognition.
    "Postcards of Charles "Teenie" Harris' work had been hanging in Brown's apartment for a decade.
    ""I knew these images well but had no idea who had taken the photos," Brown said. "I was drawn to Harris' world immediately."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/dance/5768250.html

REVIEW:   Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Moon Water
UK, Salford, Lowry
by Philip Radcliffe
    "It’s like an out-of-body experience, visually arresting, emotionally soothing. Therapeutic."
Manchester Evening News

Thoughts on Tutus
The Trouble With Tutus
New York
By Deborah Jowitt
    "Women’s-studies writers have debated the image of the ballerina for some time: A powerful, skilled female is depicted as too fragile to stand without a partner’s grasp. However, the contemporary argument that women are empowered by embracing their sexuality finds a curious analog here..."
http://nymag.com/arts/classicaldance/dance/features/46793/

REVIEW:   Washington Ballet
Washington Ballet Unwraps Eye Candy for 'Cinderella'
Cinderella
USA, Washington, Warner Theatre
Dancers: Bland, Gaither, Goding, Jackson, Jordan, Mahoney-Du, Nelson, Payette, Rose, Urgelles
by Celia Wren
    "The Prince/Cinderella interactions were genteel and a shade labor-intensive, rather than passionate. ...In compensation, though, there was lots else to look at throughout the show..."
Washington Post

REVIEW:   Diablo Ballet
Diablo Ballet closer jazzy but not snazzy
Jazz Fever: Jazz Room, Hopper's Ball, Double-Single-Double
USA, Walbut Creek, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts
Dancers: Bohnstedt, Foneggra, Stegge, Sugano, McClintock, Sakakura
by Rachel Howard
    "The family-friendly chamber troupe has survived a tough year after losing the financial backing of a major, longtime sponsor. Over the weekend, it closed a pared-down spring season with a program that looked like an ideal vehicle for bouncing back."
San Francisco Chronicle

REVIEW:   Kiev Ballet
Purveyors Of An Old Tradition
The Sleeping Beauty
New Zealand, Auckland, Aotea Centre
Dancers: Domracheva, Takita, Chupryn, Goliakova, Melnyk, Sydorskyi, Tokar
by Felicity Molloy
    "In my search to expand my knowledge about this company, I read a review in a recent New York paper. Those dancers have been seen to dance Forsythe! This oddly mismatched idea (like the dark blue costumes) is exciting and hopefully one day someone will decide that we are ready to stop the tears and get on with watching ballet dancing which presents real people."
Nz Theatrereview

REVIEW:   Reggie Wilson
Sinew and Blood: Tugging Connections Between America and Africa
Kwenda Vutuka (Come Go Return): Untitled, Impro-Vise_2, The Good Dance, Introduction
USA, New York, Florence Gould Hall
Dancers: Alaong, Wilson, Cisse, Ouamba
by Alastair Macaulay
    "The dancer and choreographer Reggie Wilson seems to be constantly working to enlarge the meanings of the term African-American."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Gravity and Levity
Shift
UK, London, Linbury Studio Theatre
Dancers: Adams, Butcher
by Zoe Anderson
    "Shift is an appealing but very uneven show, although the performances are fresh. The dancers look absorbed in their work, whether swinging through space or carefully setting up their flying gear. The quarrels are believably spontaneous. Even so, there’s too much preparation, slowing the work down. It’s a nice idea, but it wears thin."
Dancing Times

REVIEW:   In The Wings
Peter and the Wolf
UK, London, Hackney Empire
Dancers: Blessed, Marney
by Gerald Dowler
    "However, as a danced piece, it falls short. Not that anything is bad, just not quite good enough, and too often I found myself being slightly disappointed when I should have been enchanted."
Dancing Times

Ballet San Jose - Dennis Nahat and Qian Shi Jin
Tutus to go
Silicon Valley
By Mark de la Vina
    " How do you say "goodwill" in Chinese?
    "Ballet San Jose executive director Dennis Nahat and 44 of his dancers will find out after Saturday when they leave on a private 747 for a five-week, eight-city tour of China. Nicknamed the "Goodwill Tour From Silicon Valley," it's the company's first international trip since the ballet moved from Cleveland to San Jose in 2000.
http://www.mercurynews.com/arts/ci_9231224

