Search Dance/USA
Members' Only LoginForgot Password

October 28, 2009

92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center Celebrates 75th Anniversary

For 75 years, the 92nd Street Y has supported, presented and taught dance, and is now celebrating its anniversary with a season themed Past-Future-Now. Over 200 dancers and choreographers will perform at 92Y over the next year. To learn more, visit the 75th Anniversary Homepage: www.92Y.org/Dance75.

back to top

City Opera and City Ballet Reconcile as Roommates

by Robin Pogrebin
October 21, 2009
The New York Times

The renovation of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, formerly the New York State Theater, has given the space new seats, carpeting and lighting; an expanded orchestra pit that can move up and down; a media suite in the basement; and new camera positions in the wings.

But the refurbished hall, which officially reopens on Nov. 5, is significant less for its physical changes than for its symbolism: It announces to the world that New York City Ballet and New York City Opera — despite a history of tensions and disagreements that initially threatened the project, and despite City Opera’s strained finances — have managed to move forward as roommates.

read the full article

back to top

A Fairly Firm Footing

by Ellen Dunkel
October 20, 2009
The Philadelphia Inquirer

In the lean years -- and there were many -- a bad economy might have knocked Pennsylvania Ballet off the map. But in 2009, after years of improving fiscal health, the company has been able to tighten its belt, focus on the priorities, and find creative ways to deal with it.

"Fifteen years ago, maybe we wouldn't have been able to find our way through problems like this," says artistic director Roy Kaiser, in his office at the company's East Falls studios. "We can't do what we do with 10 fewer dancers. I think a lot of businesses, you can expand and contract depending on what the market is. You can't do that with ballet companies. If you start to contract and you contract to any degree, it takes years to build it back up."

read the full article

back to top

Portrait of the Artist: Mark Morris, Choreographer

interview by Laura Barnett
October 19, 2009
guardian.co.uk

What got you started?
Every child dances, and then you learn not to. So I always danced around, and then, when I was eight, I saw a flamenco dance concert -- and I was sold.

What was your big breakthrough?
When I made my first dance, which I called Barstow, at age 15. And when my company played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1984, and [the New Yorker's] dance critic Arlene Croce said I was worth watching.

read the full article

back to top

Rockefeller Foundation Awards Cultural Innovation Fund

The Rockefeller Foundation has announced $2.7 million in grants from the Cultural Innovation Fund to support 18 New York arts organizations. Among the grantees are The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., New York City Ballet, and Ringside Inc. (STREB).

The goal of the Rockefeller Foundation's NYC Cultural Innovation Fund is to recognize and support programmatic innovation and new opportunities in the cultural arena that will strengthen and advance the role the creative sector and the arts will play in the future of the City.

read more about the Fund

back to top

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Announces 2010-2011 American Masterpieces Tour

The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation has announced the roster for its 2010-2011 American Masterpieces touring program which is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The American Muse - American Moves tour celebrates premier American dance companies and repertoire by choreographic masters that is set to quintessentially American music -- from the Broadway musical and jazz and blues standards, to iconic minimalism and traditional spirituals. Roster artists include: Ailey II, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Trisha Brown Dance Company.

read the full article

back to top

Rocco Landesman's First Meeting of the National Council on the Arts to Feature Tribute to Choreographer Merce Cunningham

The National Council on the Arts, the advisory body of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), will meet in a public session on Friday, October 30, 2009, which will include a tribute to the late Merce Cunningham. The meeting will be held in Room M-09 of The Nancy Hanks Center, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. This is the first National Council on the Arts meeting at which Rocco Landesman will participate as NEA Chairman.

read the full press release

back to top

Dance Magazine 2009 Awards

The 52nd Dance Magazine Awards presentation and performance will take place Monday, November 9, 2009, 7:30 pm, at Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street in Manhattan.

This year’s award recipients are Allegra Kent, former New York City Ballet principal, Balanchine muse, and author; Ohad Naharin, Artistic Director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, choreographer, and founder of “gaga” movement language; Sara Rudner, Twyla Tharp dancer and Director of Sarah Lawrence College Dance Department; and Jason Samuels Smith, innovative tap dancer and Emmy Award-Winning choreographer.

