Ballet and Dance Archives

For those poor Brits floating Noah-like upon a pool of muddy water where their house used to be, it can be difficult to remember that it’s summer. But against all evidence to the contrary, it is, which means that a certain infamous Scottish arts event can’t be far behind. Yes, with the Fringe kicking off on 5th August and the official programme launching on the 10th, it’s time to seriously consider booking some tickets and a bed for the comprehensively cosmopolitan, caber-tossing cultural conundrum that is the Edinburgh Festival.

The official site shows you all the opera, dance, theatre and music on offer in six major theatres and concert halls across the city, as well as smaller niche venues. Looking at the offerings, ArtsWom suggests that unmissable gems will include Alan Cumming, back on the Scottish stage for the first time in sixteen years in The Bacchae; Benjamin Bagby, harpist and storyteller, with his Old English rendition of Beowulf; and Jordi Savall playing baroque classics on the little-known viola da gamba.

Over at the Fringe there is the usual bewildering array of the sublime and the ridiculous. From the Kaiser Chiefs to Auto Auto, a ‘crash musical’ involving the decimation of a Vauxhall Astra Mk2, making decisions about what to see can be pretty difficult. Of course, you can follow the strategy of spontaneity, and go unbooked and ready to follow the flyers wherever they may lead – and hey, there are worse things than watching acrobatic Polish dwarves interpreting Pinter through ballet.

Whatever your plans, Artswom will of course bring you any hot tips as we hear them, but in the meantime get yourself in the mood for the mayhem at the Fringe MySpace page with their blog, videos and this nice little game involving cakes.

Nobody really hates ballet do they? No, of course not, but some people do hate certain things about ballet and one of these people, Lewis Segal (who also happens to be a critic who writes for the LA Times) decided to let others know all about his thoughts.

The article instigated a thread on Critical Dance almost 12 months ago and caused pages of insightful and intriguing debate supported by a wide base of knowledge. Artswom is mentioning this because the conversation has started up again, all be it under a slightly different guise.

Back in September, after the evolution of the central points to the thread, CW asked for an answer to the question, why is most contemporary ballet in the USA so bad? Bizarrely, three replies came in quick succession over the last few days. Osris661, JaneH and LMCtech all offer interesting reaction, particularly JaneH’s idea of ballet ‘language’.

Anybody interested should add further fuel to the reignited fire by clicking here.

This is just a quick note to the fans of ballet and literature, as it concerns you both… Sky Arts has had to make a schedule change. The short Ballet Rocks: Dance With A Difference, which was due to air on 30^th June at 11:50 has been replaced with Sky Arts At Althorp.

Sky Arts At Althorp goes behind the scenes of the 2007 Althorp Literary Festival to get the insider view. This year the festival has a list of hosts that includes Tracy Chevalier, Sarah Bradford and Ronnie Corbett.

If you’ve woke up this morning expecting further sunshine and the fresh scent of a glorious British springtime wafting through your culturally attuned nostrils – you are undoubtedly disappointed. As it stands, the ArtsWom office smells as though a vacuum cleaner has exploded and the somewhat murky greyness of the outside is seeping in through the open windows and casting a slight chill on our otherwise radiant spirits. Regardless, that is no excuse not to carry on bringing our readers the most tantalising tidbits of the arts on the web. Enjoy yourself with these links.

Art Fag City features a link to the latest Ikea advert which features an imaginative Matrix-like effect to promote their “dream kitchen” concept. This works to great effect and we are really looking forward for some spoofs to come out!

Congratulations to Alcopop! records who are being featured on Huw Steven’s Radio One show on Wednesday as DIY label of the week. Alcopop! records is one of our esteemed MySpace friends and you can check out their page here.

Damien Hirst has been causing more controversy. As reported in the Art News Blog, the artist is proposing to build a studio in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK and is upsetting the neighbours by planning to incorporate an “abattoir rail” and “fish preparation area”. We’re looking forward to seeing Damien Hirst starring on the next series of Neighbours from Hell…

Finally, ArtForum.com provides an insightful review of Sleeping Beauty + Friends at the New Player’s Theatre, London. Jump across here to hear Lisa Liebman’s thoughts on the special performance.

