Opera and Ballet have a lot in common. Both are performing arts typically presented in a theater with an orchestral accompaniment. They both typically tell stories and have sets and costumes. Yet modern opera struggles to survive while new ballets thrive. The disparity is easily explained. Opera, obviously, has both music and words, but the…
The Bolshoi Ballet’s production of The Taming of the Shrew was telecast in HD at theaters around the world this afternoon. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s least politically correct play (at least for now) The Taming of the Shrew, the choreography was by Jean-Christophe Maillot. The dancing was set to about 25 pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich….
On July 22 Juan Siddi’s Flamenco Santa Fe presented seven dances and one vocal number at the Aspen District Theater. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has just assumed the management of Siddi’s troupe hence its appearance in the Colorado resort town. A protege of Maria Benitez, who was a fixture in Santa Fe for many years,…
On February 15, 2014 the Miami City Ballet presented three dances under the collective title of Triple Threat. The first, Episodes, was set to five pieces by Anton von Webern. It is a recreation of a ballet created by George Balanchine in 1959. Webern was a key member of the Second Viennese School which I…
First we had La Traviata in public places, now we have The Sound of Music (Christopher Plummer called it The Sound of Mucus and he was there) popping up in train stations in Belgium and New Zealand. A lot of people seem taken by these public displays by the descendants of the dancing maniacs of…
The Pilobolus Dance Theater gave a single performance in Lubbock last night (March 2, 2010) at Texas Tech’s Allen Theater. The group traces its ancestry back to Dartmouth College in 1971. Its dances (an inadequate word to describe what they do) are characterized by walking running, contortions, gymnastics, dance, athletics, and coordinated movements which words…