REVIEW:   Deborah Abel Dance Company
Farther along in the journey, seeing 'Relationship' anew
The Perfect Relationship
USA, Boston, Boston University Theatre
Dancers: Abel, Polston, Degen-Portnoy
by Thea Singer
    "...for a dance that's intended as a journey, you pass too much of the same scenery from point A to point B. With a few exceptions, you feel more like you're running in place than traveling the distance."
The Boston Globe

REVIEW:   Yasuko Yokoshi
Yasuko Yokoshi Retools David Gordon's Framework - Dance history, revisited
Reframe the Framework DDD
USA, New York, Kitchen
Dancers: Amarante, Crouch, Greve, Hausrath, Marchev, McKinney, Thomas
by Deborah Jowitt
    "Reframe the Framework DDD was clearly an eye-opening project for all the young performers-even if it wasn't always one they trusted or liked."
The Village Voice

Inaside Chicago Dance - Kelly Ann Vitacca
Inaside Chicago Dance performs Jackson Pollock-inspired piece
Chicago
By Sid Smith
    "Every spring we have a project that takes on a special theme," she explains. "This year, I wanted to choose a new medium and alter the environment for the audience. In addition to movement on stage, I wanted to inject movement elsewhere into the space."
    "She soon settled on Pollock after researching various visual artists..."
Chicago Trubune

REVIEW:   Shona McCullagh
An Inimitable Introspection
Mirror Me
New Zealand, Auckland, MIC Toi Rerehiko Gallery
Dancers: Barling, Limosani, MacDonald
by Felicity Molloy
    "Mirror Me worked. A provocative collaboration between choreographer Shona McCullagh, multimedia artist Michael Hodgson, composer John Gibson, dancers Sean MacDonald, Lina Limosani, Will Barling and the audience."
Nz Theatrereview

Diversions
Diversion dance introduction
A welcome from the valleys
London
By Zoë Anderson
    "Diversions, dance company of Wales celebrates 25 years...
http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/2008MAY/DiversionDanceIntro.html
(leads to PDF we can't copy/paste from)

Australian Ballet School
Australian Ballet School introduction
London
by Sophie Travers
    "Sophie Travers enjoys the sunshine atmosphere of a dance school with an international outlook in our ongoing series on dance schools from around the world."
http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/2008MAY/AustralianBalletSchool.html
(leads to PDF we can't copy/paste from)

London Children's Ballet
Preview: Jane Eyre, Peacock Theatre, London
Jane dances once more for Mr Rochester
London
By Anjli Raval
    "The London Children's Ballet is set to bring Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece, Jane Eyre, to London's West End. This adaptation, performed by 54 rising stars between the ages of nine and 15..."
The Independent

London Children's Ballet - Franky Ferrer
Into dance London Children’s Ballet
London
By Franky Ferrer
    "Here, Franky Ferrer records her diary in the lead up to her performances of the title role in London Children’s Ballet’s new production of Jane Eyre."
http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/2008MAY/LondonChildrenBallet.html
(leads to PDF we can't copy/paste from)

Jerome Robbins
The All-American Choreographer
Why Jerome Robbins Still Matters
New York
By Terry Teachout
    "More than anyone else working on Broadway in the '50s and '60s, it was Robbins and his collaborators who succeeded in turning the humble Broadway musical into something like a totally unified work of art.
    "Alas, this part of his legacy has largely vanished into fading memory, for there is nothing so fleeting as the evanescent beauties of a stage director's work, and only one of Robbins's shows, "Peter Pan," was filmed in its original form."
Wall Street Journal