ArtsWom has been reading about a Finnish ballet dancer named Jarkko Lehmus. Dancing as a soloist for the Scottish Ballet, Jarkko has acquired an impressive collection of praise in response to his performances.

As if all this wasn’t enough, he also maintains a blog for ballet.co.uk! The site is well maintained and Jarkko is more than happy to go into details on ballet life. His most recent entry, gives readers the dubious pleasure of the specifics relating to tearing his rectus abdominis, plus the subsequent problems and perks of recuperation.

His blog is here and if you want an extravagant piece of information about him… such as, almost marrying an African Princess, go to his bio at the Scottish Ballet site.

Matthew Bourne is probably most famous for his re-written production of Swan Lake with an all male cast. This production reached a wider audience than maybe it would have otherwise done, due to the spectacular use of Adam Cooper (the lead in Bourne’s ballet) as the older incarnation of the title role, in the closing moments of Stephen Daldry’s 2000 film, Billy Elliot.

The controversial director is returning to ballet with a gay, all male version of Romeo and Juliet, which is rumoured to be entitled… Romeo, Romeo. The production, according to Bourne, will be more concerned with dancing than sexuality. Gay or straight, men conventionally dance with women; to change this rigid practise and maintain a credible relationship between the two leads, is what Bourne believes will be the greatest hurdle to overcome.

Aiming rehearsals to begin early next year, 2007 will be spent rigorously testing and improvising scenes.

There is a link to a Telegraph article on the production here. There is also talk in blogs on Bourne and his plans here and here.

Who says that the simple joy of dancing should be confined only to those who have trained their bodies for years to provide us with elegant entertainment where every minutely choreographed movement has been carefully constructed to communicate each nuance of sound in a passionate and emotive display of artistic beauty? Well, us to be blunt. Honestly, a night out to any British club will expose you to two types of dancers - the enthusiastically inept and the (rather sinister) ‘lurkers’. Both are attempting to attract members of the opposite sex via their various strategies and, admittedly, the minimalist expressionism of the latter as they hover a few feet behind a feminine group of the former could almost be an art form in its own right. However, on the whole, club dancing is an area where (most of us) will definitely have room for improvement.

Fortunately, the lovely people of the Dance Forums have come to our aid and provided us with the Club Dancing Index (Includes Grinding), a collection of discussions offering advice and guidance on how best to carry yourself on the dark, beer-soaked dancefloors we know and fear. Seriously though, this is a friendly, helpful community offering some genuinely useful tips on how to let go and enjoy yourself while enjoying a night out without worrying about how you look. As a rule, ArtsWom refuse to dance to anything that doesn’t involve jumping up and down with your hands in the air like you just don’t care, but maybe, with some good advice, we will be willing to move our feet and hips…just a little, mind. We draw the line at grinding.

The Bolshoi Ballet is returning to London. In 2006 the exceptional Russian company graced Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House with award-winning productions. This year they will once again perform a three-week season. Tickets are set to go on sale at the end of March and will be in high demand.

The location will be different for this new run because the London Coliseum will be hosting the tourists. The theatre is home to the English National Opera and will serve as an exquisite venue. The performances included in the programme will feature two UK premieres and classic material including Don Quixote and Spartacus.

There will also be the return of The Bright Stream, a complexly-structured comedy by Dimitri Shostakovich. Directed by Alexi Ratmansky, the production received the ‘best new production 2006’ from the Critic’s Circle Dance Awards.

The Bolshoi Ballet’s visit is highly anticipated and excitement is already rising. For a taster of discussion and to see the performance dates go here…

We are huge fans of Flickr here at ArtsWom, but there was some debate within the typing pits when it was suggested we write an article on the presence of ballet on the perennial photo-sharing site. Fortunately for us, zxDaveM has a fantastic gallery of photos taken at the recent performance of Swan Lake by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. Click here to see his photo gallery. The question, of course, is how do these stills compare to the real thing? Can the grace and majesty of ballet really be captured on camera?