For people who wanted to enter the MyMutation Online Dance Competition and haven’t yet gotten their entries in, the deadline has now been extended for a couple of days, to August 13th.
ENTER THE MYMUTATION ONLINE DANCE COMPETITION
I received this email yesterday from the marketing department of the Sydney Opera House in Australia announcing a competition they’re having as part of their upcoming Spring 2010 Festival. They had the same competition last year and it was a huge success. I thought some of you guys might be interested in entering. There’s no geographical limitation; it’s a YouTube contest and anyone can enter.
Here’s the info they sent me:
MyMutation is an online dance competition, where competitors dance their take on a starter solo choreographed by Kate Champion (Director of Force Majeure and Judge of the competition) and then dance a further 20 seconds in their own style. The entries are submitted online through our YouTube competition webpage, the link can be found on the e-card below. Entries close 10 August and the competition is open to dancers of ALL ages and styles. If you get your dance moves on early and upload your entry before August 1 you will also to go in the draw to win a SONY bloggie.
Prizes for the winner include $2000 cash, a wonderful SONY prize pack and also the opportunity to work with Kate and dance on the forecourt of Sydney Opera House on 26 September as part of our Spring Dance Festival (expenses paid trip to Australia!). The festival runs from 31 August until 26 September, and involves some of the world’s leading choreographers. Some of the top names include Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, world’s greatest tap dancer Savion Glover and Gideon Obarzanek (in his first solo performance in 20 years!). There are also some free events, including the MyMutation winning performance, Transports Exceptionnel and Dance on Film.
Click here for more information, demo videos, and instructions on how to submit.
Have fun, good luck, and let me know if any of you submit anything!
FALL FOR DANCE 2010 SCHEDULE
The Fall For Dance 2010 schedule has been announced. It begins on September 28th and runs through October 9. Again, tickets are a mere $10 and they go on sale on City Center’s website on September 12 at 11 a.m. – and you know that means 11 a.m. sharp! Highlights are ABT (performing the gorgeous Thais Pas de Deux again!), Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Corella Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Gallim Dance, San Francisco Ballet, Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, Bill T. Jones, there’s a Brazilian troupe making its festival debut, and much more. Click on the link below to see the whole schedule.
ROBERTO BOLLE AT THE PIAZZA SAN MARCO
Roberto Bolle and Friends are performing July 27th at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, as part of a gala to benefit the National Trust for Italy. The way the Italians talk about him, he must be so beloved there. Someday I must go see him dance in his native country…
NATALIE PORTMAN’S "BLACK SWAN" WILL PREMIERE AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 1
Visit the Examiner for more details and a slide show including a few more pics from the movie. Photo above looks rather creepy imo … which I guess goes along with the genre.
NILAS MARTINS QUIETLY RETIRES FROM NYCB
According to the New York Times Arts Beat blog, Nilas Martins, longtime principal with New York City Ballet (and son of Artistic Dir. Peter Martins) has retired. Without a farewell performance, without flowers, without fanfare. The story is that he has a knee injury and suffered continuing problems with that, and ended up getting a job with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at Kennedy Center and just didn’t feel up to coming back and giving a final performance. I can’t say I blame him. He’d received so much criticism the past couple years he probably just didn’t want to see the onslaught of newspaper articles. I want to write a larger post about this, but I received a recent comment on one of my prior posts on a NYCB retirement (that I now can’t seem to find) about how the critics were too negative with the retirements, writing about the dancers’ faults toward the end instead of their entire career.
It’s a real issue.
I do believe, as Arlene Croce famously said, that a critic’s duty in a democracy is to be critical. But on the other hand, I feel like maybe different standards should apply for the retirement performances. The person is retiring, do their current weaknesses at the end of their long career and the fact that they’re not dancing as well as they did in their twenties and early thirties really need to be focused on? It’s probably easily assumed by the public that they’re not dancing as well as they once did. And poor Yvonne Borree – the critic assigned to cover her farewell was the youngest on staff; too young to have seen Borree dance in her prime, so all she could say, apart from describing the performance, was that she as a viewer couldn’t ever connect with her. And she should have said what she felt without buttering it up; she’s a journalist not a publicist. But couldn’t they have found someone who’d followed Borree’s career and saw what had been so special about her cover her final performance?
Anyway, more thoughts on this later. For now, I wish Nilas a successful arts management career in DC.
Above photo from the Daily News.
ALVIN AILEY'S DENISE JEFFERSON HAS PASSED AWAY
I received word yesterday that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Denise Jefferson passed away over the weekend. She was one of the three women (along with Judith Jamison and Sylvia Waters) to whom Mr. Ailey had entrusted the future care of his dance company at the time he passed away. She was currently heading the Alvin Ailey School. She died of ovarian cancer. She was 66. How sad.
Click on the link below to read AAADT’s press release.
(Above photo by Andrew Eccles).
Continue reading “ALVIN AILEY'S DENISE JEFFERSON HAS PASSED AWAY”
MARCELO IN FIRE ISLAND
Here’s a photo fabulously informative reader Jonathan sent me of our Marcelo Gomes dancing this past weekend in the Fire Island Dance Festival. I was unable to attend unfortunately. This is the festival Danny Tidwell had danced in last year but I am told he did not dance this year as he is touring with Rasta Thomas’s “Bad Boys.” Other dancers however included Travis Wall and Nick Lazzarini (So You Think You Can Dance winner from season one). Argh. Someday I am going to have to make it out there to this festival. It’s just that it always occurs right after ABT season is over and I’m pooped by then. Plus this year I had book stuff to deal with…
MY FRIEND TAYLOR GORDON IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
There’s an interactive feature with my friend, dancer Taylor Gordon, in the New York Times today. She talks about her career as a freelance ballet dancer – from performing in Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular to taking extra work in ABT Met season productions, to venturing into jazz and contemporary roles. Yay Taylor!
And here is the full article by Claudia La Rocco.
Photo above by Rosalie O’Connor, taken from Explore Dance.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
I don’t know what I’d do without my Facebook friend and longtime reader Jonathan! He sent me this link announcing the schedule for the upcoming SYTYCD tour. (Thank you, as always, Jonathan, and so nice to meet you the other night at ABT!)
So looks like they’ll be at Radio City Music Hall for one night, which good because if I decide to go I don’t have to schlepp all the way out to Nassau Coliseum again.
UPDATE: Here’s another website where you can keep updated on tour dates.
CARLOS ACOSTA TURNING TO MODERN DANCE
I was just about to suggest – to beg rather – Kevin McKenzie to try to lure Carlos Acosta back to ABT since, in light of this season’s slew of principal injuries, we clearly need more big men; plus, I’ve never seen Acosta dance and am really dying to! But then my friend Susan sends me this.
ABT TO MAKE HISTORIC CUBA VISIT
According to this online newspaper, ABT is to perform in the Havana Festival in October. And according to this blog post, some members of New York City Ballet will join them. I can’t remember if I’ve heard this news before, but it sounds familiar. It doesn’t seem to be posted on ABT’s website though. Anyway, ABT hasn’t toured Cuba since 1960. It’s all part of the 90th birthday of Alicia Alonso celebrations. Wow. Lucky dancers – I’m so jealous! I’ve wanted to go to Cuba for a long, long time.