REVIEW:   Royal Ballet
A New Work About an Old Heartache: You’re Often Ignored by the One You Love
Serenade, Rushes, Homage to the Queen
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Acosta, Benjamin, Cojocaru, Lamb, Morera, Rojo, Whitehead
by Roslyn Sulcas
    Rushes: "The schematic nature of the story-that-isn’t might not matter so much if Mr. Brandstrup created interesting movement for his high-powered dancers, but the choreography never reaches for anything more than big-effect ballet (Legs up! High jump! Back arched!) and dramatic partnering..."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Favorites Served With Punch, Not Pomp
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Roslyn Sulcas
    "Since the company — now called Ballet Boyz — was founded, Mr. Nunn and Mr. Trevitt have commissioned an astonishing 22 pieces, and somehow they have found the elusive formula that all artistic directors of ballet companies seek: how to make dance immediate, accessible and exhilarating."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Ballet Boyz - George Piper Dances
Boyz are getting older
Greatest Hits: Broken Fall, Mesmerics, EdOx, Yumba vs Nonino
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Nunn, Panchenko, Trevitt, Watson
by Sarah Frater
    "Michael Nunn and William Trevitt still have charisma, but the gallop of time means they are not as nimble as they were. ...Still, the work is good, their small troupe committed and judgment fine."
The Evening Standard

REVIEW:   Phoenix Dance Theatre
Darling, I was awful. I could shoot myself - The ever-challenging Javier De Frutos offers a feel-bad, but rewarding dissection of the horrors of auditions
Blue Roses, The Moor's Pavane, Paseillo
UK, London, Sadler's Wells
Dancers: Sanchez, Sveass
by Luke Jennings
    "'I hate it when they dance,' moans one of the singers, but you won't, because these dancers are very, very good."
The Observer

REVIEW:   Taylor 2
123 Festival: Runes, Profiles, Arden Court, Roses duet
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
Dancers: Ceynowa, Cook, Eirich, Kahan, Walker, Wilson
by Hilary Ostlere
    "This troupe of eager performers may lack the polish and sophistication of its seniors but it satisfies on its own terms."
Financial Times

REVIEW:   Eugene Ballet Company
'4X4' proves riveting showcase of West Coast ballet
4X4 -- The Ballet Project: Still Falls the Rain
USA, Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
by Grant Butler
    "...a dark meditation on religious intolerance by artistic director Toni Pimble that was loosely based on terrors committed by the Taliban..."
Oregonian

REVIEW:   Oregon Ballet Theatre
'4X4' proves riveting showcase of West Coast ballet
4X4 -- The Ballet Project: Rush
USA, Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Dancers: Roper, Sultanov
by Grant Butler
    "The fast-paced piece showed what an athletic company OBT has become..."
Oregonian

REVIEW:   Pacific Northwest Ballet
'4X4' proves riveting showcase of West Coast ballet
4X4 -- The Ballet Project: Shindig
USA, Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
by Grant Butler
    "...this work felt green, with some of the sequences needing ratcheting down. Still, the comedy of the piece..."
Oregonian

REVIEW:   San Francisco Ballet
'4X4' proves riveting showcase of West Coast ballet
4X4 -- The Ballet Project: Concerto Grosso
USA, Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Dancers: Molat
by Grant Butler
    "...may have been the evening's shortest work, but proved the most exciting."
Oregonian

San Francisco Ballet School - Jim Sohm, Pete Ippel, James Shee and others
Room, board and barre for Ballet students
San Francisco
Mary Ellen Hunt
    "The students pay roughly $7,500-$8,500 a year to live at Jackson Manor - a fantastic deal for a furnished room in San Francisco. But that covers less than half of the $477,000-a-year cost of operating the house, which the Ballet purchased in 2006 for $3.5 million. One might wonder if it's a worthwhile investment for a ballet company whose budget this year is about $42 million, but Sohm points out that in just five years, nearly a score of former members of the "household" have gone on to dance with the company."
SF Chronicle

REVIEW:   Rubberbandance Group
Elastic Perspective Redux
Elastic Perspective Redux: Secret Service, sHip sHop Shape Shifting, Meditations on the Gift, Before Back Then, Reflections on Movement Particles, Mi Verano, The Traviattle
USA, Los Angeles, Luckman Fine Arts Complex
Dancers: Aurelien, Hong, Jackson, Plamondon, Quijada, Talbot
by Chris Pasles
    "An authentic, serious new voice in dance, Victor Quijada, a native son of L.A., has created an exciting, seemingly improbable fusion of hip-hop, ballet and modern dance. He has taken the energy and virtuosity of street dancing and married it to the formal structures of concert dance, and he's done it with a probing sense of musicality..."
Los Angeles Times