Presenting the awards will be former New York City Ballet principal and founder of the National Dance Institute Jacques d’Amboise to Ms. Kent; Director of Juilliard’s Dance Division Lawrence Rhodes to Mr. Naharin; Merce Cunningham dancer, educator and writer Carolyn Brown to Ms. Rudner; and celebrated tap dancer and teacher Dianne Walker to Mr. Samuels Smith.

learn more

back to top

Memorial for Francis Mason

Friday, October 30
2:00pm Eastern
The Joyce Theater
175 Eight Avenue
New York, New York

There will be a Memorial for Francis Mason on Friday, October 30 at The Joyce Theater. The speakers and program will be announced soon. It is open to the general public. Francis Mason (88), a cultural diplomat, editor, radio dance critic, writer, and dance devotee, died on Thursday, September 24 at his home in Rye, NY. He began his career as a dance writer in the 1950s, and for more than 50 years, he worked in the field of dance.

read more about the memorial

back to top

Remembering Clive Barnes

compiled by Rachel Lee Harris
October 25, 2009
The New York Times

Friends and colleagues of Clive Barnes, the influential theater and dance critic who died last year, will remember his life and work on Nov. 2 at an event hosted by the New York Post columnist Michael Riedel. Scheduled speakers include Edward Albee, Paul Taylor and Frederic Franklin of American Ballet Theater, as well as The New York Times’ chief dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, and his predecessor at The Times Anna Kisselgoff, among others.

read the full brief

back to top

Rocco Landesman Announces "Art Works" Tour

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman delivered a keynote address today to close the 2009 national Grantmakers in the Arts conference: Navigating the Art of Change.

In his remarks, Chairman Landesman laid out the guiding principle that will inform his work at the agency, which can be summed up in two words: "Art works." Chairman Landesman explained that he means this in three ways:

1) "Art works" is a noun. They are the books, crafts, dances, designs, drawings, films, installations, music, musicals, paintings, plays, performances, poetry, textiles, and sculptures that are the creation of artists.

2) "Art works" is a verb. Art works on and within people to change and inspire them; it addresses the need people have to create, to imagine, to aspire to something more.

3) "Art works" is a declarative sentence: arts jobs are real jobs that are part of the real economy. Art workers pay taxes, and art contributes to economic growth, neighborhood revitalization, and the livability of American towns and cities.

Chairman Landesman announced that he will spend the next six months learning and highlighting the ways that art works in neighborhoods and towns across America.

read the full press release

back to top

Arts Education and Graduation Rates

compiled by Rachel Lee Harris
October 18, 2009
The New York Times

In a report to be released on Monday the nonprofit Center for Arts Education found that New York City high schools with the highest graduation rates also offered students the most access to arts education.

read the brief

download the full report

back to top

Credit-Rating Agency Gives Arts Groups Strong Marks

by Debra E. Blum
Chronicle of Philanthropy

While many museums and other cultural institutions face debt, shrinking donations, and investments losses, one of the nation’s top credit-rating agencies calls the sector stable and resilient.

In a paper released this week, credit analysts at Standard & Poor’s say they believe that the nearly three dozen nonprofit cultural institutions the company rates will “manage their businesses reasonably well during this recession,” just as they have weathered past economic downturns. They say that while belt-tightening may become the norm for the organizations, they will likely benefit from an increase in regional tourism, a gain in repeat visits, and government stimulus money for education and science programs.

read the full article

back to top

In the Face of Recession, What are Funders Doing?

Holly Sidford, Helicon Collaborative
Published: June 2009
Grantmakers in the Arts Reader

Private and public sector arts funders across the country are still reeling from the shock waves of the recession. While a few have maintained or even slightly increased their giving compared to last year, most arts funders have reduced current grants budget by at least 10 percent and some by as much as 80 percent. Most are projecting further reductions in the next two years. Those whose own grants budgets have not been severely reduced are nevertheless directly affected by their peers' cutbacks, as nonprofit arts organizations increase their pleas for special consideration in these difficult times.

read the full article

back to top

Blog from 2009 Recession Conference: Navigating the Art of Change

Grantmakers in the Arts invited a blogger to write about the 2009 Recession Conference held October 18-21 in Brooklyn, New York.

read the blog

back to top

Space, Movement and Rudy Perez

by Victoria Looseleaf
October 21, 2009
The Los Angeles Times

Seven dancers move in unison to the throbbing of minimalistic music. Twitching spasmodically, the performers then indulge in a series of backward bends and sideways swooping. As the sun streams into the studio at Westside School of Ballet, it illumunates the dancers' dispassionate faces, their movement free from any lyrical or psychological elements.

Indeed, this is the signature style of of postmodern guru Rudy Perez, who turns 80 next month. Perez, having decamped from his native New York to Los Angeles more than three decades ago, is celebrating the milestone by creating new work. Presented by Pasadena's Armory Center for the Arts, which is also commemorating its 20th anniversary, the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble is giving free concerts Friday and Saturday at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

read the full article

back to top

Union Victory at Joyce

by Daniel J. Wakin; compiled by Dave Itzkoff
October 26, 2009
The New York Times

Stagehands at the Joyce Theater voted on Monday to be represented by Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, joining the union that handles negotiations for colleagues on Broadway, in concert halls and at major homes of dance in New York, including City Center and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

read the brief

back to top

Dance/USA PhiladephiaDance/NYC