• Paul Taylor: Still in Step at 80
• Robert Battle Talks of Next Steps for Ailey Dance Troupe
• For New Ailey Leader, It’s All in the Family
• Kennedy Center Leader Says He Will Extend Term and Keep Emphasis on Arts Management
• Dance Leaps Onto Britain’s Political Stage
  

Paul Taylor: Still in Step at 80
by Sylviane Gold
May 2, 2010
The Los Angeles Times

Paul Taylor laughs out loud when he sums up how critics responded to his early, out-there choreography: "This terrible boy has ruined our evening!"

He can well afford to laugh. The Paul Taylor Dance Company is now 56 years old, a stable, permanent exception in the seat-of-the-pants world of modern dance. His minimalist experiments of the '50s long ago evolved into the audience-friendly masterworks — some lyrical, some mordant, some hilarious — that have won him scads of honors and awards, including a MacArthur "genius" grant, an Emmy and the National Medal of Arts. These days, critics are more likely to respond with rapture to the diverse dances he's still inventing, to Beethoven, to Poulenc, to the Mamas and the Papas, even as he approaches his 80th birthday. "He continues to surprise me even when he returns to familiar themes," says dance writer Anna Kisselgoff, who has followed his career since the 1960s.

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Robert Battle Talks of Next Steps for Ailey Dance Troupe
May 3, 2010
The Los Angeles Times

It was only a little more than 48 hours since Robert Battle had learned he would be the new artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but he was getting used to saying "we" as he discussed the organization whose reins he would officially take over in July 2011.

The announcement was eagerly awaited in the dance world, since the 51-year-old company has one of the busiest, most high-profile schedules in the dance world, and longtime director Judith Jamison had announced her impending departure two years ago, allowing plenty of time for a careful search.

The choice of Battle — a 37-year-old modern-dance choreographer who has directed his own small company, Battleworks, since 2002, while creating several works for the Ailey troupe (and its junior ensemble, Ailey II) — struck some as surprising, yet also seemed logical.

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For New Ailey Leader, It’s All in the Family
by Gia Kourlas
May 4, 2010
The New York Times

When Robert Battle was 3 weeks old, his great-aunt and great-uncle couldn’t have imagined that one day he would become the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. To them, he was just a bowlegged baby in need of leg braces.

“My birth mother was not in a great position where she could handle it all — whatever that was,” said Mr. Battle, 37, with a quick smile at Ailey’s Midtown headquarters. “Her uncle and aunt asked her if they could take me and raise me. My great-uncle, until the day he died, would say, ‘You were no bigger than a loaf of bread.’ ”

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Kennedy Center Leader Says He Will Extend Term and Keep Emphasis on Arts Management
by Maria Di Mento
May 3, 2010
The Chronicle for Philanthropy

Officials at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, have announced that the arts institution has received a $22.5-million commitment from one of its board members. And they say that Michael M. Kaiser, the center’s respected and longtime leader, will remain in his post as president through 2014.

The pledge of $22.5-million, from Betsy and Dick DeVos, includes $20-million to establish an endowment to support the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute, which will be named for the donors; and $2.5-million, to be paid over five years, to support the operating costs of the management institute.

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Dance Leaps Onto Britain’s Political Stage
by Alastair Macauley
May 2, 2010
The New York Times

In a general election as impossible to predict as the one here on Thursday, with many constituencies in the balance and a large chance of a hung Parliament, any pressing issue may swing the vote of the undecided. One of these issues is dance.

Yes, dance. It’s tempting to dismiss the notion, and yet the subject has spurred a voting initiative and more than one political furor in recent months.

Caroline Miller, director of the advocacy group Dance UK, explained to me that several developments had led to DanceVote 2010, a campaign to put the art form on the agenda of members of Parliament. Although financing is a goal, supporters are mainly interested in raising the profile of dance.

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