REVIEW:   Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers
False steps galore in Louise Reichlin's inane new dance piece.
The Reality Series: The Shampoo, Los(t) Angeles, Identity
USA, Los Angeles, Madrid Theatre
Dancers: Germaud, Holloway, Park, Reichlin, Vanichanan
by Victoria Looseleaf
    "Dance, especially in the 21st century, can be many things, but it's a stretch to consider a wash and blow-dry as part of any choreographic endeavor."
Los Angeles Times

REVIEW:   Dakshina - Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company
A Graceful Study in Contrasts
September Sonnet, Kaddish, Bell Song
USA, Washington, Dance Place
Dancers: Greco, Singh
by Barbara Allen
    "Singh's attempt to fuse modern dance and traditional Indian forms was still a work in progress for this young choreographer. But he is on a promising and exciting path."
Washington Post

REVIEW:   Canadian Pacific Ballet
Tough issues of the past need reinterpretation
Scent of Cedars
Canada, Victoria, Oak Bay Community Theatre
Dancers: Evans, McMonagle, Szkolak
by Kaija Pepper
    "If, in 2008, you portray a man dominating two women - even in abstracted ballet movement - there has to be a dramatic arc that properly deals with the seriousness of his aggression. Romantic posturing is not enough."
Globe and Mail

REVIEW:   Canadian Pacific Ballet
Period ballet has a sombre mood - Costumes don't help production succeed
Scent of Cedars
Canada, Victoria, Oak Bay Community Theatre
Dancers: Evans, McMonagle, Szkolak, Ford
by Grania Litwin
    "The idea of setting a ballet in a remote coastal village at the turn of the century is a good one, but the dancing in this piece was disappointing, in part because of the costumes... A poor turnout in the hall last night only about 70 of 500 seats were taken added to the sombre mood."
Times Colonist


It's a slow links day department...

Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival
Kick up your heels and join dance groups for some fun at festival
Wales
Sally Williams
    "TEN dance groups from Wales, Scotland, England and France have been booked to perform and to provide dance workshops throughout the weekend of the Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival."
icWales

Ballet and Football
German designer creates unique tulle-skirts for soccer fans
Germany via China
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/13/content_8156393.htm

How good to learn that the pigs "have been relocated to a larger area in part of Exhibition Hall 2 and a demonstration entitled Pigs in Woods, where an actual temporary woodland has been created, will show how pigs clear rough and hard-to-manage land."

Doesn't say whether they're wearing tutus for their demonstration.

Robert Rauschenberg and Dance
Rauschenberg and Dance, Partners for Life
New York
By Alastair Macaulay
    "Impresarios have occasionally assembled programs that illustrate “Picasso and the Dance,” but Mr. Rauschenberg’s work for dance was far more prolific than Picasso’s, as a whole season could be presented to demonstrate. If only that could happen, its range of designs — from “Three Epitaphs” to “Summerspace,” from “Set and Reset” to “Interscape,” from “Crises” to “Glacial Decoy” (another Trisha Brown collaboration) — would easily establish his place in the forefront of architects of theater."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/arts/dance/14coll.html

REVIEW:   Mariinsky Ballet
Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds
UK, Salford, Lowry
Dancers: Zuzin, Ivanchenko, Novikova, Tereshkina
by Alan Hulme
    "Overall then, some impressive, rather than really great dancing, in a piece that the box office is proving hasn’t got huge popular appeal oop North. A half empty house doesn’t make for a great atmosphere and it’s to be hoped the rest of the week brings the excitement that was so obviously lacking last night."
Manchester Evening News

REVIEW:   Mariinsky Ballet
Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds
UK, Salford, Lowry
Dancers: Ivanchenko, Kolegova, Kondaurova, Korsakov, Novikova, Tereshkina, Ermakov, Zuzin
by Natalie Anglesey
    "The high cost of the tickets for a regional production, with prices ranging from £35 to £95, could have something to do with the disappointing turn out for such a superb programme."
The Stage

