Dancing with robots

July 21, 2012

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Watch excerpts from Monica Mason's riveting farewell commission for the Royal Ballet, an inspired collaboration by leading-edge artists, musicians and choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Kim Brandstrup, Nico Muhly, Alistair Marriott, Mark Anthony Turnage, Liam Scarlett, Jonathan Dove, William Tuckett, Jonathan Watkins, Chris Ofili, Conrad Shawcross, Mark Wallinger.

Is the future of ballet permanently in the red?

July 14, 2012

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The painful saga of Edward Villella's firing from Miami City Ballet seems to suggest that ballet companies are fundamentally uneconomic propositions: to build a strong company with great artistic vision, as Villella has done, costs so much that ticket sales, ballet school revenues, public grants, and other traditional sources of funding cannot support it; private donors must have bottomless pocke [..]

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Children at the Ballet? God forbid…

July 10, 2012

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My Twitter exchange with a grumpy James Wolcott after the 4th of July matinée of ABT's magnificent 'Le Corsaire': [tweet https://twitter.com/UnexpectedSolos/status/220700447751671808] [tweet https://twitter.com/UnexpectedSolos/status/220729736593289217] [tweet https://twitter.com/UnexpectedSolos/status/220730500283764736]

Why dancers in America cannot earn a living wage

July 7, 2012

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Read Part I of Lightsey Darst's controversial series in the HuffingtonPost which explains why dancers have to sleep with wealthy patrons in order to survive and Part II: Why most dance companies are forced to put on schlocky productions to pay the light bills and Part III: Does art require sacrifice? Or is there something more sinister going on? Here is one dancer's feisty retort (and Ballet t [..]

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