REVIEW:   New York City Ballet
Celebrating Jerome Robbins — The Man Who Redefined American Ballet and Musicals
Circus Polka, The Four Seasons, West Side Story Suite, Watermill, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements
USA, New York, State Theater
Dancers: Angle, Askegard, Bouder, Carmena, Fairchild, Hendrickson, Hubbe, Mearns, Millepied, Neal, Pazcoguin, Ramasar, Ulbricht, Whelan, Woetzel
by Deborah Jowitt
    "During his years choreographing for NYCB (1949 to 1957, and 1969 until his death in 1998), he both embraced the company's Balanchinian aesthetic and offered a valuable contrasting voice. ...The 10 programs in NYCB's "Jerome Robbins Celebration" weave through the company's spring season. They vividly demonstrate his versatility..."
The Village Voice

Matthew Bourne and Edward Scissorhands
The Loving Re-Inventor
Sydney
By Ani Lamont
    "I was drawn to Edward because he is such an outsider. I like stories about outsiders because they’re a good way to get an audience rooting for the character to triumph, and Edward really is the ultimate outsider that anyone who has ever felt different or out of place can relate to."
http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=8331

New York Dance this Summer
Summer Guide
New York Hosts a Sparse Season of Dance
New York
by Brian Seibert
    "The Lincoln Center Festival is particularly thin on dance this year, but leave it to Nigel Redden to schedule Impressing the Czar (Royal Ballet of Flanders), an overstuffed 1988 concoction by William Forsythe. It's the kind of pretentious, overextended piece that earned the American expatriate his questionable reputation as the future of ballet."
Village Voice

Paris Opera Ballet in China
Hot spicy soup of Paquita to stage in Beijing
Beijing
By staff
    "Opera National de Paris, with over 300 year history, will bring its well-known piecePaquitato Beijing from May 16 to 18.
    "It's part of a ballet feast in the ongoing Olympic Performance Season at the National Center for the Performing Arts."
http://www.china.org.cn/culture/2008-05/14/content_15212519.htm

REVIEW:   Configuration Dance
Ballet to Blush by (Think Sexy Bikinis, Not Prim Tutus)
What’s the Pointe, Yumeji, Tchaicotic, Levitation, Novem
USA, New York, Ailey Citigroup Theater
Dancers: Batcheller, Chen, Tanatanit
by Claudia La Rocco
    "Just four minutes long, “Yumeji” sought to cultivate an atmospheric reverie, set to Shigeru Umebayashi’s romantic score and danced with knowing abandon by Catherine Batcheller, who founded Configuration with Joseph Cipolla."
New York Times

REVIEW:   Melbourne Ballet Company
roject Three - Scarce Resources: No Consensus, Drenched, Submerged
Australia, Melbourne, Chapel Off Chapel
Dancers: Fernandez, Huang, Johnston, Mathieson, Porter
by Stephanie Glickman
    "...a compact triple bill that, while not choreographically very bold, does showcase clean, refined technique across the board. ...Let’s see where they take things next and how they can meld their technical ability with more gutsy ideas and explorations."
Australian Stage

REVIEW:   Julia Sasso and Tanya Crowder
These dancers need some company and editing
accidental dances, In Retrospect, Rivers, Swallowed Hollow, unspeakable
Canada, Toronto, Pia Bouman Studio Theater
Dancers: Crowder, Sasso
by Susan Walker
    unspeakable: "The minimalist movement, done almost entirely on the floor, and stripped-down composition leave one wishing for more substance."
Toronto Star

Bangarra Dance Theatre
A savage lesson in 'civility'
The story of Mathinna, sent in 1840 as a gift to the Tasmanian governor's wife, encapsulates the catastrophe that befell her people, writes Cassandra Pybus.
Melbourne
By Cassandra Pybus
    "The poster for the Bangarra Dance Theatre shows an Aboriginal girl in a vivid red dress reaching out in a pained gesture that is at once resigned and imploring. She is Mathinna, the subject of Stephen Page's dramatic new work for this innovative company."
The Age

Batsheva Dance Company - Sasson Kedem, Alla Eisenberg and Mirit Weinstock
Batsheva Dance Company, Japanese animator collaborate with Israeli fashion designers to create truly symbiotic performance
By Ilit Mainemer
    "The show "Furo," by Ohad Naharin, the Batsheva Dance Company and the Japanese animation artist Tabaimo, features the creations of Israeli fashion designers Mirit Weinstock, Sasson Kedem, and Alla Eisenberg, as well as dancer and choreographer, Sharon Eyal."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983233.html

I feel guilty at having a cheap laugh at an iffy translation, but not quite guilty enough to resist pointing out the following:

"Opera National de Paris is one of the oldest ballet troupes in the world and is considered the cradle of classical ballet. The basic principles and symbolic movements it designed for ballet, such as the white skirt, toe dance and air bounce are still widely used in ballet now."

REVIEW:   Scottish Ballet
Romeo and Juliet
UK, Edinburgh, Festival Theatre
Dancers: Barry, Cavallari, Lehmus, Liburd, Martin, Ziv
by Mary Brennan
    'Sophie Martin's sweetly grave girl would, absolutely, fall for a Romeo like Erik Cavallari's poetic pacifist..The future hope that would have been Juliet's all-forgiving love for Romeo dies in a final moment of exquisitely choreographed, all-consuming grief.'
The Herald

REVIEW:   Royal Ballet
Lyrical lack
Serenade, Rushes, Homage to the Queen
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Benjamin, Cervera, Nunez, Rojo, Whitehead, Yoshida
by Giannandrea Poesio
    'What I saw, alas, was competently danced but lacked the aura of unsettling lyricism that should always shroud Serenade. the so-called ‘angel of death’ final section..... failed to give me the shivers it has been giving me since I first saw Serenade more than 35 years ago'
The Spectator

REVIEW:   Momix
Leaping Puffballs, Floating Demons and Lots of Gyrating Whatsits
Passion
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
by Alastair Macaulay
    'Momix, strikes me as sensationalist trash so brightly harmless that I wish I could fall in line with those who enjoy it as sheer sensation.'
New York Times

REVIEW:   Absolute Ballet
Absolute Ballet absolutely fabulous
Jewels pas-de-deux, Romeo Juliet pas-de-deux, Apollo, Red Angels
USA, New Orleans, Tulane University
Dancers: Gilbreath, Heard, Milov, Orza, Rauch, Weese
by Chris Waddington
    'Miranda Weese, proved the star of the evening... A veteran of the New York City Ballet, Weese was equally enchanting in "Apollo" and in the 'Diamonds" pas de deux... she seemed to embody the Muse of Dance'
Times-Picayune

Scottish Ballet: Romeo and Juliet
The Sunday Times talks to Claire Robertson, one of SB’s new Juliets:
‘ “The role is one I've always wanted to play,” she says, buzzing after a morning in the studio. “It's an amazing love story that everyone knows. I never get fed up of hearing the music and it takes you on a whole journey. It starts with love at first sight and in the end I kill myself. It's a life journey every night.” ‘
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/dance/article3907950.ece

Preview: American Ballet Theatre’s revival of ‘Etudes’
Joel Lobenthal in Playbill Arts on ABT’s revival of Harald Lander’s ‘Etudes’:
‘There are stylistic pitfalls to Etudes that any company needs to guard against. I've seen Etudes that were overly cute and juvenile, or too hard-hitting and hard-selling. Marks emphasizes that musical discipline is essential to preserving the integrity of the ballet: "Danes are very particular: Oh, this step says this, that's how it goes on the music," he says, with the benefit of his own later experience dancing together with Toni Lander at the Royal Danish Ballet. ‘
http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/7658.html

Boston Ballet looks to the future
The online journal Baywindows.com talks to Boston ballet AD Mikko Nissenen about the company’s current plight:
‘Q: Taken altogether, Mikko, this sounds like a train wreck. How are you dealing?
A: I’m glad that is your opinion and not mine. It’s true that we’ve received some negative press lately, largely because of the drastic step of laying off dancers, a step I only took reluctantly and as a last resort’
baywondows.com

Shanghai Ballet: Swan Lake
A very mini review of Shanghai Ballet’s new ‘Swan Lake’, but some nice pics:
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20080515/102646.shtml